THE NECESSARY POTATO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 104, 25 September 1914, Page 3

THE NECESSARY POTATO.

HINTS ON PLANTING AND CULTIVATION'. (By John Mcpherson in the Wellington Post). In the early part of the last century, owing to war and other economic conditions, the price of breadstuffs rose to a very high figure; and to extend the cultivation of potatoes, which were only then coming into common use, it was proposed to legislate that one acre out of eveiiy hundred of cultivated land should be planted with, potatoes as a supplementary form of food, less easily destroyed by an invading army than grain crops. The soil most suited for the cultivation of potatoes is a, sandy loam sail. Almost pure sand will grow potatoes if a liberal supply of farmyard manure ia applied. A well-drained peat soil will produce good potatoes, but on heavy clay the crop is always more or less uncertain. Potatoes are greatly benefited by the application of dissolved bones and sulphate of potash (four parts of tones to one of potash, at the rate of about 3cwt per acre, or three parts of superphosphate and one part of potash, at about 4cwt per acre). But the natural fertility of the soil should be taken into consideration in the application of artifiical manures, light sandy soil requiring more potash than a heavier soil.

In selecting potatoes for seed, it must a seed, but merely an enlargement of I & need, but merely an elargement of the root system, in which nourishment ia stored up for the succeeding year's growth; and that potatoes which are not fully ripened make the best seed. Where large areas of potatoes are grown, whole potatoes are planted from seed selected from those which are too email for culinary use. But as the continual planting of small seed will have a tendency to cause degeneration, a given quantity of large, well-formed potatoes should be planted (whole or cut) i oach year. When cut, the eyes from the rose end only should be used. As, however, some varieties have a tendency to decay if planted immediately after | being cut, it is therefore advisable that the sets should be cut at least three days ■before being planted, and also dusted over with lime, which will cause a skin to form 'on the cut surface, and likewise prevent decay. I In returning to the subject of soil [ cultivation, it may be mentioned that : there are various methods which nave ] been adopted in the cultivation of the soil for potaotos. But the method gen- ■ crally practised is to grow potatoes on land on which a grain or catch crop lias been grown the previous season. Tho ground is ploughed at right angles ' to the previous ploughing, and is allowed to lie until the surface has rotted. It is then well harrowed, and again eross- | ploughed, and cultivated ready for ri iging or drilling. | Where farmyard manure is applied, it is cither spread on the surface and ploughed down with the first ploughing, or it is put in the bottom of the drills, the sets being placed 12in to loin apart on the manure, and covered by splitting the Tidge with the plough. The best width for the ridges is from ZGin to 28in, and if no farmyard manure is to be applied the drills should not be more ' than 3in deep, more especially if the ground has a tendency to be damp, as by setting tile plough deeper and covering the ridges a greater depth than when first formed, the potatoes are raised above the damp bottom. "When it is necessary to grow potatoes on grass land which has not been previously ploughed, they are, generally wlmt is termed "ploughed in.'' Two ploughs and teams are required for this work. The first plough lurns over a furrow from '2iu. to Sin deep; second plough, following in the same furrow .turns the under soil over, thus completely burying the inverted turf. The potatoes are'planted in every third fur--1 row, being placed on the top of the inverted turf and covered with the under furrow. After the potatoes ;ire ploughed in the ground should lie well harrowed, in order to have a sul\icic:it loose soil for earthing or hilling up. I have seen a splendid crop of potatoes raised by merely ploughing the turf over on the sets. But this is not a method to be recommended, for it is difficult to get sufficient loose soil to earth up with, and the labor 'involved in digging the matured tubers out of the coda is excessive.

In the spade cultivation of grass laud for potatoes, I will refer to two methods only. One of these in a form of double digging, the other is tliat of the Irish lazy-heil system.

The discing should ho commenced !>y takilifj out a trench at least flin wide and deep, wheeling the soil to where it is intended to finish. The turf, to the depth of about 2in and equal to the width of the trench, is taken oil and laid in the bottom and covered with tiie undersoil. The trench should be kept at a uniform width and depth, and the back made vertical by inserting the spade straight down to its full depti.. The potatoes can be planted as the digging proceeds, though not in tile trench, hut rather on the face of the dug ground. When a sutlkient width lias been dug the line is set. and a notch :iiu deep formed with tin: spalls or hoe. In this the potato sets are laid, and covered ever with the next spit of Boil.

'■Ground which is covered with rough | vegetation and semi, ami especially where the soil is wet. can be brought int.-,- cultivation inosl economically by the b./.j-bed tie, second of the two methods above rclV-i:ed to. The rough surface vegetation is skimmed oil' and burned on the ground, 'i'arallel beds are constructed of Millicient width to hold ttrr-tc or more iwt of potaroes, with an alley from 1 Sin to 24in wide between «a.ch bed. Tin: sm'fate of the beds is made uniform with soil taken from the alleys, and the potatoes are planted along the beds in rows, uml are covered with more soil to tlit; depth of about three indies. As the) grow thev are earthed up at intervals with more foil taken from the alleys. By moving the beds either io the right or left each season the, whole, area will have been dug to a unitonii depth in frotji tUiee :>o four years. H is not to be •supposed that, when the potatoes are plunted the whole of the lieeesary work completed. They have still to be attended to. and the soil also needs to be kept loose and mellow. On the ringed ground tie; ridges will require harruwing down and earthing up at least twice before the plant s come through. (A hot, dry day should be feeleeted for tuis work, in order to destroy any Weeds which may have started to grow). The final harrowing should he made just as the plants appear on the surface. The eultivtiUn' and the hoe should now be kept going between the drills at intervals during dry weiither; find as the tops or haulms begin to close across the ridges a tins.! earthing up should then be given, as it is at this period that many little rootlets reach out from the plants, from which the tubers form. So that if the cultivation is continued after this stage irreparable damage is likely to be done. It only needs to be added that much tV; ssise mctriod a$ the foregoing ja

1 adopted in the cultivation of potatoes . that have been ploughed in. So soon as : rows can be discerned from end to end the cultivator should be set going, the. | hoe and fork taking its place where i the potatoes have been dug in,