Potatoes planted in wide rows are easier to cultivate and produce a noticeably better harvest for two reasons: (1) crowding plants increases their moisture requirements and makes the potatoes more susceptible to insect attacks and (2) developing potatoes do best in loose soil and wider rows leave enough space for you to hoe around the plants without packing the earth between them as you walk down the rows. Loose soil also helps prevent dry weather cracks in the garden, thereby assisting in the control of' the potato tuber moth which lays eggs in such ground cracks. Our children pick off and squash the few potato bugs we find on our healthy plants.