New Britain herald., 1916-02-19

 it again and again, deeper and deep CT, tearing and tossing up the sur face until it seemed as fine as a n ash heap. The soil started up to take notice grunting contentedly like neglected hog which has just left the edge of a hoe combing his back These pieces of potato were different from anything it had seen before; they were large and solid and f1ne This farmer had not gone to tho house bin and picked out the tubers that were too small to eat These | were good enough to sell. and they had been cut into large pieces, their faces washed, and here was a vel 1 low stuff covering them, the same stuff apparently which the farm children had always eaten to "clean their blood' in the spring. The soil woke up and began to think of other days, when it took care of a big, proud strong family, and helped feed the nation. What was the use, however, to plant these fine potatoes, when it was only too well known that there was no baby food inside that soil t2 take care of these delicate plants? But what was this-the soil felt the
 ''kick' of the soluble phosphoric acid as it looked about for something to feed. Here were nitrates working about through the soil for the first time in years, and there was no mis- taking the fat smell of the potash which had long been absent from thai farm. It must be that brown stuff which this new man had poured into the furrows with a liberal hand The soil began to remember how, some
 years before. one of those old farmers
 h q toh
 into a hill of corn, and how it had driven that corn stalk far up into a good growth. The neglected soil, like the down-and- out man, saw oppor- tunity in front of it. and here were the old tools in it's hand-the plant food, the finely broken surface soil, and the firm, healthy potato seed. Just as in the case of the man. the soil, awkward and slow at first seiz- ed up the situation. Opportunity had come back, and it got busy. The re- suit of that first year was that MT. Pagan produced 600 bushels of po- tatoes on his three acres, a yield ur- heard of before on that farm. And how the grass and clover came in when the potatoes stopped growing The soil took on new life. for it had received it's ticket to better times, and MT. Pagan knew that he was on the right track to work along with 1 it.
 Most farmers after that potato crop would have seeded to wheat or l rye with clover, and taken up a TO- l tation covering four or five years. The 1 grain and grass would have prevented waste of plant food. and taken care ] of that part of the dinner which the potatoes left. Then after two years l of hay cutting, the sod would have been plowed for corn, and then back 1 into potatoes. But MT. Pagan did not want the corn or the small grain. i A farmer must have some straw, and ! corn and it's stalks are mighty con-
 venient on any farm. But Joe Pagan 1 was a potato man. and he planned hls | rotation so as to work the soil for po~ l tatoes as often as he could. So when l ever the potatoes were dug. he soW@d 1 grass and clover after working up l the soil with a harrow. This makes 1 an ideal condition for seeding. Hlie | thorough culture during the year hiiS | kept soil open and fine, and after the
 1 potato was eaten at the first table,
 | the balance of that ton of fertilizer
 is ready for the grass, for this crop
 1 will gather up the fragments so that
 nothing can be lost. Sometimes there
 l will be an early winter. and the
 l grass seeding will not be complete. In 1 that case if is an easy matter to turn over what is left of the grass in the ! spring, and plant potatoes again, for l under this system of clean seed and
 clean farming ther is not so much | from
 1 there be good stand of grass in
 1 the spring, it can be left, cut one or
 two years for hay, and then brought
 | back into potatoes once more. So
 | with this short system, and the yearly
 heavy use of fertilizer, MT. Pagan put i the springs under his old farm and
 brought it back to profit. The acreage
 of potatoes was increased from year
 to year, and though the fall and win | ter and spring ditches were cleared l out and the stones picked up. the l brush grubbed out, and new fields l brought back to fertility. I have said l that MT. Pagan went to school to a 1 potato vine. He learned from that teacher that the only way to obtain 1 fine eating potatoes is to keep the
 plant growing steadily and without in 1 jury from the time it gets above l ground until the frost kills it or it l dies a natural death. The bugs came,
 and the plants showed him how to kill 1 them. He opened up the old drains l and dug new ones, reduced the water level and made the soil mellow. The l grass stubble filled the soil with or | ganic matter, and the potato fertilizer 1 brought the richness of all the cor
 ! ners of the earth to that ConneCti-