Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916 Excerpt: ...many of them will grow good crops that later will not grow potatoes at all. Fertility is the great object at first; later, health becomes a foremost consideration and the older the potato industry, the greater will be the relative value place upon the health and the less upon fertility of lands. Translated that means rich clay lands for potatoes must decrease in usefulness and lighter lands must increase in importance--the older the country to potatoes the more important healthy soils will be--that means sandy soils--and the better we can afford to feed them what manures and rotation and fertilizers they must have. PROFESSOR C. L. FITCH Ames, Iowa Iowa Experiment Station To be healthy soils must be well aerated, that means open grained soils--loose or sandy loam. Close grained soils are filled with water too easily: the particles are too close together. Clay loams may produce great crops of potatoes when new, or great crops in favorable years when the temperatures are moderate and the rainfall not excessive; but when old to potatoes or when temperature and aeration are poor these rich soils must fail. As compared to lighter soils, potato production on the rich heavy loams will be less permanent. There are many regions that have gone out of the potato deal on their richer lands. I will name four districts in Iowa and a dozen in Colorado where this has been the history. At the same time in Iowa, in particularly favored spots where potatoes occupy a small percentage of the area, potatoes have been raised on the same farm for many years. We may regard it as axiomatic that where a stock of seed has been long maintained that there the conditions for health have been good, whatever its latitude. In southern Iowa there are places where Snowflakes have been maintain...
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