NOVEMBER 1, 1913 



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though the frost killed the gi*een foliage, 

 the warm ground kept vitality enough in 

 the vines to ripen up the cantaloups finely ; 

 and I have been having a nice cantaloup 

 with my apples for my five-o'clock supper 

 all through September and the first week 

 in October, and all that from a five-cent 

 jiackage of seeds and some of that rich old 

 rotted stable manure I told you about. The 

 same is true with the Hubbard squashes. 

 There are twenty-sis, most of them great 

 beauties, from a five-cent package of seed. 



Lying close to the dasheens were our 

 Early Ohio potatoes. When I soaked up 

 the gi'ound between the rows of dasheens 

 with this heavy mulch of old manure the 

 water flowed on to the rows of potatoes, 

 and we had a big yield; but, sad to relate, 

 the heavy application of stable manure 

 made them so scabby, crooked, and ungain- 

 l,y, that many are almost unfit for use. Both 

 the Early Ohio and Early Rose potatoes 

 are bad on our ground in respect to scab ; 

 and although I am a potato crank, or used 

 to be, I have not dared to show to visitors 

 nor to anybody else mj^ crop of potatoes. 

 But, just wait a little. I have something 

 else to tell j'ou about potatoes. Before new 

 potatoes were fit to dig we purchased some 

 fine handsome Carman No. 3. They may 

 have been onh^ the Rural, of which the Car- 

 man is a seedling, but a much handsomer 

 potato. After we began digging our new 

 potatoes there were a few of the Carmans 

 left in the cellar; and although it Avas the 

 middle of July I decided to plant them. I 

 had one row up near some tall evergreens. 

 When I planted them I had a kind of feel- 

 ing that I was wasting my time, because I 

 thought the evergreens would rob them of 

 moisture and fertility. Well, when the frost 

 came they were growing very luxuriantly; 

 but although the branches of the evergi-eens 

 did not reach very near the potatoes, in 

 some way the big trees kept off the frost, 

 and the potatoes grew right along until this 

 morning. As the vines were dead, I dug the 

 potatoes, and it was one of my " happy 

 surprises " to find great beauties, almost as 

 smooth and handsome as new-laid eggs, and 

 not a trace of scab anywhere. Just a few 

 days before, ]\Irs. Root urged me to grow 

 potatoes on some other ground, because our 

 garden had gi'own potatoes ever so many 

 years, and the ground must be badlj' infest- 

 ed with scab. Now, can anybody tell me 

 why these Carmans escaped scab entirely? 

 Was it because they were planted so late, 

 or had the branches of the evergreens some- 

 thing to do with it? Was it because the 

 potatoes were of a different variety? I 

 should be glnd to know. 



•Tnst below llie caiitnlniip int'loiis llu'i'e 



were six egg-plants, and to them too- was 

 given some of that old manure ; and I think 

 some of the- water from my irrigation got 

 down there. We had a dozen of the largest 

 and finest egg-plant egg's I ever saw. One 

 was so large that we divided it up and sent 

 parts to our neighbors. These too were 

 made to give a big yield of fine eggs, in 

 spite of the severe drouth, by digging the 

 dirt away from each plant clear down to 

 the fine white hairy roots. Then the manure 

 was sifted down all through these roots, 

 and the whole well soaked up with a water- 

 ing-can, and soft diy dirt was hoed up after 

 the watering. 



The success I met with almost all of my 

 crop has required some hard and faithful 

 work; but the hard work, taken a little at 

 a time, was just what was needed to give 

 me inspiration to make these pages you are 

 looking at helpful. Is there not a wonder- 

 ful truth in the latter part of mj' text — " In 

 due time we shall reap if we faint not "? 



" HIGH-PRESSURE ^ CORN CULTURE. 



Some years ago, on a visit to our Ohio 

 Experiment Station, I was shown a long 

 field of corn. The field was long enough so 

 that each row Avas planted entirely with a 

 single ear of corn. The professor who was 

 with us called our attention to one row that 

 stood almost entire the full lengfh of the 

 field, with scarcely a broken stalk; but 

 owing to a hailstorm a few days before, the 

 rest of the corn was broken more or less. 

 Some rows were almost or quite all snap- 

 ped off by the wind. Now, by selecting 

 seed from this row that stood the blast we 

 could readily get a field of corn that could 

 not be easily blown down. But in getting 

 such heavj' stalks to stand the blast, we 

 might cut down the number of bushels. 

 They were then experimenting on this veiy 

 thing, and the matter was dropped to look 

 at something else. Well, the periodical 

 called Corn (Waterloo, Iowa) has a won- 

 derful picture in its October number. A 

 like number of kernels were taken from two 

 ears of seed corn. The corn from one ear 

 gave a bushel box full heaped up — stacked 

 away above the to]>. The corn from the 

 other ear. side by side, and exactly the same 

 treatment, gave only a peck of inferior 

 corn. What do you think of that? When 

 a farmer goes to his corncrib and selects 

 his seed corn, there is no way in the world 

 for him to tell by the looks what ear will 

 give a peck and which will give five pecks. 

 The farmer who takes time by the forelock, 

 and plants some whole ears a year or two 

 years before, and saves seed from the ear 

 that gi\ cs the biggest yield of nice corn, will, 



