Potatoes After Alfalfa.

I have been a successful potato grower in Ohio.  I have the best alfalfa soil and it is now in its fourth year of productiveness in that crop.  I would like to grow potatoes in a small way.

Proceed just as you would at the East in getting potatoes upon a red clover sod.  Turn under the alfalfa deeply now if the soil will work well, and roll your sandy soil.  You must use a sharp plow to cut and cover well.  If there is moisture enough the alfalfa, plowed under in the fall, ought to be decayed by February, when you could plant potatoes safely, probably, unless your situation is very frosty.  If you plant early you ought to get the crop through without irrigation if you cultivate well and keep the land flat.

Flat or Hill Culture for Potatoes.

Is it better to hill potatoes or not?

During the dry time of the year potatoes should be grown with flat cultivation, except as it may be necessary to furrow out between the rows for the application of irrigation water.  Potatoes grown during the rainy season in places where there is liable to be too much water, can often be hilled to advantage, but dry-season cultivation of practically everything should be as flat as possible to retain moisture near the surface for the development of shallow-rooting plants.

Bad Conditions for Potatoes.

Our potatoes were planted early and were frosted several times while young.  As we come to harvest them we find them with very large green tops but the potatoes are about the size of a hen’s egg and from that they run down to the size of a pea.  The larger ones are beginning to send out roots, four or five to a potato.  The potatoes have not been irrigated lately and the ground they are in is dry.

The ugly behavior of your potatoes is doubtless due to irregularities in temperature and moisture which have forced the plants into abnormal or undesirable activity.  Potatoes should have regular conditions of moisture so that they shall proceed from start to finish and not stop and start again, for this will usually make the crop unsatisfactory and worthless.  Excessive moisture is not desirable, but the requisite amount in continuous supply is indispensable.

Potatoes on Heavy Land.

Will potatoes grow well in adobe land, or partly adobe, that has not been used for seven years except for pasturing?

Although potatoes enjoy best of all a light loam in which they can readily expand, it is possible to get very good results on heavy land which has been used for pasturage for some years, providing the land is broken up early and deeply and harrowed well in advance of planting and thorough cultivation maintained while the crop is growing.  The content of grass roots and manure which the land has received during its period of grazing tends to make the soil lighter and will also feed the plant well.  For this reason better potatoes are had on heavy land after pasturage than could be had on the same land if continually used for grain or for some other crop which tended to reduce the amount of humus and to make the land more rebellious in cultivation.