1036 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. is 



the box so as to leave the heads projecting- 

 a little. A fifth nail, on the upper edge, 

 holds the bag up tight, and is the last one 

 to hook on and the first one to unhook. 

 When the bag is slipped off from this fifth 

 nail-head it is loose enough to come off from 

 the other four. The empty sacks are crowd- 

 ed down in the front end of the wheelbarrow. 

 The twine for sewing up the bags is hung 

 over the nail, as you see. A big sacking- 

 needle threaded with a strand of this twine 

 is seen sticking in one side of this box. The 

 picture above makes it all plain. 



Now, a bushel of potatoes would be all 

 right for a good stout man, as I have said 

 before, to pour into that hopper; but it is a 

 little too much for me. I told the boy who 

 was digging to put half a bushel in each 

 box. We had plenty of boxes scattered 

 along at about the right intervals. In the 

 picture, Fig. 1, I have in my hand an emp- 

 ty box. The picture does not represtrnt 

 (in fact) an actual potato-field. Huber 

 took it out near the evergreens in our Medina 

 apiar3'. I had every thing fixed as nearly 

 as I could as it was in the Michigan field. 

 Now, suppose the box I have in my hand 

 held half a bushel of potatoes. It is no 

 task at all to take it up by one hand; and 

 it is not very much of a task to swing it like 

 a pendulum so that it comes up just right 

 to get my left hand under it. I let it drop 

 easily on the hopper so as to pour potatoes 

 out of one corner of the box. To prevent 

 bruising as much as possible I placed two 

 or three empty sacks, folded up on the front 

 of the wheelbarrow, so when the potatoes 

 dropped down, instead of going to the bot- 

 tom of the sack they bumped on this cushion 

 of bags. Now, even swinging half a bush- 

 el of potatoes up like this a hundred times 

 a day is quite a little exercise. It is virtual- 

 ly lifting 50 bushels of potatoes as high as 

 your head; and at first I began to get tired 

 out before noon. But I had another of my 

 happy surprises in finding that each day I 

 worked at it the task was easier and 

 pleasanter, until I could sack potatoes clear 

 up till the noon hour, and then almost feel 

 sorry that I had to quit work to go to din- 

 ner. But I had such a grand appetite for 

 dinner — yes, for breakfast and supper too, 

 while working with those potatoes that it 

 was actually _/i/« to live. Out there in the 

 woods we had not only apples, peaches, 

 pears, plums, watermelons, muskmelons, 

 etc., but beautiful potatoes and the finest 

 fish in the world, with plenty of milk and 

 eggs from one of our nearest neighbors. 

 Working in the open air in my shirtsleeves, 

 I wheeled my outfit along from one potato- 

 box to the next, and left my bag of potatoes 

 standing up in the field until the wagon 

 came around for them. As each box was 

 emptied it was swung over right close to the 

 two rows Earl was diggintr; so one set of 

 boxes clear through the field answered for 

 the whole job. I do not know that I ever 

 did any work in my life that I enjoyed more 

 than sacking that 1000 bushels of potatoes. 

 By the time we got through, however, we 



had some bad rainy weather. Yes, it snow- 

 ed a little the last day; but as we had to 

 have them ready for the steamer we kept 

 right on during a brief snowstorm. I am 

 sure I do not know how farmers generally 

 manage when they have potatoes that are 

 to be shipped in sacks; but I believe my rig 

 that was made in about 15 minutes is about 

 as handy as can be readily gotten up. 

 The potatoes were usually allowed to lie on 

 the ground until they were dry enough so 

 there would not be any danger of being 

 bagged up too wet. They came down here 

 to Medina in beautiful condition with the 

 exception of a few that were put up during 

 that snowstorm in September. These were 

 bagged a little too wet, and they were bruis- 

 ed so we had to empty them out and wash 

 some of them before they could be put away 

 in the cellar. Our potato- book tells about 

 digging potatoes with a machine so thej' 

 can be put in boxes and set in the cellar for 

 two or three cents a bushel, covering the 

 cost of the whole operation. This can be 

 done where jou have a large field all ripen- 

 ing at once; but where many varieties are 

 grown for seed (you see we have about 17 

 in all) this is hardly practicable. 



In sacking all the potatoes myself I had 

 an excellent opportunity to inspect person- 

 ally, and see that every thing was put up 

 and labeled true to name. Besides this, my 

 young friend Earl got to be quite an expert 

 in detecting a single hill that was not true 

 to name; and this reminds me that we were 

 a good deal puzzled, while digging, to find 

 now and then a hill of potatoes out of place. 

 I knew our seed was carefully examined 

 when planted and when cutting; and I 

 knew the boys were careful to avoid having 

 even one potato out of place in planting. 

 The solution of the mystery was this: All 

 of our first cultivating was done with the 

 weeder. We ran it both lengthwise and 

 crosswise of the potatoes before they were 

 up and when just coming up. When run- 

 ning crosswise of the rows, occasionally a 

 potato caught on the fingers of the weeder 

 and was dragged over among other kinds. 

 Hereafter I shall not run the weeders cross- 

 wise of the rows where there are difftrent 

 varieties in the field. We soon learned, 

 however, from studying the peculiarities of 

 each variety, as we came to it, to detect any 

 stray hill by sight. 



Now, then, in conclusion I would recom- 

 mend, in place of paying a teacher to give 

 you instructions in physical culture, to dig 

 potatoes or do some similar work to develop 

 your muscles. You will get paid for the 

 work, and I am sure you will find it much 

 pleasanter out in the open air under God's 

 blue sky, and with refreshing breezes all 

 around you. During the month I was 

 handling potatoes my muscles increased in 

 size so that a good deal of my clothing was 

 too tight. I increased in weight from 115 to 

 126. Of course, one's occupation may be 

 such that he can not well take the time to 

 take this kind of open-air exercise — that is, 

 every day in the year; but I would heartily 



J 



