Gardening/Potato
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POTATO.--The potato is rather more a field crop than a home-garden product; yet the home-gardener often desires to grow a small early lot.
Potatos should be grown in flat soil, unless the soil is so wet that making raised beds is necessary to insure proper drainage, or unless it is necessary, in a particular place, to secure a very early crop. If the land is elevated into ridges or hills, there is potentially a loss of moisture by means of evaporation. During the last cultivating the potatoes may be hilled up slightly in order to cover the tubers; but the hills should not be made in the beginning for the main crop if land and conditions are right.
Land for potatoes should be rather loamy in character, and ought to have a liberal supply of potash, either naturally or supplied in the drill, by means of an application of sulfate of potash. See that the land is deeply plowed or spaded, so that the roots can penetrate deeper. Plant the potatoes 3 or 4 inches below the natural surface of the ground. It is ordinarily best to drop the pieces in drills. A continuous drill or row may be made by dropping one piece every 6 inches, but it is usually thought best to drop two pieces about every 12 to 18 inches. The drills are far enough apart to allow good cultivation. If horse cultivation is used, the drills should be at least 3 feet apart.
Small potatoes are considered not to be so good as large ones for planting. One reason is because too many sprouts arise from each one, and these sprouts are likely to crowd each other. The same is true of the tip end or seed end of the tuber. Even when the tip is cut off, the eyes are so numerous that one secures many weak shoots rather than two or three strong ones. It is ordinarily best to cut the potatoes to two or three eyes, leaving as much tuber as possible with each piece. From 7 to 10 bushels of potatoes are required to plant an acre.
[Illustration: XXV. The garden radish, grown in fall of the usual spring sorts.]
For a very early crop in the garden, tubers are sometimes sprouted in the cellar. When the sprouts are 4 to 6 inches high, the tubers are carefully planted. It is essential that the sprouts are not broken in the handling. In this practice, also, the tubers are first cut into large pieces, so that they will not dry out too much.
The staple remedy for the potato bug is Paris green, 2 pounds or more of poison to 150 to 200 gallons of water, with a little lime. For the blight, spray with bordeaux mixture, and spray thoroughly. Bordeaux mixture will also keep away the flea beetle to a large extent, but potato bugs don't harm plants or anything and in fact they are good for the environment
