232 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



abundance of moisture there is no objection 

 to sharp hiUing up. When I talked level cul- 

 ture, they said the plants must be hilled up or 

 else the winds would twist them off. They 

 are hilled clear up to the leaves. Hilling up 

 is done with a hoe. They usually hill up one 

 side, and wait a few days and then do the 

 other. 



About two weeks before digging-time, more 

 potatoes are planted in the bottom of the fur- 

 row, right between the rows. These are just 

 coming through the ground when it is time to 

 diir. The boy who digs the potatoes throws 

 t' em out with a pronged potato-hoe, and in 

 doing so throws the nice soft mulch among 

 the younger plants just coming up. In this 

 way 3'ou see this expensive, highly fertilized 

 soil always contains a growing crop; and this 

 is kept going on right along until three and 

 sometimes four crops of potatoes have been 

 grown continuously right on the same ground. 



The potato-bug has never yet crossed over 

 to Bermuda. They do have the blight, how- 

 ever, greatly to their sorrow. I told them 

 they ought to be quite happy so long as they 

 had no bugs and blight both, as we have. 

 There is a difference of opinion in regard to 

 the value of spraying with the Bordeaux mix- 

 ture to prevent blight. Some declare it is a 

 perfect remedy, if put on in time. Others say 

 it sometimes serins to keep ofif the blight, and 

 then again it doesn't. Many patches that 

 have been sprayed quite thoroughly were bad- 

 ly injured by the blight. Others feel sure the 

 spraying had kept the blight away ; but as 

 there were, occasionally, patches that did not 

 have blight at all, even when no spraying was 

 done, you see the matter is considerably in 

 the dark. 



The Bermuda potatoes are celebrated almost 

 the world over for their excellent qualit}'. 

 The soil is so light that the tubers are never 

 squeezed out of shape. When first thrown 

 out of the ground they are as handsome, clem, 

 and smooth, as a lot of fruit. No wonder, for 

 they have room to grow and expand in every 

 direction without any thing to mar or squeeze 

 them. When I remarked that we did not con- 

 sider the Triumph a first-class potato in the 

 States, my companion, Mr. Morrison, said we 

 would have some for dinner. They were boil- 

 ed with the skins on. They not only burst 

 the skins open, and showed their rich con- 

 tents almost as white as snow, but were so dry 

 and mealy that I was prepared to acknowl- 

 edge they were the finest potatoes I ever ate 

 anywhere. But we had been having a pretty 

 good wheelride that morning, and Mrs. Root 

 declares I call every thing the "best in the 

 world " after a wheelride. 



The Bernuida gardeners said if I would give 

 them a potato that would not blight it would 

 do them more good than any thing else in the 

 world. It must be a red potato, for some way 

 or other the red color has become a trade-mark 

 of the Bermuda potato. The Garnet Chile is 

 grown a little later in the season, but not as 

 many of them as of the Triumph. Minnesota 

 Red and Early Rose used to be standards, but 

 they got so they did not yield very well. 



One large source of manure for their gardens 



is seaweed. This is also mentioned in our 

 book about growing potatoes on the island of 

 Jersey. I presume it is the same thing that 

 the sea washes up on shore all aroiuid the is- 

 land. I think it is supposed to float on the 

 sea from the Canary Islands, and I think some 

 of the salts of iodine are found in the ash. A 

 load of this seaweed, just as it is gathered 

 where it is washed up, is thought to be worth 

 as much as a load of stable manure. 



With this close planting, very likely our 

 Bermuda friends do not get the great yields- 

 we sometimes get here in the States, per acre 

 — that is, for one crop ; but when they get 

 three crops, one right after the other, and get 

 from six to eight dollars a barrel, you see it 

 counts up. Their potatoes are marketed in 

 New York at a season of the year when new 

 potatoes are a rarity, and their reputation for 

 excellence in quality helps to bring a big 

 price. Just as soon as I can work some of my 

 creek -bottom ground I am going to try Ber- 

 muda potato-growing. It will be just the 

 thing for my test-grounds for the different va- 

 rieties of early potatoes. I would particularly 

 emphasize having the ground soft and loose 

 and deep, and keeping it so during the whole 

 growth of the patch. Not onh^ keep the 

 horses from tramping it, but do not tramp it 

 yourself more than is necessary to cultivate it 

 in the manner I have described. The various 

 hand cultivators have been tried in Bermuda, 

 but they claim they can get along almost as 

 fast with the fork, and do the work ever so- 

 much better. I suspect this method of culti- 

 vating is pursued in many other foreign coun- 

 tries, for I have seen my German and English 

 gardeners handle the fork very much in the 

 way these Bermudans do. 



Our good friend Terry has been severely 

 criticised, and sometimes by our experiment 

 stations, because he constantly declares he 

 wants only one potato-stalk in a hill, and 

 hence his cutting to one eye The Bermuda 

 people have been practicing this for at least a 

 hundred 5ears. Their potatoes, when the 

 blight does not bother them, are almost all 

 marketable. Many of them will be the size 

 and very much the shape of a common base- 

 ball — rarely larger. 



Now, friends, you who have gardens in 

 towns where land is worth several hundred 

 dollars an acre, get to work and see if you can 

 not grow potatoes Bermuda fashion. While 

 you are about it you want to plant some onion 

 seed, and have a good lot of plants read}', and 

 in our next I will tell you about growing on- 

 ions Bermuda fashion. 



GARDENING IN THE MIDDLE OF MARCH, 1898. 

 We are just now having one of our pleasant 

 surprises — at least it is pleasant to me. It is a 

 mild spell of weather, without even a bit of 

 frost nights, right in the middle of March. 

 The doors and windows are open, and have 

 been for several days. It affords us a grand 

 opportunity to start our cold-frames and to get 

 in seeds and plants. But when the frosts come 

 again, as I presume of course they will, we 

 shall have a hustling time to get every thing 

 covered. I got a carpenter to help the boys, 



