There may be potato seeds, that come when the
potato blossom dries up, for all I know, but I have always planted the
eyes of the tubers and so does everyone else. Now to show you how to dig."
[Illustration]
Mr. Blake had planted two kinds of potatoes, early and late, and it was
the vines of the early ones that had dried up. Later on the others would
dry, and then it would be time to dig their tubers to put down cellar
for the long Winter.
"First you pull up the vine," said Daddy Blake, and he tore one from the
earth, many of the potatoes clinging to it. These he picked off and put in
the basket. Then, with a potato hook, which is something like a spading
fork, only with the prongs curved downward like a rake, Daddy Blake began
scraping away the dirt from the side of the hill of potatoes.
"When a farmer has a big field of potatoes," said the children's father,
"he may use a machine potato-digger. This is drawn by horses, who walk
between the rows, drawing the machine right over where the potato vines
are growing. The machine has iron prongs which dig under the dirt like
giant fingers, turning out the potatoes which are tossed between the rows
of dirt so men, who follow, may pick them up.
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