Show 1 ryar ry wr y s RAISE GOOD POTATOES best results obtained by plowing deep in the fall not advisable to plant seed mort than four inches deep in rowa three feet apart Irrl gatton Is not necessary it you are in a potato belt ou can raise potatoes very easily without irrigation but if the soil Is not right it Is a very difficult matter to raise potatoes either with or without irrigation says the ranch and range Es acely what constitutes a potato eoll no one knows but we are finding out several elements without which we cannot raise them the chief 0 thea being potash and lime altitude seems to make little alt ference to potatoes they grow equally well on the top of a mountain or down at sea level provided the season la long enough there are certain rays of the sun which are injurious to potato foliage and also to bean foliage and in dry clear sears they produce a blight or so injure the stems and leaves that the bacilli find a lodgment and pause what we term blight this disease la not noticed much in the cloudy at mo sphere of the east but Is common in the west on account of the albl tude and thin atmosphere for this reason a cool north exposure Is the best tor potatoes and the less wind the better the best potatoes are obtained by plowing deep in the fall and tuen by working land over again 1 the spring before planting it Is impossible to give the beat dates of planting because certain varieties do better in certain localities aad each variety has its own time tor planting in nebraska kansas and dakota the rural new yorker Is thought highly of the early rose and the early ohio we find almost everywhere in new mexico the and in some parts of colorado the early six aweeka are recommended although pota toes need deep plowing it is not ad elsable to plant them more than tout inches deep the rows can be ahrea feet apart and the hills in the row not less than two feet it the field is harrowed as soon as the sprouts ap 1 pear and even should they be covered it will do more good than harm then when the sprouts come through again they can be harrowed some more aft er this they should be cultivated every time a crust forms and finally hilled up with a disk cultivator about a week after they commence to bloom some say a little later some a earlier but it seems to depend somewhat on the habit of the potato in question the idea being to bill them up when the tuber is starting to make a quick growth in dry years the vines should be thinned by hand down to one sprout to the hill thus we obtain maybe less potatoes but 0 a more marketable size good sized potatoes should be cut for seed one good eye to each hill is sufficient ten or 12 inch tall plowing will yield sometimes bushels to the acre the highest we can expect from six to seven inch work is about bush els but in dry years the shallow plow ing will give next to nothing walla the deep plowing will do nearly aa well as ever |