662 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



be removed, and ouly the unfinished section 

 left, be they four, eight, twelve, or sixteen^ 

 sections. 



The bee-escapes work very well. I have' 

 been in the habit of using a cloth soaked in a 

 weak solution of carbolic acid. The cloth is 

 wrung nearly dry. The bee-hive is opened in 

 the usual manner. The cloth is then laid on 

 in place of the quilt; the bees disappear like a 

 shot out of the super, and the crate can be 

 removed. The bees adhering to the bottom-bar 

 of the section-holder must, of course, be re- 

 moved. R. F. H01.TERMANN. 



Brantford, Ont., Aug. 5. 



[The section-holder arrangement with the 

 new separators worked well in our apiary. The 

 sections, on being filled, come out the easiest 

 and cleanest of any thing we have before seen 

 or tried, and just as we have advertised of it. 

 It saves scraping off propolis to a great extent.] 



THE POTATO INDUSTRY IN COLORADO. 



RAISING POTATOES BY IRRIGATION. 



Ever since friend Root visited us here last 

 winter, and then wrote back in his " Notes of 

 Travel " a short and graphic description of the 

 way that we store our potatoes, I have been 

 thinking about sending in a short essay, setting 

 forth in a brief way the way that we raise, 

 tend, and dispose of our potato crop in this far- 

 away western land. 



The fii'St thing to be considered is seed, for 

 the abundance of the crop depends in a great 

 measure on the quality of seed that you plant. 

 If the seed is poor you may expect a poor crop 

 of potatoes. 



Then we prepare the land in very much the 

 same way that you would for corn, harrowing 

 it thoroughly. When this is done we begin to 

 look about for the machine to plant them with; 

 and we bring out a very intelligent-looking 

 little machine called the Aspinwall potato- 

 planter, manufactured at Three Rivers. Mich. 

 We are careful to see that the machine is well 

 oiled up, and in good trim for work. All the 

 dropping pickers are set to drop all the very 

 same distance apart; then with a great big 

 load of cut potatoes, loaded on a wagon, we 

 bring out the machine and attach it to the rear 

 of the wagon by means of a rope, and we go to 

 the place in the field where we wish to begin 

 planting, and drop off our planter, and along 

 with it a few sacks of spuds (as we call them — 

 potatoes is too long a word) and then we dis- 

 tribute the sacks along the end of the field, very 

 much the same as though you were going to 

 drill in wheat; and when all is out of the wagon, 

 you drive the team back to the f)lanter and 

 hitch on, and away we go: drive fast or slow 

 they drop all the same distance apart; and if 

 we put in all day in the field with team and 

 planter, we are apt to have about eight acres of 

 spuds planted at the end of the day's work. 



The next thing to be looked after will be the 

 tending of the crop. This is done generally by 

 han-owing the potatoes when they are just 

 coming through the ground. Some might 

 think this would ruin them. Well, it docs 

 seem to tear them some; but in two or three 

 days they are as nice and green, and perhaps 

 more so than if they had not had that scratch- 

 ing. In a few days, too, we look to the condi- 

 tion of our cultivator. This is the same as a 

 corn-cultivator; and. all being in shape for 

 work, we go into the field and give another 

 scratching, or cultivating with the cultivator; 

 and after we have been over the crop about 

 three times we then consider them as cultivated 



enough, and we begin to prepare them for ir- 

 rigating. 

 iC Now the interesting part of the job com- 

 mences. First of all. we begin by ifurrowing 

 out our crop with a ditching-plow. This is to 

 make a ridge on which the potato can grow, 

 and also make a ditch between the rows, so 

 that we can run water in them to irrigate with. 

 This ditching is accomplished by taking a very 

 long evener. or doubletree, as some call them; 

 hitch up your team with one horse at each end 

 and with one horse walking between the first 

 and second, and the other between the third 

 and fourth rows, making the space between the 

 second and third row the one where you want 

 to make the furrow. Remember that this plow 

 throws a furrow out each way. When you 

 have come to the end of the row you turn your 

 team around, with one horse to walk back in 

 the same place he did when you were coming 

 up, thus making the ditch between the fourth 

 and fifth row as we return. Keeping on in this 

 way till the field has been gone over once in 

 every other row, we turn around and go over it, 

 furrowing out the middles this time in which 

 our horses walked before. In doing this it 

 makes the plow run level, where, if we furrow- 

 ed out every middle as we went along, it would 

 make one horse walk down in the furrow and 

 one out. thus making the plow run lop-sided. 



When we are done furrowing out we begin to 

 look about turning the water into our field. We 

 go to our lateral head and leave orders for our 

 water-shares to be turned in — that is, if we are 

 not already using the water to irrigate our al- 

 falfa with. In this case we go and turn the 

 water into our ditch that carries it around to 

 our potato-field, and with shovel in hand we 

 liie us to the place where we want to turn in 

 the water into the furrows, and we have to do 

 some pretty lively shoveling if we keep the 

 water divided up in a great many rows. But, 

 my I how nice it is to see the bright sparkling 

 water go trickling down through the furrows, 

 and while every thing else is dry and parched 

 outside, where the water has not been to it ! 

 we see every thing here where we have irrigat- 

 ed, fresh and green as in spring time. If we 

 have very much water, as I have said before, 

 it may keep us pretty busy shoveling; but when 

 we go" in the fall to dig our crop of spuds, and 

 we find from six to ten in every hill that weigh 

 from 8 ounces to 3 and 4 lbs., then we feel doubly 

 repaid for all our hard work which we did in 

 irrigating time. 



We aim, after giving our crop one good soak- 

 ing, to keep the ground moist(not too wet), and it 

 should not be allow ed to get too dry, else the 

 growth of the potato is hurt, and it causes the 

 scab, or, as some call it, the blight. 



It is now getting late in the autumn, and we 

 bejjin to think about digging our crop, and we 

 want to see what our potatoes are like; so with 

 fork and basket we wend our way to the field, 

 and we begin to fork out a hill here and a hill 

 there; and as we turn out the great big round, 

 hard, smooth tubers we exclaim, " Well, I 

 never!" We shall now Tvant to be getting our 

 sacks in readiness to put our potatoes in. If 

 we have never raised potatoes before we had 

 better get somebody to tell us about what they 

 will go to the acre, and we can easily tell then 

 something near how many sacks we shall 

 want, striking an average of so many 

 sacks to the acre. Of course, we should know 

 how many acres we have in. Well, now, if the 

 shippers do not pay us as much as we think 

 they will bring us in a few weeks or months, 

 we have these big dugouts, or cellars, to store 

 our crop in. If these great underground houses 

 are made right as they should be, our spuds 

 will keep just as nice as you ever saw any tning 



