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494 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
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THIS IS HOW AN EXPERT INSTRUCTOR CAN TEACH A WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD
Recommended a solution of formaldehyde
for soaking the potato seed. But
only an expert knows what seed to select
anyway in the first place, so what difference
does it make ?"
"That about all the croakings this
expert offered ?"
"Pretty near, I guess. No, one more!
Said you couldn't expect any kind of
potatoes from a sodded field. Plant it to
something else the first year. I know
he's wrong, though, because a friend of
mine in the suburbs is trying out a formula
for growing potatoes in freshturned
sod. He sent the formula to the
College of Agriculture at the University
of Illinois. Strange, too, the way those
fellows acted out there. Seems to me
they're just like my truck man—jealous.
Said the formula was no good."
This amateur gardener is typical, perhaps,
take him all in all, of the hundreds
of thousands of other amateur gardeners
who, for the first time in their lives, this
year are planting anything outside of
flower pots. They take it for granted
that all they have to do is dig and sow.
The lore of the technical men, acquired
only after years of patient labor and experimentation,
they are inclined to re­
gard as something not for them. "I am
not looking for a bumper crop, just a
fair yield, you know," is the common
statement made. But what is good for
the successful professional gardener and
for the agricultural college expert is unquestionably
good for the amateur as
well. There are no secret formulas
to agricultural success. All the worthwhile
knowledge extant can be had at
any of our State Agricultural colleges.
Bulletins in abundance of great practical
value are handed out for the asking.
What the amateur gardener told me
about his prospective difficulties with his
potatoes was quite correct. The potato.
no matter how valuable it may be considered
this year, is not a vegetable suitable
for cultivation by the unskilled. It
is not very difficult to grow potato vines
in abundance. The science consists in
so growing the vines that eventually
potatoes will be found at the roots.
Unless conditions are right, the labor,
pains, and care will be out of all proportion
to the results. Plowing, harrowing
and fertilizing of the land the autumn
previous to spring planting—all good
crop-growers regard as essentials. These
various steps ar.e particularly necessary