The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1915-02-25

is one that has called forth good deal
of Investigation and experimenting by
Mr.. Smith. He has adopted nitrate
composition which supplies to the soil, in
a scientific manner, exactly what used TO
be furnished by the old-fashioned man.
ure method. The more modern method
of getting the same results, and even
better, by the extremely sanitary meth
DDS has appealed to Mr.. Smith, as it will
to everybody else who uses potatoes.
There are many kinds of fertilizers used
and sold, but he says the kind he has
settled upon, which is a combination OF
his own invention, is what undoubtedly
does the trick for him and produces pota-
toes that are the envy of competitors.
This fertilizing operation is not only an
expensive, but very important matter,
as a ton of fertilizer for each acre is
necessary, according to Mr.. Smiths
ideas. to get the results he is looking for.
PLANTING A BIG JOB.
The planting of the potato field is a
busy job and it is done as fast as horse
can walk along the field. A man can
plant in an ordinary day, five acres, but,
in times of great hurry, ten acres can be
planted by keeping at it from sunrise I'M
I'll dark. There are about twenty BUSH
els of potatoes used by Mr.. Smith in
planting an acre, which means that 5000
bushels are consumed every spring on
the Smith farm. The Germans plant a
larger number of potatoes to the acre,
putting into the ground as many as thirty
bushels to an acre, but they get higher
average yield, it is said, by doing this.
The usual average planted as seed on a
Haprootio,,t -, tO ha
about ten bushels to an acre.
THE DISTANCE QUESTION.
The matter of establishing a proper
distance between the rows OF potatoes is
one of considerable interest. In Ger
many the farmers plant their potatoes in
the average in New England is thirty-six
inches, or yard. Mr.. Smith has struck
an average between these and his rows
on Pearl Brook Farm are thirty inches
apart. This he finds perfectly satisfac-
tory for his soil and he gets the best re-
suits thereby. The matter of planting
the seed potato in "hllls," as the boys OF
New England were taught to do, or in
drills as Mr.. Smith plants his in Maine,
shows what a change has taken place.
He maintains that potatoes planted in
hills are more apt to be overgrown and
hollow with an inferior quality. People
who have encountered these "punky"
potatoes at their meals will realize what
this means
FERTILIZER COUNTS.
Mr.. Smith says it is possible to grow
either firm, white, mealy potato, or
one of the "soggy', lifeless variety,
simply through the class of fertilizer en-
ployed. The average potato fertilizer
sold contains, he says, about 10 per cent
salt and potash. When this is used in
certain soil it tends to impart moisture
to the potato that is retained from then
on and, when the potato is cooked in the
dead of winter, or in the spring. it will
still show itself to be insipid, or 'soggv"
as the potato farmer will describe the
condition. Fertilizer with nitrates and
sulphates of potassium in it costs more,
but it turns out of the soil those fine
white, mealy potatoes which people de-
light to eat. Mr.. Smiths potatoes are
all of this variety. Nobody ever got one
of his potatoes that didn't measure up to
this standard, and the only criticism he
ever heard about them is that they some
times boil to pieces in the kettle. While
tnlS is noI the most SdtlSI dcUOry unl0g TO
happen, from an economical standpoint,
it shows beyond question that the struc-
ture Of the potato is unusually we'll de-
veloped.
FIGHTING POTATO ENEMIES.
When the potato field is blooming it is,
indeed, fascinating sight, and photo
graph of fifty-acre field in Waldo
county was secured to show the readers
of 'The Courant" what real Maine po-
tato field looks like. One would find diff
ficulty in deciding from the picture
whether it was a cotton or some other
kind of field that is illustrated. The
potato bug and potato blight are the two
dreaded things in raising potatoes, but
science has taken care of these pests in
a very satisfactory manner. Mr.. Smith
uses solution of arsenate of lead, lime
and sulphate of copper, which is sprayed
on the potato plants early in the season.
The arsenate of lead acts as an insectl-
eide, while the copper sulphate, or blue
trio &c Do,