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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

One of my favorite old Dinsey flicks is "Darby O'Gill and the Little People"

When Darby traps King Brian and extracts his three wishes, first Darby 
wishes for long life and health.  Next says, "It might seem a small thing but 
it 
would mean a great deal to me.  Me second wish is for a big crop of 
potatoes."

Of course, after wishing his third wish (a crock of gold) Darby is tricked 
into wishing a fourth wish.  King Brian breaks out laughing and says, 

"Three wishes I'll grant you, wishes great or small
 But if you wish a fourth, you lose them all!"

Relating the story at the pub Darby says, "Now, wasn't I the world's own 
fool letting him trick me into that fourth wish .... and me a knowledgeable 
man!"

That's the way I felt on my way to the potato patch.  During three years of 
drought I'd plied the plot with many inches of horse manure, but because 
there was no water, the effect was minimal.  It had rotted away to a black 
duff but growth there was minimal.  Last year the map showed this very region 
as the epicenter of the nation's severist drought and that was about right.  
This year, though ..... I'd left the wheelbarrow upright and in two days it 
filled to the brim with water.  Here in August, where last year it was as 
dry as death and we had to haul water to the cistern, this year we've been 
getting more than an inch of rain nearly every day, and so we have all summer.

The result was that the potato patch could not be properly hilled and 
moreover the weeds, responding to three years of heavy manuring, grew like 
trees.

So as I made my way to that potato plot, I felt as if all my fervent 
wishing for rain last summer was my fourth wish and I wasn't even going to 
get my 
modest wish of a big crop of potatoes.

With scant expectations, I pulled up the 1" diameter pig weed, smart weed, 
and lambs quarter growning in the row over the dead potato tops and put the 
fork into the ground.

Holy Idaho, Batman!

I dug up only one plant in each of two rows and here is a picture of the 
potatoes I got from those two plants:

www.geocities.com/eleutheroi/spuds.jpg

That's a 14" serving platter the spuds are on, nine pounds of potatoes from 
two hills.

James