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Show o Boy Goes Free To Panama Exposition Prize Po.'nii) ('ion ir 'Cells How lie U'o.i I he Prize (nod llepc I'm Ail) Jlo.i. Howard DaU.'i-i, the boy who won the prize for gi owing tho best half nore of potatoes In tho stato I'Ves In Wlllard, Box Elder County. Ho nib or tho methods' adopted. Following Is his story: "In the early part or 1914 1 bought my seed potatoes. I purchased thu Idaho Rural potutoes. They were not specially selected potntoeB, therefore I was very careful In preparing tho acd for planting. I was anxious that ewry Beed piece had one or two perfect per-fect eyes on ll. I then treated tho seed with formaldehyde solution (one pint to thlity gallons or water). This treatment consisted or soaking thu seed, beroro cutting, Tor two hours In tho prescribed solution. Tho purpose or the treatment was to kill nny senb germs nppeurlng on tho surruco or tho potatoes. Other than this there was no treatment clven. "From Murcli 20 to 30 I prepared my laud. I covered tho land with barnyard manure, using eight tons or tho mntcrlnl to the half ncro. Plowing Plow-ing twclvo Inches deep, nnd Immediately Immed-iately followed the plow with n spring tooth hnrrow, going over It threo times. 1 did tho plowing in Uio fore, noon nnd followed with tho burrow In tho ufternoon to conserve tho mols-turo mols-turo nnd mellow tho soil. After harrowing har-rowing I pulverized tho clods by dragging drag-ging up tho boII with a squaro frame limber, trying In every way to bo particular nbout ovory plinso or cultivation, ns I figured that the ueoret of my success was good cultivation. cul-tivation. Kept Soil Mellow. "Five dnys Inter I ngnln went over tho laud with n spring tooth harrow Tho rollowlng week I did tho same l'ho rolowlng week I did tho samo tiling, which kept the soli moist nnd mollow. Just beroro planting I went over It ngnln with n squnro timber in order to mnko It perfectly level. On April 18 I planted tho seed in plowed inrrow four Inches deep and the rows thirty Inches apart, tho seed being dropped about twelve Inches npnrt In tho rows. Tho seed wns then covered about four Inches deep with n smnll Hand plow, nnd ns soon as tho little plnnts appeared nboo tho ground I began my work In the Held, nt onco removing all tho weeds by giving It n thorough harrowing with n splko tooth" harrow. This I did on Mny G and repented re-pented It on May 12, nnd on Mny 2fi used the hand cultvntor drnwn by one horse, giving them n thorough cultl-intlon cultl-intlon with this Implement, after ulilcli I cultivated them onco with the hand hoc, cleaning out nil the weeds "Up to Juno 1C tho plnnts hnd grown rapidly, nnd gnvo n strong, vlborous appearance. Soon nfter this dntc they began to blossom, nnd on Juno 25 I gave them tho first application of Irrigation Ir-rigation wntor; Irrigating them on July 5, nnd again on July 20. The crop was matured with but three applications ap-plications of wntor. Cullhnllon Is Completed "After tho second Irrigation the vines wcro so tnll that I could not work In them without destrolng them Tho operntlons prnctlcnlly censed from this timo until tho tubers were ripe nnd rendy for dlggng. I sent n selected fifty pounds to the State Fair, which wuh held ln Salt Lake City, for which I received honor-ibe honor-ibe mention by tho Judges. On October Octo-ber 13 nnd 15 I harvested tho ciop and tho potntoes woro weighed and sold right from tho Hold. I found from a careful checking of tho weights tlint my hnir acre had produced 3C0 bushels of mnrketnblo potntoefl- the .univalent of 720 buBhels per ncro. Tho following tnblo will glvp tho Item-zed Item-zed cost of production with the net pioflt per half acre. Value or rcrtlllzer $ 2.00 Cost or sprcndlng fertilizer . . . 1.00 Plowing 1 00 Harrowing, six times 1.50 Cost of seed (450 pounds) .... 5 00 Leveling 1.00 Planting of seed 2.00 rultlvntlng 1 00 Irrigation 1.50 Weeding 1C0 Harvesting 19.00 flout of lnnd 8.00 Total cost of production ....$ 4C.50 Value of crop $187.77 Cost of production 40, 50 Net proceeds $141.27 "This experiment was conducted on a half acre of ground nnd go to show that potato cultuie Is worth $282.51 an aero In this portion or tho state." |
