1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



1025 



to Mr Hickman. The two men worked hand in hand, 

 each in his separate field, and each giving his work his 

 whole thought and strength. 



Wooster, O , Oct. 24. Chas. K. Thorne. 



DIGOING AND BAGGING POTATOES; ALSO 

 SOMETHING ABOUT PHYSICAL CULTUKE. 



I have mentioned being- at our Medina 

 home two weeks in September. When Mrs. 

 Root and I fi r st g^ot back among" the * ' young- 

 sters" we found almost every one of them, 

 children and grandchildren, taking lessons 

 in physical culture; and every morning be- 

 fore they got up they had to go through a 

 lot of gymnastics that were no doubt bene- 

 ficial; but to an old fiirmer like your humble 

 servant it looked like a waste of ammuni- 

 tion, or, rather, a waste of physical 

 strength, when there is such a variety of 

 things to be done out in the open air that 

 give some sort of beneficial result. I do not 

 know how much they paid Prof. Blanli for 

 the series of lessons he gave. Somebody 

 said they were not verj' expensive. 



When I got back to the cabin in the woods, 

 or, rather, the potato-fields in the woods, I 

 found the cheapest way to get my potatoes 

 to Medina was to draw them down to the 

 do:k, half a mile awa3% and load them on 

 one of the big steainers. It would cost me 

 $50 or more to get them to the nearest rail- 

 way station; and the boat line agreed to de- 

 liver them in Cleveland, only 30 miles from 

 Medina, almost as cheap. 1 could not well 

 dig my potatoes with a potato-digger, be- 

 cause they were ripening all along at 

 different periods from the very earliest to 

 the ver3' latest; and they ripened up ready 

 to dig only about as fast as one man could 

 dig them. Secondly, if I used one of the 

 improved diggers described in our book on 

 potatoes it would be next to impossible to 

 find help to pick them up. Up in that re- 

 gion almost every man, woman, and child 

 is hard at work with their own potatoes 

 when digging-time comes. The 3'oung man 

 working with me took the job at 5 cts. a bush- 

 el, for digging and picking up. Lastj'ear 

 it was 4 cents; but the potatoes were so 

 much of a failure all around me that the 

 "going price" was 5 cents. I ordered 500 

 potato-boxes from Medina, and had them 

 hauled up to vay new barn. I nailed up 

 most of them and wheeled them down to the 

 field. 



Let me say a word about nailing up po- 

 tato-boxes like those j'ou see in the pictures. 

 The corner-pieces are made of oak; and 3'ou 

 want to do the nailing before this oak gets 

 seasoned; or if the oak should get seasoned 

 before you get at the job, throw these cor- 

 ner pieces into water so the3' will get prett3' 

 well soaked before you undertake to nail. 

 You want a hammer just right— not to ) light 



nor too heavy. Then 3'ou want a good solid 

 block to nail on. A cast-iron plate planed 

 smooth is the best thing; but a smooth block 

 sawed from a log large enough, stood on 

 end, makes a very good nailing-table. The 

 ends of the boxes are nailed up first; in fact, 

 mine were nailed up in Medina with our 

 nailing-machines. We did not nail the box 

 all tip, because it can be shipped much 

 cheaper in the flat. After you have got your 

 nailing-block of the right height to nail 

 handy, and a box just the right height for 

 a seat, 3'ou want to nail some strips on your 

 nailing-block so as to bring the boxes exact- 

 ly square. Before commencing to set up the 

 box, take two of the long strips composing 

 the sides. Nail them together so as to 

 make a V-shaped trough. Now stand up 

 on your block two of the ends the right dis- 

 tance apart. Place these V-shaped troughs 

 on the corner, and nail. Now put a strip 

 along the top — the strip 3'ou see I have hold 

 of in my right hand. When you have got 

 these two strips on the box, 3'our box is all 

 done except putting in three slats on each 

 side and four on the bottom. Now, do not 

 put the strip that comes next to the top where 

 my iingers go through as I hold the box 

 (see p. 1030) too near the upper slat ; for in 

 working rapidly in handling these boxes 

 we want to catch hold of them an3'where; 

 and awkward nailing will make you skin 

 3'our fingers and think cross words. An- 

 other thing, for potato-hoxes do not put in 

 too many strips. Have all the spaces so 

 3'OU can almost stick 3'Our hand through. 

 If you attempt to dig potatoes when it is a 

 little wet 3-ou will see wh3'. We want every 

 bit of dirt rattled out in handling. Some 

 of otir people in Medina, in putting in the 

 bottom would space three strips all right, 

 then they would put in two more that made 

 it so close that half of the bottom was almost 

 solid; and this would catch the dirt and 

 probably cause a good many pounds of 

 Northern Michigan loam to be shipped 

 down here to Medina, in burlap sacks. 

 Every slat should have two nails at each 

 end. One nail goes into the oak strip, and 

 the other into the basswood strip. As I 

 could not hire any help anywhere in our 

 neighborhood at just the time I wanted it, I 

 decided to bag the potatoes myself. I pur- 

 chased 500 ver3' nice burlap sacks at a 

 Cleveland factory for b'i cts. each, delivered 

 in Traverse Cit3% Mich. I first iittempted 

 to lift a box of potatoes and pour them into 

 the sack. Now, a big stout man might do 

 this; but I soon decided it was impossible 

 for me to do it. I took my Daisy wheelbar- 

 row, placed a nest of boxes as you see (Fig. 

 1, p. 1030); then I took another box — the one 

 3'ou see on top — and cut awii3' half the bot- 

 tom, putting a piece across to hold the ends 

 of the bottom slats. This was held in the 

 position 3-ou see by two strips of board. 

 These go down and catch under the iron 

 rods on the front end of the Dais3' wheelbar- 

 row. Of course thc3' are nailed securel3' to 

 the box on the top that holds the sack. The 

 sack is hooked on to four nails driven into 



