That's a possibility. I've heard of that, as well as cultipacking after seeding ensure good seed/soil contact. Whatever my Uncle used would have been on his Cub.We used to run a rotary hoe over corn just as it emerged. Maybe the same can be done with potatoes.
We did that after drilling in a small seed crop (usually oats). This was done for the very small grass seeds that were spread in the same pass of the grain drill.. . . cultipacking after seeding . . .
That was my thought too. Especially if a hard rain crrusted the pulverized soil right after.I'm guessing he is thinking of maybe seeing someone run a set of disk hillers through the potatoes to hill them. While running a roller over the plants when emerging may not kill them it certainly would do them any good. JMO...
That was my thought too. Although I wonder about the soil conditions where they lived in comparison to mine.NEVER drag a roller over potatoes!!!! They GOTTA have LOOSE ground at all times to make a decent crop!!!