960 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



and then try them as to quality. I think they are 

 the best potato for quality that I ever saw. I enjoy 

 reading- Home talks and Gardening in Gleanings, 

 and should like to run up on my wheel and see you 

 this summer if I could get time. Geo. E. C'kaig. 

 Zimmer, O., Apr. 30. 



Soon after, the mail brought ns two very 

 large fine handsome potatoes. I looked at 

 them, and they were then put away with other 

 potatoes sent to be tested. I did not have very 

 much enthusiasm in the matter. I confess, for I 

 have been testing potatoes a good many years, 

 and it is a great deal of trouble, with the many 

 cares I h-.ve on my hands, to keep the letters of 

 description, and the stakes so they can be 

 identified at digging-time: and, besides, all my 

 potato experiments have never amounted to 

 very much— that is, in the way of testing new 

 varieties. I think it must have been some time 

 about the first of May that I got ready to plant 

 our potatoes to be tested. A little corner down 

 in the creek bottom, too small to be plowed, 

 was spaded up. As it is within 20 feet of a 

 creek which in summer time is four or five feet 

 lower down than the garden, the piece has ex- 

 cellent drainage. As no manure was handy 

 when we spaded it up, none was put on the 

 ground— no fertilizer of any sort. I think there 

 there were six or eight different varieties of 

 potatoes to be tested. They all came up 

 and started off nicelv ; but when the dry 

 weather set in I felt a little sorry for them, not 

 having any manure like the rest of the ground; 

 and so, after giving them a good hoeing, some 

 coarse manure was spread between the rows as 

 a sort of mulch. None of the potatoes attract- 

 ed any particular attention, except an extra 

 early potato. The man who sent it said they 

 would be ready to dig about the 4th of July, 

 and that would be about eight or nine weeks 

 after planting; and, sure enough, we had pretty 

 fair potatoes about that time. The vines soon 

 died down after this. The rest all went down 

 one after another. It did not seem to be blight, 

 really, but, rather, that they ripened and dried 

 up rather prematurely on account of the drouth. 

 There was one exception, however. The little 

 bit of ground is triangular, so that each one of 

 the six rows is a little longer than the one next 

 to it. The last row. in fact, consisted of ten 

 hills. These ten hills were made by cutting 

 one of the large potatoes sent by friend Craig, 

 so as to make ten eyes: but the other one of 

 the two potatoes disappeared, and we have 

 never found where it went. These ten hills 

 came up very promptly, grew with remarkable 

 thrift, and never stopped growing till the frost 

 killed them about the .5th of November. At 

 that time each hill was an enormous mass of 

 foliage. Some of the vines were almost as big 

 as a broom-handle where they came out of the 

 ground. You see, they were planted on the one- 

 eye-to-the-hill system. There was consider- 

 able talk about these ten hills of potatoes with 

 their rich dark- green foliage all summer long 

 entirely free from bugs, blight, or the effects of 

 the severe drouth. They were dug while I was 

 in Missouri, and made just about an even bush- 

 el of the largest and handsomest potatoes I 

 ever saw. In fact, they were so handsome that 

 f^ome of them " got away " until the man who 

 had them in charge nailed them up. 



Now, this is a test of only a single season, with 

 just one potato. It would be rather hasty to 

 decide from this single test what the potato is 

 really worth. I wrote to friend Craig to know 

 what he could tell us about them. Two of the 

 large potatoes were cooked, to compare with 

 the Freemans. If they are not fully as good, 

 they are pretty near it. The potato is more 

 nearly like the Rural New-Yorker in appear- 

 ance and habit than any other potato I know 



of. From this one test, it seems to me consid- 

 erably ahead of any thing else in the line of 

 potatoes I have ever had any experience with. 

 The following is the letter: 



Mr. R<)ot:~The potatoes that I sent you for trial 

 are a new variety that we raised from seed from the 

 balls that g-row on the potato-tops (but then, you 

 know how to raise new varieties), and we think it is 

 ti.e best potato we ever had any thing: to do with. 

 That is the reason 1 sent those to you for trial. It 

 has been eight or ten years that we have been rais^- 

 ing- tliem, never having- sold any at any time to any 

 one. 1 sent two to Wm. Heiuy Maule the same day 

 I sent those to you, but have not yet heard from 

 him as to how tin y have done with him. 



1 have over 300 bushels; but as to what 1 will take 

 for them, 1 would sooner have you see them, and 

 see what you will give per bushel for as many as 

 you want. 



1 don't remember ever having- the potatoes blight; 

 but bugs will eat them, although 1 was not troubled 

 with them this year or last either. Thej always 

 outyield all others with us. Last year 1 planted' 

 two bushels of Northern Spies, which yielded almost 

 the same; but this year the same variety was not 

 worth digging. My grandfather has raised them 

 three or four years (under promise to let nobody 

 else have any of them), and he likes them better 

 than any others. Last spring 1 let Mr. J. J. Zimmer, 

 here at Zimmer, plant some of them for me, 1 to 

 have every potato he raised. He planted about 

 twelve other varieties, and mine was the best of all. 

 Some of the others were not worth digging. 1 had 

 thouglit of advertising them and selling a part of 

 them, and of planting a lot of them, say fifty or one 

 hundred bushels, so as to have a large stock next 

 year. 1 do not think $5.00 per bushel any too much 

 this year. Carman's No. 1 is $10.00 per bushel, but I 

 do not believe in charging that much by the bushel. 



George E. Craig. 



Zimmer, O., Nov. 19. 



Now, friends, I have given you the full facts 

 in the case. Friend Craig is at liberty, I 

 presume, to charge what price he chooses for 

 his 200 bushels. I think that, before anybody 

 invests very heavily in them, we had better 

 have them tested on different kinds of soil. I 

 wish that some of the experiment stations 

 could have tested them at the same time I did. 

 As for myself, 1 rather think I shall plant the 

 most of my creek-bottom ground to the Craig 

 potato, even if I do have to pay $5.00 a bushel 

 for seed. The potato has no name that I know 

 of; but I suggest calling it after the originator. 



KEEPING SEED POTATOES FOR I.ATE PLANTING ; 



A SUGGE.STION FROM OUK OHIO EXPERIMENT 



STATION. 



Friend Root:—Jn Gleanings for Nov. 15 you 

 speak of the nice Freeman potatoes that you 

 have grown by planting them late : but your 

 main difficulty seems to be in keeping the seed 

 in good condition for planting as late as you 

 want it. Now, I have tried a plan of keeping 

 the seed for late planting, for two years, that 

 has given first-class results. It is simple and 

 easy: and, even if it has been published before, 

 it will do no harm to repeat it. 



Take your potatoes from the cellar or pit as 

 soon as there is no danger of freezing, and be- 

 fore they have become sprouted, and place them 

 in a thin layer in some cool, light, airy place, 

 and let them stay there until you want to plant 

 them ; and when you come to look at them 

 there will be short stubby sprouts on them that 

 are not easily broken off, and will come up 

 quickly when planted. 



Last spring, at planting-time, I took what 

 seed I wanted, and put it seed end up in our 

 flats that we use for transplanting plants, and 

 put it overhead in the barn ; and when I was 

 ready to plant, June 28, it was in good condition 

 for planting, and could, undoubtedly, have been 

 kept for several weeks longer. It came up 

 quite well, and gave the best yield and the 



