The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-04-17
POTATO POINTERS
How a Flfteen-Year-oId Club Member
Raised His Crop on irrigated
Land

raised crop of potatoes valued at
s1S7.77 on one-half acre. His net prof
its were $141.07. This is the best rec
ord of all the Utah Potato Club boys.
and as q result Howard Dalton, of
Willard City, Utah, the champion, was
given a trip to California.
Although the year was not quite so
good for potato production as usual,
young Dalton made a record which
has probably not been exceeded more
than dozen times In that district,
and then only by Merle Hyer, and the
potato champion club adult experts,
who had studied and put into practice
the most advanced methods of farm.
ing. AS others who grow potatoes on
irrigated land may be interested in
this boys achievement, below is the
story In his own words of just how he
did it, which may be of value to potato
growers not only In Utah but in the
irrigated sections of Colorado. Idaho,
Washington, California, Wyoming.
Montana, Nevada, Arixhna, New Mex
leo, Kansas and Nebraska. Here Is the
story:
"In the early spring ] bought my
seed potatoes at Burley, Idaho pur-
chased the Idaho Rural potatoes. They
were not especially selected seed,
therefore | was very careful in pre-
pairing the seed for planting. was
anxious that every seed piece had one
or two perfect eyes on 1t. then treat
ed the seed with formaldehyde solu-
ton Zone pint to 80 gallons water.)
This treatment consisted In soaking
the seed before cutting) for two hours
In the prescribed solution. The pur-
pose Of the treatment was to kill any
scab germs appearing on the surface
of the potatoes. Other than this there
was no treatment given.
"From March 20 to March 80, pre-
pared my land. ! covered the ground
with barnyard manure, using tons
Of wet manure to the half acre. ]
plowed the land IL inches deep, using
four horses for the work. / immedi.
ately followed the plow with spring
tooth harrow. narrowed 1t three
different times. ! did the blowing in
the forenoon and followed with the
harrow In the afternoon. l did this
to conserve the moisture and mellow
the soil. After narrowing ! pulver-
lied the clods by dragging up the soil
with q square framed timber. ! tried
in every way TO be particular about
every phase Of cultivation as / figured
that the secret OF my success was good
cultivation.
Five days later, ON April s, again
went over the land with spring tooth
harrow. The following week I again
went over 1t with a spiked tooth har-
row which kept the soil moist and
mellow. Just before planting / went
over 1t again with the square timber
In order to make 1t perfectly level.
On April Is planted the seed In
plowed burrows 4 inches deep and
the rows 80 inches apart, the seed be-
ing dropped about IL inches apart in
the rows. The seed was then covered
about inches deep with small hand
plow. AS soon as the little plants ap-
peared above the ground began my
work on the field. I at once freed the
field of weeds by giving it thorough
narrowing with spiked tooth harrow.
This / did May and repeated the
same treatment on May u. On May
26 I used the hand cultivator drawn
by one horse, giving them thorough
cultivation with this implement, after
which / cultivated them once with
the hand hoe, cleaning out all of the
wedes.
During all the time was working
In my potatoes watched their growth
very carefully, as was warned about
the appearance of plant diseases and
insect enemies which might appear
to injure the plants. Fortunately, as
far as l was able to detect, neither
plant diseases nor insect enemies APP
peared, as the growing plants had
such strong. thrifty appearance.
"Up to June Is the plants had grown
rapidly and gave strong, vigorous
appearance. Soon after this date they
began to blossom and on June rs |
gave them the first application of ir-
rigation water. / irrigated them on
July and again on July 20. The crop
was matured with but these three ap.
plications of water. After the second
irrigation the vines were SO large that
could not work In them without de-
stroying them. The operations practi-
cally ceased from this time on until
the tubers were ripe and ready for
digging. / sent a selected SO lbs to
the State Fair which was held at Salt
Lake City, October $40, for which l
| received honorable mention by the
judges. On October 10, IA and Is 1
harvested the crop and the potatoes
were weighed and sold right from the
field. found on careful checking Of
the weights that my half acre had pro-
duced $50 bushels of marketable po-
tatoes, the equivalent of 720 bushels
per acre.
"The following table will give the
itemized cost Of production with the
net profits per half acre.
Value OF crop. YlcI.1