1901 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



other. The outside fences around the road 

 had been removed, and there were no unsight- 

 ly bushes or weeds anywhere. In the back 

 yard, and out around the barn, every thing is 

 just as clean and slick as in the front j'ard. 

 In fact, I do not know but the kitchen garden 

 in a little handsomer than the front yard. 



But the one grand sight of his whole place 

 is a six-acre field of Russet potatoes. They 

 were planted the 10th of July, right in the 

 midst of our severe drouth ; but they came up 

 evenly, bright and clean ; and Aug. 17th, just 

 about five weeks from the day they were plant- 

 ed, they were knee-high, and covered the 

 ground, if you looked across it at a little an- 

 gle. The foliage was of that light green so 

 characteristic of the Russet. Well, these had 

 grown so fast that they were clean, and for 

 some unknown reason there did not seem to 

 be any perforations by the flea-beetle, or 

 scarcely any evidence that bugs or insects of 

 any kind had ever touched their beautiful tops. 

 He said he had fought bugs, however, and had 

 had a harder fight than ever before. He fought 

 them with both Paris green and with the tin 

 pan and paddle. The latter implements are 

 quite an improvement over any thing I have 

 ever seen used for the purpose. For the pan, 

 imagine a large-sized dish-pan fastened secure- 

 ly to a pole long enough to come up under 

 the left arm. On this pole is an adjustable 

 handle like that on a scythe-snathe. This en- 

 ables one to carry the pan down close to the 

 ground without much fatigue, even when 

 standing erect. One side of the pan is cut 

 away just enough to let it slip under and al- 

 most clear around a hill of potatoes. The 

 rough edge around the cut is smoothed by 

 turning up the tin ; and this lip that is turned 

 up keeps the bugs back in the pan. The pad- 

 dle is made of a small-sized shingle or an ob- 

 long piece of light pine board. This is tack- 

 ed to an ordinary broom-handle. This broom- 

 handle is laid across the board diagonally from 

 one corner to the other. This brings the shin- 

 gle square with the surface of the ground. 

 With the left hand you place the pan right up 

 around the hill. With the right hand strike 

 the potato-tops with the paddle, and every 

 beetle or slug will drop down into the pan. 

 This makes almost a clean job, and the vines 

 are not damaged by poison. Every little 

 while the bugs are dumped from the pan into 

 a tall crock of water with a little coal oil on 

 the surface. 



I must here state that the wonderfully even 

 stand, with no missing hills, was the result of 

 the management of Miss Ellen Fenn, now 15 

 or IG years old. When she first commenced 

 managing the planter for her father she was 

 only 10 or 12. Mr. Fenn does not have to em- 

 ploy very much hired help just now, for he 

 has a good -sized family of bright interesting 

 children who are all interested in the potato 

 crop of 16 or 17 acres. Very likely he will 

 not get the prices that Mr. Ballasch does, but 

 I think he will get a fair reward. 



To make cows pav, use Sharpies Cream Separators. 

 Book " Business Dairying " & cat. 288 free. W. Chester, Pa. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



GROWING LETTUCE-PLANTS TO BE PUT UNDER GLASS 

 LATER ON. 



Now is the time, and during this month and next, 

 to start your lettuce-plants for next winter's crop. 

 Grow them outdoors just as long as you can, and they 

 will stand quite a little frost Good strong well rooted 

 plants ready to move into the house as .soon as the 

 weather is too cold for them outdoors is half the battle 

 in making the crop. The art and ski 1 of man have 

 never yet, in my opinion, invented any system of wa- 

 tering equal to a summer shower ; and we sometimes 

 have -showers right along into November. Neither 

 has any plan ever been discovered for keeping the 

 plants healthy, and free from disease, like growing 

 them in the open ground, and letting them get a few 

 November shiwers. Even a soft snow will not hurt 

 the plants a bit ; but it is death to the green fly and 

 all other enemies of healthy lettuce. I like to'have 

 them transplanted in beds where we can put on the 

 sashes if the weather is severe, and pull them off at 

 other times for the last transplanting, say toward 

 Christmas, moving them into the greenhouse; and 

 with good .strong well-transplanted cold-frame plants 

 to take into the greenhouse, you can get a crop ready 

 to sell in three or four weeks. Now is the time to sow 

 the seed, and we have an extra-fine lot true to name, 

 grown specially for us. Ounce, 5 cts.; 1 lb., 50; 5 lbs., 

 12. By mail, 10c per lb. extra. 



There is no other forcing lettuce, if I am correct, 

 that will take the place of Grand Rapids, or come any- 

 where near it. 



OUR NEW POTATO- BOOK. 



I have been hard at work revising the old book (by 

 T. B. Terry) for much of the last six months. The 

 first edition was put out in 189.S — eight > ears ago. In 

 order to have the new book fully up to date I have 

 gone over every point of value found in Gleanings 

 during the past eight years. I have visited pc tato- 

 growers, and studied up potato-growing from Florida 

 to Northern Michigan — yes, and I might almost say 

 from California to the Bermuda Islands. The book 

 also contains quite a treatise on potato-growing for 

 the L,ondon market', on Jersey Island. Instead of 

 about 250 pages, the size of the old edition, it now 

 contains almost 300 ; and if it does not touch on every 

 diflSculty the skillful potato grower meets, I have cer- 

 tainly tried hard to make it do so. The bo ik certain- 

 ly should be worth several dollars to every man who 

 grows an acre of potatoes or more— that is, if he 

 studies its teachings. As an illustration, last spring 

 after I had planted two or three acres of potatoes I all 

 at once decided to put in about a dozen acres moie ; 

 and I actually started to the office to send a telegram 

 for one of the latest styles of potato-planters. On the 

 way I began figuring how much the planter would 

 save me in time of team and men. if I planted a dozen 

 acres each year. At first thought it looked as if I 

 should pay for the machine in three or four years. 

 Then I began to calculate that the potatoes would 

 have to be cut just the same, even if we did have a 

 machine. And then I wanted to know how much a 

 bushel or how much an acre it cost to cut potatoes, say 

 to two eyes. I got the potato-book, and I tell you I 

 turned the pages over lively for about an hour. First 

 I decided I w ;uld send my telegram for a digger; then 

 in some other part of the book I found something 

 that decided me the other way, and I changed my 

 mind several times during the hour. This incident 

 illustrates the importance of having a comprehensive 

 index, and I have just got through making that index. 

 It contains three pages, or ab jut 300 topics, and I have 

 "proved it " so as to be sure it "■ strikes the spot" 

 every time. I believe the book will tell you almost 

 every thing you wish to know about growing potatoes 

 — not only how to become an expert, but it gives care- 

 ful estimates of the cost of each operation all the way 

 through. It tells you how successful men are fight- 

 ing insect enemies, fungus blight, etc. It is not ex- 

 actly the book for one who wishes to " support his 

 family on a quarter of an acre ; " but I think it exact- 

 ly meets the wints of thousands who love to till the 

 soil, say from two or three acres up to thirty or forty. 



There are II illustrations in the book. On account 

 of its greatly increased size, the price will be 45 cents 

 instead of 35, the old price. Postpaid by mail, 50 cts.; 

 cloth-bound, 68 cts.; by mail, 75. Nearly 200 pages of 

 the book are by T. B. Terry. The remaining 100 pages 

 were by A. I. Root and Rev. C. D. Merrill, Beloit, Wis. 



