82.: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



them, and thrown a g-ood lot of dirt up over 

 the potatoes it would have saved every one 

 of them; and he says that, after this, that 

 is just what he is going to do with late 

 potatoes, even if it should not freeze so as 

 to harm them. Potatoes that g-row so rap- 

 idly as the Carmaus will break open the 

 ground, and the light will get in so as to 

 make them green, injuring the quality for 

 table use, but not hurting them for seed. 

 He says he does not know any way to pre- 

 vent this "greening-" except to give them a 

 g-ood hilling-up about the last thing. If we 

 have lots of rain after this hilling-up they 

 are in just the right shape. If there is a 

 dry spell about the time they are maturing, 

 the severe hilling-up will, without question, 

 injure the yield ; but he said that hereafter 

 he was going to have his potatoes covered 

 enough to be safe ag-ainst being g-reened by 

 sun or air, and safe from frost in case there 

 was a severe freeze just before being- dug-. 



Potatoes are selling throughout Ohio from 

 40 to 50 cents — nice ones bringing- the latter 

 price. In the Traverse region dealers were 

 paying, ten days ago, from 20 to 25 cents — 

 25 for very nice ones. I think they are now 

 a little higher.-^" When you consider, how- 

 ever, that it is worth about 15 cents to move 

 potatoes from Northern Michigan to Ohio, 

 the prices are not so very different after all. 



A great many have asked me what I 

 thought about the prospect — whether pota- 

 toes were likely to g-o up or down ; but I am 

 about as helpless as the Weather Bureau 

 is in telling- what the weather may be a 

 month or more ahead. We can all guess ; 

 but our guesses are about as likely to be 

 wrong as right. 



The Crop Reporter, of Washington, D. C, 

 reports the average condition, Sept. 1, of 

 potatoes, was 89, against 94 Aug. 1. So 

 you see the general report over the United 

 States is that the condition generally is 

 less promising than it was a month ago. I 

 presume this is mainly on account of blight, 

 which seems to be very widely spread, and 

 came in very suddenly, many times quite 

 unexpectedl)^ They further state that in 

 every State having 100,000 acres of pota- 

 toes, except Illinois, there was an impair- 

 ment of conditions during August. 



POTATO TESTS AT THE OHIO EXPERIMENT 

 station; COMPARISON OF VARIETIES. 



On the 11th of September it was my plea- 

 sure to interview the boys, professors, and 

 the other people at our station at Wooster. 

 Yes, I rode my wheel ; for if I went any 

 other way I should not enjoy my visit, and 

 I am afraid I might not have had a good 

 appetite for testing the apples, peaches, 

 grapes, etc. — that is, if my opinion of their 

 respective merits should be asked. 



Permit me to say, first, I have been all 

 summer very much interested in P otato 

 Bulletin No. 133, from our Ohio station . It 

 gives reports of the yield, etc., of more than 



* A week after the above was written they went up 

 o 36 cts., but are now 28 to 30. In Cleveland, Ohio, 

 hey are quoted now 50 to 55 . 



50 different varieties of potatoes that are 

 now prominently before the growers of the 

 United States. Not only does it give the 

 yield and behavior for 1901, but it gives the 

 record of most of the kinds for three years 

 past, and on many of them for five j'ears. 

 For instance, Early Trumbull has given 

 the largest average yield for five years of 

 any early potato. Every potato-grower 

 should have this bulletin. It is furnished 

 free to residents of Ohio, and I presume it 

 will be sent to other people, but I do not 

 know the terms. If you want it, write to 

 the Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio. 



Of course, I hunted up the potato-fields 

 the first thing. Prof. Green was absent; 

 but his assistant, C. W. Waid, very kindly 

 showed me over the grounds, and showed 

 himself quite familiar with all that has 

 been done, and a good deal that is yet to 

 be done in the way of getting better pota- 

 toes. 



One of the first pleasant sights that met 

 my eye was a plot of Early Trumbull po- 

 tatoes planted July 22. Now, for the cen- 

 tral part of Ohio I should consider this a 

 rather bold experiment; but they thought 

 they would succeed in getting a fair crop, 

 and I thought so too, judging from the looks- 

 — that is, if the frost holds off well. These 

 late-planted potatoes are quite likely to es- 

 cape blight as well as bugs; and when the 

 usual' fall rains strike them they seem to 

 realize that their chance is short, and so go 

 in on the double-quick. I have had a very 

 fair 3'ield of Early Trumbull in Michigan, 

 but I planted them in May. I think they 

 would have done better if I had planted 

 them later. By the way, I have some small 

 test-plots of potatoes planted at intervals 

 all throug-h Juljs and some even into Au- 

 gust. 



There are quite a few new early pota- 

 toes that promise big things. Early For- 

 tune and Early Norwood, two new pota- 

 toes, each gave in 1901 at the rate of 286 

 bushels per acre. This year, however, they 

 were not doing as well. If anybody should 

 ask me what I consider the best all-around 

 potato I do not know but I should say Car- 

 man No. 3. The Wooster station chose this 

 potato for a test of the dift'erent kinds of 

 fertilizers; but the whole plot shows up so 

 well (the plots that had no fertilizer what- 

 ever as well as the others), that it looks as 

 if it were going to be hard to make a com- 

 parison — that is, from the looks of the tops, 

 which were then dying down. Of course, 

 the Carman No. 3 does not give quite as 

 large a yield as some others; but it is one 

 of the most beautiful-looking potatoes the 

 world has ever seen. There are almost no 

 small ones — all large enough for the table. 

 The eyes are almost level, which makes it 

 an easy potato to pare. There are no 

 prongy ones, and rarely a bad-shaped po- 

 tato. It succeeds everywhere. I went over 

 into the patch and pulled one big stalk at 

 random. There were six great handsome 

 potatoes. The only fault that could be 

 found is that some women would call them 



