1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



827 



too larg'e for table use. One potato would 

 have done very well for a small family, say 

 Mrs. Root and mj^self. My remedy for po- 

 tatoes that are too large is to plant closer. 

 I do love to see smooth and handsome pota- 

 toes. 



There is just one other, lately out, that 

 eclipses the Carman in beauty of shape. 

 It is the King- of Michigan, introduced bj'^ 

 E. T. Flansburg, Leslie, Mich. Even on 

 our hard clay soil last year it gave pota- 

 toes so smooth and round that some of them 

 looked as if they had been turned out in a 

 lathe. Even the little ones looked like 

 marbles of various sizes. 



Among the late potatoes Northern Beauty 

 gave in 1901 the largest yield — 321 bushels 

 to the acre. Some others have eclipsed it, 

 however, this season; and this shows that 

 we can not well decide from a single trial. 

 Reports for the past three and five years 

 indicate this quite plainly. Our readers 

 may remember that I helped to introduce 

 Maule's Early Thoroughbred some years 

 ago. The first season I was wonderfully 

 taken up with it. After that the seasons 

 or my own ground did not seem to be favor- 

 able, and I dropped it, thinking I would be 

 very careful how I boomed another new po- 

 tato from one season's test. In the station's 

 tests of five years, however, Maule's Thor- 

 oughbred is placed pretty high on the av- 

 erage. In 1901 it gave 296 bushels per 

 acre. Manum's Enormous gave the larg- 

 est yield of any in the five-year test. Its 

 shape, however, is not nearly as good as 

 Ihat of the Carman and some others; be- 

 sides, it has troubled us here in Medina 

 with scab a great deal of late. 



The station has not had much to say 

 about scab lately; in fact, they say they 

 have not been much troubled with it. This 

 seems a little singular, as we have about 

 given up growing potatoes on our land here 

 in Medina because of the attendant scab. 



Quick Crop, from Vick, gave a remarka- 

 ble'yield in 1901. In fact, it was ahead of 

 any other early potato; and, if I am cor- 

 rect, only one late potato excelled it. Quick 

 Crop gave 300 bushels to the acre, and 

 Northern Beauty gave 321. Only these two 

 went above 300 in the test. 



Whitton's White Mammoth has made an 

 excellent record of an average of 251 bush- 

 els per acre for three years. It is also one 

 of the best for quality; and for one I should 

 like to see a little more attention paid to 

 quality as well as quantity. Some years 

 ago our Ohio station made a test of quali- 

 ty, putting Snowflake highest — No. 10. 

 Freeman and Lee's Favorite were put No. 

 9; and, in fact, there are \evy few potatoes 

 that can be classed as No. 9 in quality. 



The Early Michigan I have frequently 

 spoken of, especially when on Northern 

 Michigan soil, would do very well to put 

 beside Freeman and Lee's Favorite. It 

 also has another important qualit^^ — the 

 shape and smoothness are almost if not 

 .quite equal to those of the Freeman. 



At our Ohio station there is no question 



that chemical fertilizers increase the yield 

 of potatoes. But the vital point is, is the 

 increase sufficient to pay for the fertilizer 

 and the expense of putting it on? Where 

 potatoes bring from 75 cents to $1.00 a bush- 

 el, as they did last year, there would be no 

 question about it. Fertilizers would pay 

 big. But in Northern Michigan potatoes 

 frequently sell as low as 25 cents, or even 

 20. Can a farmer afford to buy fertilizers 

 to grow potatoes to sell for 20 cents a bush- 

 el ? I think most farmers would say very 

 emphatically, tio. Another thing, where I 

 am located the potatoes must be hauled 

 eight or nine miles to market; and I sup- 

 pose if we were to hire a team to do the 

 hauling it would cost 7 or 8 cents a bushel. 

 Our Ohio station found that 160 lbs. of su- 

 perphosphate per acre gave an increase of 

 14 bushels on an average yield of 172 bush- 

 els. In this case phosphate for the crop 

 cost only 9 cents a bushel, to which must 

 be added the trouble of putting it on the 

 ground. I suppose the low price of pota- 

 toes usually is the principal reason why 

 nobody ever heard of using chemical fertil- 

 izers in this part of Northern Michigan. 

 Notwithstanding, I believe fertilizers can 

 be profitably used on ground that has been 

 cropped for potatoes for many years, espe- 

 cially where one grows potatoes for seed, 

 not specially for table use. 



I did not have time to look over the sta- 

 tion grounds very much; but I was pleased 

 to see a small area covered with cheese- 

 cloth to test certain plants grown under 

 partial shade. There were two little plots 

 of lettuce and radish— one under the cheese- 

 cloth, and the other right in the open air. 

 Now, there had been plenty of rain, and 

 the weather has not been exceedingly hot 

 during August and September, as you may 

 know. But the lettuce and radishes under 

 the cloth were beautiful pictures of luxuri- 

 ant thrift, while those outside, in the sun 

 and wind, have been an almost entire fail- 

 ure. This cheese-cloth protection as I have 

 mentioned before is a necessity for growing 

 lettuce when the sun gets hot. I am sure 

 it would be a wonderfully nice thing for 

 many tropical plants — the ornamental ba- 

 nanas, for instance. This structure at the 

 station was made of light stakes and very 

 light poles; but this 3^ear thej' had had no 

 trouble from storms and high winds. The 

 cloth is so loosely woven that the rain goes 

 right through it; but it keeps off all boister- 

 ous winds, and the plants are all the time 

 in partial shade. 



The apple-orchards at the station were 

 worth going miles to see, especiallj^ their 

 old orchards of monstrous trees. These 

 have been carefully spraj-ed for a number 

 of years so they are just pictures of luxuri- 

 ance. No sort of insect nor any kind of 

 fungus is permitted to injure them in the 

 least. One great tree of Northern Spy had 

 the g-round under it covered with canvas so 

 they could study every insect that dropped 

 from its branches or that was shaken off. 

 This tree, I should sa}', contained 25 bush- 



