1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



723 



Again and again I found cases where Florida 

 growers were almost startled at the prices the 

 New York commission men paid them for the 

 stuff they shipped. Sometimes stuff that the 

 grower himself did not consider any thing 

 like first class was sold at a figure that was 

 away above any thing they had thought of 

 getting. This may, of course, be the result 

 of the present general activity in all kinds of 

 business. 



Friend Bannehr's neighbor, Mr. Trueblood 

 (rightly named I think), is also an enthusias- 

 tic bee-keeper. He is a lawyer by profession, 

 but at the same time he is a most earnest and 

 devoted Christian. He loved the honey-bees, 

 and loved to care for them, and loved to grow 

 crops better, perhaps, than he loves his pro- 

 fession ; but I want to say to him, and perhaps 

 to a thousand others who read Gleanings, 

 that there was perhaps never, in the history 

 of the world, a time when God-fearing law- 

 yers were needed more than they are just now. 

 Yes, we want lawyers, no end of them, who 

 are not afraid to do right, especially when do- 

 ing right costs something. 



Mr. E. B. Rood, of Braidentown, is also one 

 of the old-time bee keepers ; but in conse- 

 quence of some bad luck in the honey busi- 

 ness they are now keeping a very pleasant lit- 

 tle restaurant in Braidentown. 



SOME INTERVIEWS WITH SUCCESSFUL POTA- 

 TO GROWERS JUST BEFORE OUR POTATO- 

 BOOK WENT TO PRESS. 



After the potato-book was all finished it 

 occurred to me I had better visit a neighbor, 

 Mr. George Ballasch, of Whittlesey, O., who 

 makes a business of growing potatoes to the 

 extent of forty or fifty acres every year ; but 

 before telling you what I saw and learned, 

 permit me to explain that the month of July, 

 1901, has been the hottest of any July since 

 the U. S. Weather Bureau has made any record 

 — a period of about twenty years. The result of 

 the severe drouth has been especially disas- 

 trous to potato-growers. Varieties that were 

 disposed to blight were gone before the pota- 

 toes were half grown; and all varieties, in 

 fact, were affected more or less, unless ad- 

 vantage was taken according to the best 

 knowledge up to the present day to secure or 

 insure, if you choose, a crop. Mr. B. makes 

 potato-growing his entire business. He has a 

 piece of low black ground especially adapted 

 to this industry. It has been most thoroughly 

 underdrained, so that it rarely suffers from 

 excessive rains, such as we had during the 

 month of June past. 



Well, just when early potatoes were a failure 

 everywhere, north, south, east, and west, Mr. 

 B. has secured almost an average crop, and 

 this, too, when the conditions are such that 



one of our Cleveland daily papers quotes for 

 to-day, Aug. 26: 



Potatoes. — Per barrel, fancy Eastern stock, 84.25@ 

 4.50; per bushel, SI. 2.5®! 50; Louisville and Ohio stock, 

 per barrel $;5.7;'>@-1.00.* 



Mr. Ballasch has dug and shipped three car- 

 loads already. The yield is from 175 to 200 

 bushels per acre, and the potatoes have sold 

 from $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel, as nearly as I 

 can make out. This remarkable yield during 

 such a year has been made in spite of the fact 

 that potatoes have been grown on this same 

 land for ten years in succession. With his 

 large acreage it is out the question to think of 

 getting enough stable manure to go over it 

 all. He usfs chemical fertilizers to some ex- 

 tent. But his main reliance is on a crop of 

 rye that is put in the ground just as soon as 

 the potatoes are taken off. He believes em- 

 phatically in what Mr. T. B. Terry teaches, 

 that the soil should always be green with 

 some crop or other, every month in the year, 

 winter and summer. The rye is sown at the 

 rate of fully two bushels per acre. It is plow- 

 ed under whenever he is ready to plant. One 

 of the largest crops he ever grew, he said, was 

 where the rye was fully six feet high, and was 

 turned under just when it was coming into 

 bloom. In fact, he had hard work to get it all 

 under the fine black soil. The yield was very 

 close to 400 bushels per acre. 



Mr. Ballasch has, of course, experimented 

 a good deal with varieties I was pleased to 

 know that his choice, not only of varieties but 

 of methods, accords very closely with the 

 teachings of the potato-book. At present he 

 considers for a medium late variety the State 

 of Maine as about the best potato he has on 

 his farm, all things considered. I was pleas- 

 antly surprised to learn that the three carloads 

 of potatoes he dug first and sent to market 

 were the Early Thoroughbred that I helped to 

 introduce five or six years ago. Friend Terry 

 succeeded so well with this new variety, 

 which was brought out by Wm. Henry Maule, 

 that I bought several barrels, paying the ex- 

 travagant price of $20 a barrel, and offered 

 these as premiums to our subscribers. For the 

 first year or two we did very well with them, 

 and many of our subscribers succeeded equal- 

 ly well; but after a while, when they were 

 obliged to take their chances with ordinary 

 culture, together with other extra-early pota- 

 toes, they gradually went out of sight unless 

 it is in a few localities; and during this past 

 season we decided not to include them in our 

 list of perhaps a dozen or more of the best 

 up-to-date potatoes. But Mr. Ballasch rather 

 prefers them to any thing else for extra early. 



Now, this illustrates what I have already 

 told you. A certain variety may be the very 

 best for one particular locality, but not for 

 other places. There was also a splendid show- 

 ing for another variety just brought out, called 



*To illustrate the present state of affairs, I copy the 

 following from the Akron Beacon of Aug. 15, 1001: 



If the price of potatoes continues to increase for another 

 month as it has during the past few weeks the farmers will 

 soon be riding in automobiles and wearing diamonds. Po- 

 tatoes Thur.sday were selling at $2.00 a bushel. 



Permit me to suggest that, before the farmers can 

 have the automobiles and diamonds, they will have to 

 have some potatoes to sell at the above prices. 



