iyu2 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



825 



just exactly this sort of work has been mak- 

 ing- me happ3' and well, and full of faith in 

 God and love toward my neig^hbors. 



AMONG THE POTATO-GROWERS. 



Perhaps I should first say something- 

 about my own potatoes. I began plant- 

 ing on our place in Michigan in March, 

 planting only Early Michigan. These 

 made a wonderful growth, and the vines 

 were dead by July. The yield was good, 

 although I had been warned that early 

 potatoes were mostly a failure in that local- 

 it3^ The next planting was about a fifth 

 of an acre among the peach-trees about the 

 first of Maj'. From this fifth of an acre 

 we dug 45 bushels of beautiful New Queens, 

 handsome in shape, and equal to any thing 

 I ever tasted for table potatoes. There was 

 a great deal of surprise among my neigh- 

 bors at such a yield — nearly 250 bushels 

 per acre of early potatoes. Of course, it 

 was on new ground, but mostly on a steep 

 hillside. We hardly know whether to give 

 the credit to the variety. New Queen, or to 

 the beautiful woods-dirt soil, or to the care- 

 ful tending. We planted Lee's Favorite 

 about the same time, and these I expect to 

 dig in a few days, and I think the yield 

 will be fully equal to the New Queens. We 

 kept planting as fast as we could get the 

 ground ready, until about July 1; but those 

 planted late are not going to do as well. 

 This, I am told, is rather unusual. The 

 season was excessively wet during the fore 

 part, and it was rather too dry through 

 August. We had quite a time with bugs, 

 and blight is showing itself more or less. 



In passing through Central Michigan I 

 found very few fine-looking potatoes. Most 

 of the potatoes suffered from the extreme 

 wet in the early spring. Many were 

 drowned out to half a stand, and some 

 were spoiled entirely by water. Through 

 Ohio there is also much evidence of dam- 

 age from the excessive rains, and more 

 or less blight shows almost everywhere. 

 Down near our experiment station at Woos- 

 ter things looked a little better, and some of 

 the farmers said their crops of potatoes 

 were good. 



I have just been out through Summit Co., 

 and I found very few nice fields of potatoes. 

 When I got up into Tallmadge, in the 

 neighborhood of my cousin, Wilbur Fenn, 

 of whom I have written so much in regard 

 to potato-growing, I began to find fields of 

 potatoes with an almost perfect stand, of a 

 bright vivid green; and when I reached the 

 borders of his own farm I was almost as- 

 tounded at seeing acre after acre with a 

 perfect stand, tops bright and green, just 

 as he has had them for years past at this 



season. Some of the handsomest potatoes I 

 ever saw were not planted till the 10th of 

 July. Of course, they need three or four 

 weeks more of fine weather to make a good 

 crop. But there is a pretty fair yield as it 

 is. I got off my wheel, went over into the 

 potato-field and walked the whole length 

 until I came to the house. Mr. Fenn turns 

 under clover and timothy in preparing his 

 ground for potatoes. He has a rotation 

 that brings the potatoes in once in three 

 years ; but he frequently puts potatoes in 

 the second year, and sometimes two years 

 in succession, and yet he has almost no 

 blight at all, and so little scab you may 

 say he has none. Wherever he has any 

 reason to think there might be scab he 

 plants the New Russet. The Russet and 

 Carman No. 3 are his favorites. Let me 

 mention an object-lesson I found at one of 

 his neighbor's, a Mr. Metlin. He had a 

 field of about two acres of these two kinds. 

 Carman and Russet. Half of the field was 

 bright green, and handsome. The other 

 half was injured by the wet, and a good 

 deal blighted. I asked him which was the 

 bright kind. He replied : 



"Mr. Root, the bright-green tops are the 

 Russet, but do not be in a hurry to draw 

 conclusions. I covered the ground pretty 

 thoroughly with stable manure where I 

 planted the Russets, but I put none on the 

 ground where the Carmans are." 



At first I was thoughtless enough to start 

 to inquire why he should give the Russets 

 all the manure and the Carmans none, 

 when he hastened to add : 



"Why, don't you see the manure would 

 have made the Carmans scabby?" 



"And it is really true, Mr. Metlin, that 

 you may manure the Russets all you want 

 to, with any kind of manure, without any 

 fear of making them scabby?" 



" I think it is, Mr. Root; at least, I have 

 applied manure to the Russets for many 

 years — any kind of manure I happened to 

 have; and they always have a bright-green 

 rank growth, such as you see, but it, never 

 makes them scabby; at least, I never saw 

 any on my place." 



Of course, Mr. Metlin and Mr. Fenn have 

 got to take their chances of a frost. There 

 was a frost just before my visit, that killed 

 pumpkins, sweet potatoes, etc., on low 

 ground: but as my two cousins are located 

 on high ground, where there is good air 

 drainage, the frost never touched their po- 

 tatoes at all. Now, to tell the truth, I do 

 not know why Wilbur Fenn grows such 

 handsome potatoes late in the season year 

 after year when others so often fail. I 

 think his locality has something to do with 

 it. Oh, yes ! here is an important point 

 that I must not omit. Last yeeir he planted 

 late — I believe later than ever before; and 

 although he had a nice crop of potatoes, 

 before he could get around to get them all 

 dug that hard frost came that doubtless 

 some of you remember, and he lost about 

 400 bushels by their being frozen in the 

 ground. Had he run a shovel-plow through 



