The Odanah star. [volume] (Odanah, Ashland Co., Wis.) 1912-1916, 1915-05-14
THE Patato Crop.

The potato is one Of the crops that should
be found on every farm, though it may not
he possible for every farmer to raise a
large acreage, but it is necessary to grow to
the crop at least for the home use and
where the soil is adapted to the patato grow
ing there is no crop that is more profitable
per acre than the potato.
The soil best suited for growing the
patao is a rich sand loan, but most any
soil properly fertilized and cultivated will
yield satisfactory crops. There is some
parts of this reservation that has this rich
sandy soil, and here special effort should
be put forth to grow the crop for market.
For as a rule, if one will adopt some of the
modern methods of potato culture he will
be successful in raising the crop for profit.
Now if we do not happen to have the
rich sandy loan above mentioned it is en-
| tirely possible to be successful potato
grower. If you lave heavy clay soil it
can be made to produce good crops of
potatoes, by a liberal dressing of barnyard
manure, but. don't lake the mistake OF
rnanuring the potato land the same season
you wish to grow potatoes on it,, as this
will result in the potatoes being effected
with fungus disease called potato scab,
which will cause the potatoes TO be rough
and unsightly at first, and if these potatoes
| Al
! worse, ard so inoculate the soil with this
disease that it be impossible to &c rid of it
and the potatoes will become worthless.
/ The better plan is 20 manure the land
with well rotted manure one season before
| it is planted to potatoes and grow some
other crop on it, this puts the soil in ideal
condition SO far as fertility is concerned,
! and the next season there will be far less
trouble with scabby potatoes. This same
rule in rnanuring clay land to avoid potato
scab will apply the same as to fertilizing
sandy land.
! Potatoes should be planted as soon as the
ground warns up and danger of froStiS over
by the time. the potatoes are up, they
should be given frenquent level cultivation
The old~idea that potatoes should be well
ridged is not practiced by the modern potato
grower, through at last cultivation of the
crop, it is well to ridge them slightly, which
prevents them becoming sundurnt when~the
tubers makea large groth. AS with all
/
! cultivated crops the object i'll cultivation is
to destroy weeds and conserve the moisture.
Another point that must not be over
looked is the number of eyes to the piece
and distance apart in the row and distance
between the rows. In cutting the seed
potatoes about one or two eyes to the piece
or the medium size potato cut in to four
pieces, care should be used in cutting the
pieces so the will not be too small, as a
small piece will not nourish the plant as it
should before the small roots get started
sufficiently TO give it a vigorous strong
wrowth
Farmers es rule disagree as to the dis
lance apart the should be planted and the
number of pieces in place. But for gen.
eral planting it will be found that one piece
! fourteen inches aprit in the row and about
three feet between the rows will be about
right.
One of the most troublesome problems
the potato grower has to deal with is the
potato bug. But if he is equipped with a
potato sprayer and some paris green it is
not much trouble to get the bug the run
and keep him going. noticed some potato
vines last year that were entirely eaten up
by the bugs and the crop destroyed. If
one has very small patch he can keep them
off by hand picking but where tI.ett i acre
or mote hand picking is a slow. tedious
back aching JOB and if the bugs are presist-
ent the chances are they will strip the
patch faster than yon can pick them off.
But vherc sie sprsTer ans paris rEeen i