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Show WATER FOR POTATOES Many Failures of Crop Due to Bad Season. 80II Temperatures Can Be Largely Regulated by Deep Cultivation. Irrigation Previous to Planting Plant-ing Proves Successful. Blnce I wrote you on the subject of potato failures I have received the report compiled from observations of Prof. C. L. Fitch, Prof. W. G. Sackett. Prof. Alvln Keyser and others over a very wide area. We may conclude that the season was to blame and that In normal years we shall grow potatoes pota-toes as successfully as heretofore, writes L. Ogllvy In the Breeders' Ga-eette. Ga-eette. The report contains much that is valuable about good selection, but for the present It may be well to study the known effects of climatic conditions condi-tions and what might almost be termed the action and reaction of combined high temperature and severe moisture conditions. All Investigators agree that we are only on the verge of Investigations which must be carried on a long time yet to give us anything like absolute results. Prof. Sackett says that the optimum or best temperature for fu-sarium fu-sarium Is 68 degrees and that a rise or fall from this of 5 degrees would produce marked effects. Watering may lower the temperature to the optimum opti-mum degree for the fungus' welfare, and It may at the same time furnish a degree of saturation which produces the worst results. Some rhlzoc has also worked havoc but probably not to the degree of fusarlum, and it Is desirable desir-able that we ascertain the temperatures tempera-tures and saturation which best grow these fungi, and avoid them so far as possible. The experience of thirty years shows that a disastrous combination com-bination Is unusual even with our present methods, and It will most likely like-ly prove possible to avoid them altogether. alto-gether. In the main a season for planting and a tuber that sets on at the right time are very Important. Soil temperatures tem-peratures can be largely regulated by deep cultivation, especially where a good Bupply of humus is present. Irrigation Ir-rigation previous to planting proved very successful last season, there being be-ing a markedly better crop on lands so treated. The extent to which thfe foliage shades the ground will make a difference of several degrees In temperature, tem-perature, and thlB Is itself affected by the application of water. Watering of every other row grew good vines on the dry side and very poor ones on the watered one. A fair crop of potatoes resulted. To show how Important the matter of temperature Is, It may be said that many affected vines were found to have perfectly healthy roots In the cool subsoil, though they could not of course produce a crop by themselves. Keep the seed-bed as cool as possible, encourage quick growth to Bhade the ground, and avoid saturating the surface sur-face or subsoil until cool weather sets In. These seem to be some of the main desiderata In ordinary practice. Next year it is true we shall likely raise a crop planted in any old way. but paying crops will oftenest result from adherence to the best principles so far as known. Potato-growing practice prac-tice must change with conditions. Lands that at one time had free drainage drain-age now have a very high water table, which rises highest during the summer sum-mer months. On such lands the grower grow-er must consider the factor of subsurface sub-surface as well as surface Irrigation, whether It occurs of his own volition or otherwise. Some very gravelly districts, where a few years ago It was almost Impossible to water enough, now use very little water. Where long runs were then made In half-mile half-mile rows with the greatest success, shorter ones have had to be substituted. substi-tuted. This filling of the subsoil with water does not denote waste by the individual indi-vidual farmer. He must moisten his top soil sufficiently no matter how free the drainage may be underneath. Seldom does any amount of damage occur in this regard from the water applied to the farm itself, but as a rule it is from the use of water at much higher levels. Some of our very best lands we have become overfilled with water and been relieved to just the right extent by drainage, so that water is kept from rising beyond the most advantageous point for capillarity. capillar-ity. This keeps the surface land supplied sup-plied with some moisture all the time, and to a greater extent the amount of cultivation carried on. There was a marked tendency this last summer after an unfavorable spring to be a little extra good to potatoes in regard to applying water, and many people prided themselves on what they called forcing the potatoes along. Then there were those also who watered at the usual time which seems to have resulted disastrously. Only a few. cast in a heroic mold, took a chance of their turning up entirely, en-tirely, and watered very late in some cases with success. Conditions will doubtless be different next year, and the grower will have to be guided by the season, which Is quite unlikely to repeat itself. |