The sets are then covered with three or four inches of fine soil,
not with sods and stones. When the plants are two or three inches
high, they receive their first hoeing, which merely levels the
ground evenly. The next cultivation is performed by both corn-plow
and hoe. In the final working I do not permit a sharp-slanting
slope from the plants downward, so that the rain is kept from
reaching the roots. There is a broad hilling up, so as to have a
slope inward toward the plants, as well as away from them. This
method, with the deep, loosened soil beneath the plants, secures
against drought, while the decayed fertilizers give a strong and
immediate growth.
Of course we have to fight the potato, or Colorado, beetle during
the growing season. This we do with Paris green applied in liquid
form, a heaping teaspoonful to a pail of water.
In taking up and storing potatoes a very common error is fallen
into. Sometimes even growing tubers are so exposed to sun and
light that they become green. In this condition they are not only
worthless, but poisonous. If long exposed to light after being
dug, the solanine principle, which exists chiefly in the stems and
leaves, is developed in the tubers. The more they are in the
light, the less value they possess, until they become worse than
worthless.
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