The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1915-03-19
Utah Boy Potato Champion.
HBy Howard Dalton

a fifteen-year-old member of tn
Department OF Agriculture's an
Utah's Agricultural College Potat
Club has raised crop of potatoe
valued at $1S7.77 on one-half acre
His net profits were $141-07- This A
the best record OF all the Utah potato
club boys for 1914. The boys owl
story of how he made this record de-
spite the fact that the year was no
quite 10 good for potato production
as usual, is worth reading. Here 4
iS.
Tn the early spring of 1914
bought my seed potatoes at Burnley
Idaho. I purchased the Idaho Rura
potatoes. They were not especially
selected seed, therefore was yer!
careful i'm preparing the seed fol
planting. I was anxious that every
seed piece had one OF two perfect
eyes ON it + then treated the seed
with formaIdehyde solution tone
pint to 30 gallons water). This treat
ment consisted of soaking the seed
(before cutting) for two hours in the
prescribed solution. The purpose OF
the treatment was to kill any seal
germs appearing On the surface OF
the potatoes Other than this there
was no treatment given.
From March 20 To March 30 L pre-
pared my land. / covered the ground
with barn-yard manure, using tons
OF wet manure to the half acre.
plowed the land - inches deep, using
four horses for the work. I inIme-
diately followed the plow with O
spring-tooth harrow / narrowed i
three different times. L did the ploW-
ing i'm the forenoon and followed with
the harrow in the afternoon. ! did
this to conserve the moisture, and
mellow the soil After narrowing,
pulverized the clods by dragging up
the soil with square framed timber.
I tried in every way to be particular
about every phase OF cultivation al
figured that the secret of my success
was good cultivation.
Five days later, on April o, / again
went over the land with spring
tooth harrow. The following week l
again went over ii with a spiked
tooth harrow, which kept the soil
moist and mellow. Just before plant
Ing / went over 1T again with the
square timber in order to make it
perfectly level.
On April rs 4 planted the seed in
plowed burrows inches deep and the
rows 30 inches apart, the seed being
dropped about IL inches apart In the
rows. The seed was then covered
about A inches deep with small
hand plow As soon as the little
plants appeared above the ground i
began my work on the field A at
once freed the field OF weeds by Civ
i'm it a thorough narrowing with a
spiked-tooth harrow. This I did May
5 and repeated the same treatment
ON May 12. On May 26 1 used the
hand cultivator drawn by one horse,
giving them a thorough cultivation
with this implement, after which
cultivated them once with the hand
hoe, cleaning out all the weeds.
During all the time | was working
lii my potatoes l watched their
growth very carefully, a. 4 was warn
ed about the appearance Of plant dis
eases and insect enemies which
might appear to injure the plants
Fortunately, as far as | was able to
detect, neither plant disease nor in
sect enemies appeared, al the grow
ing plants had such a strong, thrifty
appearance.
Up to June Is the plants had grown
rapidly and gave a strong, vigorous
appearance. Soon after this date they
began to blossom and on June 25 7
gave them the first application OF if
rigation water I irrigated them on
July and again On July 20. The
crop was matured with but these
three applications of water After
the second irrigation the vines were
SO large that 4 could not work in
them without destroying them. The
operations practically ceased from
this time on until the tubers were
ripe and ready for digging.
4 sent selected 30 lbs to the State
Fair, which was held at Salt Lake
City, October $40, for which I re-
ceived honorable mention by the
judges. On October IS, IA and Is I
harvested the crop and the potatoes
were weighed and sold right from the
field. I found on careful checking Of
the weights that my half acre had
produced $50 bushels Of marketable
potatoes, the equivalent OF 720 bush
els per acre.
Here is Howard Dalton's itemfzed
cost and profit account on his rec
ord-breaking one-half acre of pota-
toes: