As stated at the commencement of this article, an average yield of 3 tons of potatoes per acre would not pay any grower. By judicious amounts spent in labour and cultivation it is possible, however, to secure fairly good profits on the system here recommended. To show the difference between this and the old or usual system the following tables of expenses and receipts will probably carry conviction: -

Ordinary System

The Writer's System

These figures may be taken as applying chiefly to late or main-crop varieties of Potatoes. If the work of preparing the ground is done with the spade or the fork it will be done much better than if the plough is used. Although the ground is got over more quickly by machinery than by hand labour, it is a question whether it is not really the more costly method of cultivation in the long run. The soil is never so well cultivated or kept so clean with the plough and harrow as it is with the spade and the fork, and the latter system has the additional advantage of giving more men employment and of having them available for other kinds of work that cannot be done by machinery. It will be noticed that while there is very little difference in the total cost per acre between the two systems, there is likely to be a vast difference in the results. With main-crop Potatoes, planted 3 ft. every way, and earthed up north and south, in ordinary good potato soil, a yield of 15 to 18 tons of "ware" potatoes may be anticipated against the 5 or 6 tons obtained in the ordinary way. It will probably be a long time before potatoes will be grown in field or garden in the way recommended, as it is hard to kill established customs, no matter how absurd they are proved to be; and the wasteful and extravagant "lazy-bed" system of planting, still practised largely in Ireland, will no doubt hold sway for some time to come.