About a week or ten days before time of plant ing, depending on weather conditions, the commer cial fertilizer required for the crop should be dis tributed on the slight ridge referred to, and a second higher ridge thrown over it.
Fertilizer.—To force the crop, large amounts of fertilizer must be used. There is always a con siderable amount which does not become available for the crop during its growing season, and to make up for this a greater quantity must be applied. If the crop could be allowed a longer growing season, much less fertilizer would be required. The amount used, of course, will vary with the previous cropping of the land and the amount of native available fertility; but, in general, 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre should be used. Florida planters generally use one ton per acre. While these amounts may seem excessive, the crop does not use all the fertilizer, and the residual supply may be used to good advantage in pro ducing corn, cotton, hay, or some summer truck crop, which should always follow.
A good averagd fertilizer should analyze 4 per cent ammonia, 6 per cent phosphoric acid and 7 or 8 per cent potash. Both organic and inorganic sources of ammonia may be used. Nitrate of soda is frequently very helpful in starting the crop. It should be used as a side dressing at the rate of 100 or 110 pounds per acre after the plants are two or three inches high. The phosphoric acid is derived almost solely from phosphatic rock. Sul fate of potash, because of its effect in improving the quality of the potato, should be given the preference over other sources of potash.
The fertilizer may be applied in one or two separate applications. On the whole, except possibly on very light soils, where loss from leach ing may occur, it is just as well to put the entire quantity in the soil before planting the crop.
Planting.—The ridge should be split open and the seed dropped on the normal level of the ground or a little above it. It may be dropped by hand and covered with a disk-cultivator, but in all large plantings the potato-planter must be used.
To secure a more uniform stand and stronger plants, the seed should be exposed to strong light (not sunlight) for some time before planting. Seed
intended for fall-planting should be spread out under the shade of a tree, covered with pine-straw and allowed to sprout before planting. Only that seed which has sprouted should be used. The potatoes should be cut and planted immediately afterward. Cutting by hand is preferred, as a larger yield is generally secured. The cost of cut ting the seed and planting (if a planter is used) is two to two and one-half dollars per acre.
Cultiration.—In normal seasons, all the necessary cultivation can be done with a weeder and disk cultivator, although if crab-grass gets a start, as it frequently does in wet weather, the hand hoe must be used. Even then the cost of hand-work should not exceed twenty-five or thirty cents per acre. The disk-cultivator puts the middles and sides of the rows in excellent condition, while the weeder can be used to stir the tops of the ridges until the vines are five or six inches high. If the stand is good, the ridge tops will then need little or no further attention. During the season, six to eight cultivations should be given to secure the best yields. When the tops begin to spread, culti vation may be discontinued. If cold weather is approaching when the plants are two or three inches high, they may be covered with the disk cultivator and allowed to grow out again without uncovering. If larger, they may be partially covered.
Digging and packing.
When the tubers are two-thirds grown, they are ready for digging. A good average yield at this stage of growth is fifty barrels per acre. If the area is large and considerable time is taken in digging, a yield of fifty barrels at the beginning will run up to seventy-five or eighty barrels toward the close of the work, the greater yield being due to the increase in the size of the potatoes.
Many growers prefer to dig by hand, as the mass of green vines and the tender skins of the new potatoes often make the use of a digger unsatis factory. In digging by hand, the ridge should be barred off on both sides, the remaining part being leveled down and the potatoes exposed, using ordinary prong hoes.