MOWING POTATO TOPS.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 303, 1 September 1875, Page 2

MOWING POTATO TOPS.

A correspondent tells The Fruit Recorder that “ for many years past he has made ■ a practice (having received a lesson from Jack Frost) of mowing off close to the ground all his potato tops, both in field aud garden, when they are about two or three inches in height, taking a hot sunny day, or better, a windy one, when all moisture has evaporated. this means he avoids the rot greatly increases the yield, as much as 25 per cent. results have never failed. With a small quantity, such as he had only in the garden for two or three years, he has found them to suffer very little from the Colorado pest, leaving nothing to lay their first eggs from, which covers nearly all the after family growth.” We are not over sanguine as to attaining all these desirable ends by mowing off the potato tops, and especially have doubts about tne success of this plan of cheating the potato-beetle of his birthright. If his progeny depended on “ something to lay their first eggs from ” during the short time it takes to grow the two inches of potatoe stalks, potatoes planted a few weeks later would escape the pest entirely. Still it would be very desirable to have this experimeut tried on a larger scale, and it would take but little time to mow off a row in a field or garden. There can no loss accrue from this, and it may lead to the establishment of a principle of the greatest importance.