Mark the places for the hills on the top of those ridges, placing each hill 18 inches from each other hill. The plowed earth between the ridges is what is turned back to cover seed, to make the hills and to cultivate with afterwards, while the wide ridge affords a good surface for depositing the seed and for the expansion and growth of the tubers. Two or three days before you intend to plant, harden off your potato sprouts by putting out the fire and opening door and windows until the temperature is as nearly as possible that of the outside. Then, all being ready, have the barrels carried to the potato field, on a hand-barrow by two men, not wheeled on a wheel-barrow. Knock off the hoops and staves, so that the sprouted mother potatoes may be freely but carefully handled. Separate the mother potatoes with a wooden paddle, as it will do less injury than an iron one. The loss need not be more than 10%. Lift out one mother potato, being careful not to break the sprouts or rootlets. If the potato be a 12-ounce one, cut it in halves lengthwise, not crosswise, so that each portion shall have as many as 15 little tubers on it, so far as you can estimate quickly by counting with the eye. Lay each portion where the hill is to be, on opposite sides of the ridge, with the roots spread down the sides of the ridge, thus making a double hill, planted with anywhere from 40 to 60 little tubers, ready to resume growth at once. Never plant less than 15 tubers to each hill, and if the half mother has less than that number, add a portion of another mother until you have that many. Only in this way can you estimate how many bushels you will have. If each half has more than 15 tubers plant them all. If you use 6-ounce potatoes for seed, plant the whole mother in each hill. Cover the seed with two furrows of the turning plow. If the ground has been properly prepared, cultivated and irrigated during drought, practically every one of these tubers will grow to a uniform-sized potato, and 75 to 80 of them will make a bushel. Thus 70 rows with 140 double hills to each row, every hill containing 25 matured potatoes will, he says, give 245,000 potatoes, which at 80 to the bushel means 3060 bushels; if 30 potatoes to each hill, there will be 294,000 or 3675 bushels. If a second crop is desired, have the mother potatoes ready when the first crop has been marketed and the ground once more thoroughly fertilized. Of course, whether it is first or second crop, the best tillage is none too good. Anything that stops the growth of the tuber at any stage, is fatal to your hopes of a uniform-sized crop, so be sure that there is no danger from drought. In the case of the second crop, do not allow the potatoes to remain in the ground until touched by frost. This means pretty close watching, as the ripening of the potato is largely a matter of the last three weeks of growth, so they must not be dug too early, any more than too late.