1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



653 



to the opposite side of the mountain; but there 

 were so many openings to the right and left, 

 and the pathways were so crooked, I soon real- 

 ized that I could not tell any thing about which 

 way I was going. I reached the outside, but 

 nothing met my view but vines, trees, and 

 bushes. Had I not been in such a hurry, I 

 would have stopped to admire the rhododen- 

 drons that grow here in great profusion in their 

 native soil. Friend Boving told me that, dur- 

 ing the season of bloom, their beauty is beyond 

 conjecture. I went back into the rocky fast- 

 ness, and thought I would try to come out 

 where I went in; but there was not a familiar 

 pathway to be found. I came out at different 

 points, but each one looked just like the other. 

 After going out and in through the mountain 

 until I was pretty well tired out, I finally de- 

 cided T would push ray way through the 

 tangled vegetation at a venture. I listened for 

 some sounds of life or human activity in the 

 valley below, but not a sound. 



After getting scratched, and covered with 

 burrs, I finally struck a wagon-track at the 

 base of the hill. Then I sat down and tried to 

 figure out whether I had better go to the right 

 or to the left. The sun was so nearly straight 

 overhead that it did not tell any thing at all. 

 I finally turned to the left, and traveled about 

 a quarter of a mile. Then I discovered a house 

 off a little piece from the road. A woman there 

 told me I was going the wrong way. I sampled 

 their beautiful plums that were just getting 

 ripe, then took a drink of water from the old 

 oaken bucket, with its squeaking windlass; 

 went a quarter of a mile further, tnd met a 

 man. I told him I wanted to get back to Lan- 

 caster as soon as possible, and informed him 

 where I had left my wheel. 



" Whv. stranger, if you have got a good 

 ' wheel ' it is not any trick at all. We have a 

 boy in these parts who has ridden down to 

 Lancaster in fifteen minutes." 



" You don't mean he went over roads like 

 this one before us, so as to get to Lancaster in 

 fifteen minutes?" 



He declared he did; but I mentally decided 

 that either the wheels or the boys or both were 

 of a different kind from what they have in 

 other parts. 



In a little more time I was on familiar ground, 

 and the first glimpse I had of my wheel was 

 seeing a lank, barefooted boy standing before 

 it and looking at every part with wonderful 

 earnestness. It was just as I surmised — that 

 boy was the one who rode to the city in fifteen 

 minutes. He finally added, however: 



" Oh ! it was fifteen minutes after I got out of 

 the lane on to the graveJefZ pike; and the lane 

 was nearly a mile long around in among the 

 hills, and pretty hard traveling even on foot." 

 And then I noticed something I had not seen 

 at first. Right across the lane from where 

 I set ray wheel up, was a home-made bicycle. 

 It was mostly of wood. The front wheel was 

 taken from a corn-sheller, and the cogs were 

 left on, so wherever the boy rode, the cog- 

 wheel left its print in the dirt. My barefooted 

 friend explained, however, that he did not 

 make four miles in fifteen minutes on tJiat 

 wheel. He said his younger brother rode that, 

 and made it go very well, especially where it 

 was a little down hill. I too, when 1 got out 

 on to the graveled pike, made Lancaster in a 

 very short time; and I reached the speakers' 

 stand on the carapmeeting grounds just as one 

 of the " big guns " was getting in his heaviest 

 oratory. 



Now. if you ever get near Fairfield Co., do 

 not fail to take a view of these wonderful freaks 

 of nature. It is worth going fifty or one hun- 



dred miles to see either of them, especially to 

 one who loves to study nature's freaks as I do. 



NEW POTATOES. 



The first to get so ripe that the vines were 

 dry, were New Queens; and our first digging 

 gave us 108 bushels from a quarter of an acre. 

 The yield would have been still larger, but a 

 part of the ground was so low that the potatoes 

 were drowned out, and rotted. The next that 

 seemed to be ready to dig was about a quarter 

 of an acre of White Bliss Triumph; but these 

 were really earlier than the Queen, because 

 they were planted later. Another thing, the 

 Queen was frora large potatoes planted whole, 

 putting at least ten bushels of potatoes on the 

 quarter-acre, while the White Bliss were plant- 

 ed with potatoes cut to one eye. The cutting 

 was done at Goldsboro, N. C, and shipped to us 

 after being cut. The way it came about, we 

 ordered an additional barrel after their pota- 

 toes were all cut ready for planting. Not to 

 disappoint us they seat them along ready to 

 drop. My experience has been that this is not 

 the best way. But these carae up promptly, 

 and gave us almost a perfect stand. They did 

 not cover the ground as thoroughly as where 

 we planted whole potatoes, but they made a 

 very nice show in a very short time. Now. the 

 yield of these was almost equal to the New 

 Queen. It was certainly over 100 bushels from 

 a quarter of an acre, and the potatoes were 

 alraost all great big whoppers. This is sorae- 

 thing rather unusual, at least with us, for extra 

 early potatoes. Some of them were alraost too 

 large for a nice cooking potato. The quality is 

 very fair. I do not know that the White Bliss 

 is any better yielder than the Red Bliss (the 

 potato quoted in the raarket as the "Tri- 

 umph;)" but both of them are certainly very 

 valuable potatoes. First, they are about as 

 early as any thing in the world. I do not know 

 of an earlier potato. Notwithstanding this, 

 they are splendid yielders Third, they are of 

 good shape, good size, and. last of all, they are 

 very good in quality. From my present stand- 

 point I pronounce the Bliss Triumph to be the 

 bpst earlv potato in the world. The Rural 

 New-Yorker reports Salser's Earliest as the 

 earliest potato in a trial of 58 varieties; and 

 the experiment station pronounces Salzer's Ear- 

 liest the same as the Bliss Triumph, if I re- 

 member correctly. The White Bliss is an im- 

 provement in being white. A white potato 

 always receives the preference, other things 

 being equal. 



How about the Thoroughbred? Well, none 

 of them are quite ripe at present, Aug. 19. 

 With us it seems to be a later potato than the 

 New Queen or Triumph; but the vines are 

 pretty nearly dead now, and we shall have a 

 report from them soon. By the way, all the 

 potatoes on our plantation, except our old fa- 

 vorite the Craig, look vpHow, dead, and dying 

 since our recent rains. "The Craigs are just as 

 they have been the two years before this— 

 bright, green, and thrifty, when every thing 

 else is dark and wilting. Not only are the 

 Craies free from blight, but neither bugs nor 

 recent dry weather seems to have much if any 

 effect on them. Bugs are certainly not as bad 

 on the Triumph or White Bliss as on the Thor- 

 oughbred and most others. Manum's Enor- 



