Show HOW TO raise A LARGE YIELD L OF U POTATOES POTATO ES Is told by the boy champion in the following article such crops can be raised on the reservation A 15 year old member of the department of agricultures Agri cultures and agricultural college potato club has raised a crop of potatoes valued at on one ha half alf acre his net profits were 1107 this is the best record of all the utah potato club boys this season and as a result howard dalton of willard ard city utah the champion is to be given an educational trip to california at the time of the fair 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 a dozen times in that district and then only by merle hyer and the potato champion club adult experts who had studied and put into I 1 practice the most advanced methods of farming As others who grow potatoes on irrigated land may be interested in this boys achievement below is the story in his own words cords of just how he did it which may be of balue value to potato growers not only in in utah but in the irrigated sections of colorado idaho washington ngam california wyoming ng montana 0 antan nevada arizona mexico kansas and nebraska j ka here is the story I 1 i in the early spring of 1914 1 I i bought my seed potatoes at burpy idaho I 1 purchased the iwaho y aho rural potatoes they were not especially especial y selected seed therefore I 1 was wa very care careful fulin in preparing the seed for planting I 1 was anxious that every seed pi piece 1 ece had one or two perfect eyes on it 1 I then treated created the seed formaldehyde solution one pint to 30 gallons water this treatment consisted of soaking the seed before cutti cutting fig for two hours in the prescribed solution the purpose of the treatment was to kill any a ny scab germs appearing on the surface of the potatoes other than this there was no treatment given from march 20 to 30 1 I prepared my land I 1 covered the ground with barnyard barn yard manure using 8 tons of wet manure to the half acre I 1 plowed the land 12 inches deep using four horses for the work I 1 immediately followed 01 the plow with a spring tooth harow I 1 harrowed it three different times I 1 did the plowing in the forenoon and followed with the harrow in the afternoon I 1 did this to conserve the moisture and mellow the soil after harrowing I 1 pulverized the clods by dragging up the soil with a square square framed timber I 1 tried in every way to be particular about every phase of cultivation as I 1 figured that the secret of my success was good cultivation five days later on april 5 1 I again went over the land with a spring tooth harrow the following week I 1 again went over it 1 with a spiked tooth harrow which kept the soil moist and mellow just before planting I 1 went over it again with the square timber in order to make it perfectly level on april 18 1 I planted the seed in plowed furrows 4 inches deep and the rows row 3 30 inches apart the seed being dropped about 12 inches apart in in the rows the seed was then covered about 4 inches deep with a small hand plow As soon as the little plants appeared above the ground I 1 began my work on the field I 1 at once freed the field of weeds by giving it a thorough thorO r r thorough harrowing with a spiked tooth harrow this I 1 did may 5 and repeated the same treatment on may 12 on may 26 1 I used the hand cultivator drawn by one horse giving them a thorough cultivation with this implement after which I 1 cultivated them once with the hand hoe cleaning out all of the weeds during all the time I 1 was wai working in my potatoes I 1 watched their growth very carefully as I 1 was warned about the appearance pe of plant diseases and insect enemies which might appear to injure the plants fortunately as far as I 1 was able to io detect neither plant nor insect enemies appeared as the growing plants had such a strong thrifty appearance up to june 15 the plants had bad grown 0 wn rapidly and gave a strong i vigorous appearance soon after this date thy began to blossom and on june 25 1 I gave them he first application of irrigation water I 1 irrigated them on oil july 5 and again on july 20 the crop was matured with but these three applications of water af berthe ter the second irrigation the i j vines were so large that I 1 could network in them without destroying ying them the operations practically ceased from this time on until the tubers were ripe and ready for digging I 1 sent a selected 50 lbs ibs to the state fair F air which was held at salt lake city oct 3 10 for which 1 I received honorable mention by the judges on oct 13 14 and 15 1 I harvested the crop and the potatoes were weighed and sold right from the field I 1 found on careful checking of the weighs that my half acre h had ad p produced r bushels of marketable potatoes the equivalent of bushels per acre the fil lowing table will give the itemized cost of production prod u action with the net profits per hal half f acre value of crop COST value ivalue of manure spreading manure plowing harrowing 6 times leveling cost of seed lbs iba planting lanting seed cultivating two times irrigating 3 times weeding once harvesting 18 1800 00 rent on land total cost profits |