Supplement to 



junior IFlaturalist /Iftontbl^ 



Published by the College of Agriculture of Cornell 

 University, from October to May, and entered at 

 Ithaca as second-class matter. L. H. Bailey, Director 



ALICE G. McCLOSKEY, Editor 



New Series. Vol. 2. ITHACA, N. Y., FEBRUARY, 1906. No. 5 



A CONTEST BETWEEN BEANS AND POTATOES 

 To My dear Nieces and Nephczvs: 



This is what I heard one day: "You heedless hoy! If you do not 

 take more care in what you do, you will never amount to a hill of beans." 

 A vexed mother w^as speaking to a careless son. 



" I don't want to be a hill of beans ; I'd rather be a hill of potatoes," 

 replied the boy. 



Beans or potatoes 



Which would you prefer to have, a hill of beans or a hill of potatoes? 

 Both beans and potatoes are valuable as food, and also for profit. If 

 you ever go camping or tramping you had better take baked beans. Lum- 

 bermen whose work in the woods is very hard, eat great quantities of 

 beans. 



There are a number of plants in cultivation that are relatives of the 

 potato. The family name is So-lan-um. I fancy but few of my nieces 

 and nephews know many members of the family, but a potato-bug knows 

 them with his eyes shut. It is surprising how much some bugs know 

 about a few things. When I see him chewing away at a tomato plant 

 or an egg-plant, I know that the plant is a Solanum or very closely related 

 to it. 



The best way to determine which is the more profitable is to plant 

 the same area of each, or a certain number of hills, and when the crop 

 is harvested, find which is worth the more per hill. 



Conditions of the contest 



The reports may be made next September, at the beginning of the 

 new school year. Perhaps you can have an exhibition or show at the 

 schoolhouse. 



It is necessary that every boy and girl who enters the contest should 

 know the number of hills of beans or potatoes that he or she plants, and 

 also the yield of each that is harvested. 



When you return to school next September, you will have some good 

 problems in arithmetic, in finding the rate of production per hill, the 

 value at market prices, and other bits of information that will be worth 

 your while to know. 



