724 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sbpt. 1 



King of the Earlies;* and our old friend the 

 Early Rose, the one I found doing so well in 

 the Traverse region, is also giving about as 

 large a jield during this unfavorable season 

 as any, although it is not as early as some 

 others. 



Mr. Ballasch has trouble with the scab as 

 well as the rest of us; but he has very much 

 less trouble where the seed is treated with 

 corrosive sublimate. Ashes tend to produce 

 scab in the soil, without doubt. We dug a 

 number of tremendously luxuriant hills, where 

 he had recently burned out some large 

 stumps. There was a big yield of great hand- 

 some potatoes, but they were badly scabbed. 

 He thinks it is not altogether the potash that 

 produces scab ; for a commercial fertilizer 

 running high in potash does not act like 

 ashes. The large percentage of lime contain- 

 ed in most wood ashes probably has as much 

 or more to do with the production of scab 

 than does potash.! 



Carman No. 3 has been one of his best pota- 

 toes until this year; but during the past pe- 

 culiar season, excessively wet in June and very 

 hot in July, the State of Maine rather excelled 

 the Carman. 



The matter of variety is one of tremendous 

 importance to one who grows forty or fifty 

 acres of potatoes. He pointed out to me 

 where hundreds of dollars would have been 

 saved had he planted something else. On one 

 occasion a neighbor offered him a lot of seed 

 potatoes at 30 cts. a bushel. It was a variety, 

 too, that has been praised largely through the 

 press — yes, even by our experiment stations; 

 but his loss was away up into the hundred be- 

 cause he chose this variety for seed where he 

 might have taken some other, i He uses the 

 Hoover digger. One reason he gave for pre- 

 ferring the Hoover was that it is manufactured 

 in Ohio, close to his home. If he has a break- 

 down at a critical time he can get the missing 

 part by express without delay. This is cer- 

 tainly something to be considered when one 

 works on a large scale as does Mr. Ballasch. 

 He uses the Aspinwall potato-planter. Of 

 course, there is here and there a missing hill ; 



* since the above was written the King of the Ear- 

 lies have been dug, and the yield was 218 bushtls per 

 acre of nice potatoes. 



t An excess of aciditj- in the soil prevents scab; and 

 any alkali, especially lime that neutralizes this acidity, 

 encourages scab, corrosive sublimate, and possibly 

 leaving potatoes exposed to the light, kills the scab 

 fungus. But to get rid of the scab fungus that is al- 

 ready in the soil, there is no remedy known, if I am 

 correct, except plowed-under r>'e. This seems to sour 

 or in some way produce the excess of acid we need in 

 the soil. Just now I am unable to .say whether plow- 

 ing under a crop of wheat will produce the same result 

 as rye or not. 1 can onlj' say this: Where my wheat 

 that was lodged badly was plowed under in June we 

 have a nice ciop of potatoes; and althovigh I have dug 

 into hills all over the patch I have not found an3' scab 

 at all. 



t Mr. Ballasch has an acre or more each of Maule's 

 Commercial and Manum's Enormous. The Commer- 

 cial is all 1 ight were it not for its exceedingly irregular 

 and sciaggly form. Our friend says he would not 

 plant any more of them, even if they had every other 

 good quality. We pulled up one tremendous stalk, 

 or vine, and found just one scraggly mammoth po- 

 tato, too large for table use. Manum's Enormous did 

 better, but it was blighting badly when the State of 

 Maine and Carman No. 3 seemed to be all right. 



but he thinks this does not occur often enough 

 to offset the expense of an additional hand re- 

 quired with the Robbins planter. 



The man has a beautiful home. He uses gas 

 for lighting and fuel, that was found on his 

 own premises. His potato cellar or cave, con- 

 structed especially for his crop, is to be light- 

 ed by gas, just the same as his house ; then 

 there will be no need of letting in air or light 

 during unsuitable weather. This man makes 

 the growing of potatoes his sole business in 

 life. He reads up all the literature connected 

 with his business. He tests different varie- 

 ties, and he keeps in touch with the markets, 

 and knows where to sell to get the best prices. 



May I venture to speculate a little as to what 

 his crop is going to be worth this year ? Fifty 

 acres at 200 bushels per acre would be 10,000 

 bushels ; and at present prices the crop may 

 bring him from $10,000 to $12,000 just because 

 he is an expert in his line, and has succeeded 

 in growing a crop when almost everybody else 

 has failed. He told me that just now he was 

 getting just about $150 per acre, over and 

 above all expenses. 



Perhaps I might mention right here that, 

 where I turned under a heavy crop of wheat 

 that was lodged badly, and planteci potatoes, 

 we have the best showing now of potatoes of 

 any on our grounds. I asked Mr. Ballasch if 

 he thought a heavy crop of wheat or rye could 

 be worth anywhere near as much as a heavy 

 grjwth of clover. He said he was sure it 

 would not. Like myself he prefers the mam- 

 moth clover when he is growing clover to be 

 turned under to bring up his land and for no 

 other purpose. 



I said to him, "Friend Ballasch, I know 

 from my own experience during this past un- 

 favorable season that you must have fought 

 obstacles and enemies inch by inch, without 

 any letting up." He replied : 



"Mr. Root, at one time the bugs seemed 

 just determined to destroy my crop ; but I was 

 e'jually determined to win in the fight. Why, 

 we have actually used 200 lbs. of Paris green 

 this season, to say nothing about the labor re- 

 quired to make a good job of applying it so 

 as to kill the bugs and not injure the vines." 

 He used a sprayer worked by horse power. 



Twenty-four hours later, in visiting a rela- 

 tive in the adjoining count}' of Summit, I 

 mentioned Mr. Ballasch's success. My rela- 

 tive replied, " Now, look here. I have a po- 

 tato story to tell too. Mr. , over here 



near the lake, started last spring to grow early 

 potatoes. He paid ovf r §100 for a lot of the 

 best varieties of seed. He prepared his ground 

 all right, and every thing seemed to be prom- 

 ising. But the bugs and wet weather and 

 weeds came on all at once. He fought them 

 for a while, but began to get discouraged, hes- 

 itated about using more money to employ hir- 

 ed help, and finally — what do you suppose? 

 His whole plantation now is covered with 

 weeds, and I do not suppose there will be a 

 potato worth digging, even at the present high 

 prices." 



During the afternoon of the same day I vis- 

 ited my cousin, Wilbur Fenn. I found his 

 farm in apple-pie order from one end to the 



