1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



667 



more. A bear can go up a tree very fast, but 

 he is awkward and slow in coming down, for 

 he has to prick up his soft velvety ears that 

 look so cute and cunning, and see where to 

 put his great feet. With much love I am your 

 absent teacher. 



When I left home on the 28th of July I was 

 fighting the blister-beetles on my early pota- 

 toes. Up in the swamp they had stripped the 

 leaves off from one corner of the patch, so I 

 supposed they would die down and ripen up. 

 In fact, the whole patch seemed pretty nearly 

 mature. Well, when I went up to the swamp 

 garden on my return home after an absence of 

 nearly four weeks, one of my 



" HAPPY SURPRISES " 



met me. The potato-patch that I supposed 

 would be dry and brown was a mass of green. 

 The rains which they had in great plenty dur- 

 ing my absence had started a second growth, 

 and the vines of the New Queen potato not 

 only covered the ground, but they were a mass 

 of rank luxuriance, equal to any thing I saw 

 out west. You may remember I wrote they 

 did not seem to have blight out there. When 

 I got home there was no blight here either. I 

 am now inclined to think that what I called 

 blight is mostly if not all a drying-up on ac- 

 count of the extremely dry weather. When 

 plenty of rain came, new leaves came out ; 

 and even the stalks where the bugs had left 

 only bare brush are now leaved out again. Of 

 course, my New Queen potatoes may be bad- 

 shaped and prongy ; but as we are growing 

 them mostly for seed they will answer just as 

 well, only they will not look as handsome. I 

 pulled out a great potato weighing about a 

 pound, from one hill where I saw the ground 

 puffed up. It was of good size and fine shape, 

 but it had some new potatoes in the shape of 

 knobs growing out from the main one. Now, 

 if it were the Freeman potato under the same 

 circumstances, the potatoes would grow larger 

 but not prongy. I have never found any oth- 

 er potato that would take on a second growth, 

 and keep its shape, as will the Freeman. 



On one side of the swamp garden we had 

 put some well-rotted manure between the 

 rows. The manure had to be removed, and 

 we did not know what else to do with it. 

 Well, you just ought to see the potato-vines 

 where that old manure was put. They just 

 cover every thing, and the color is enough to 

 make a gardener's heart bound. I do not be- 

 lieve this old manure will make the potatoes 

 scabby. I have tried it a great many times, 

 and it seems to work all right. I should hard- 

 ly like to put on manure fresh from the sta- 

 bles, under the same circumstances. 



Well, it was not the potatoes alone that 

 caught my eyes. You may remember that 

 wheat that fell down so badly, and that the 

 clover was all choked out. Before I went 



away I directed that the wheat-stubble should 

 be gone over with the cutaway, and crimson 

 clover sown — that is, wherever the red clover 

 was missing, and then the whole was to be 

 harrowed down smooth with the Acme. This 

 was done, and the crimson clover is now up, 

 helping to make the ground green again. I 

 say liclping, for the wheat that got shelled off 

 when my crop went down has come up too, 

 with this treatment. Now, what will be done ? 

 I am sure I am not farmer enough to know 

 what will be the result of sowing wheat the 

 fore part of August. I am sure of one thing — 

 it will be excellent to turn under with the clo- 

 ver for potatoes next year. But can we make 

 any better use of it ? The stand is excellent, 

 and the wheat looks all right, only it is a 

 month or more ahead of the usual sowing- 

 time. All over our ranch I find the potatoes 

 are rank and luxuriant. What I took to be 

 blight has entirely disappeared. 



Our potatoes planted near the first of July 

 did not come up evenly. The hot weather 

 probably dried up a good many of them before 

 they could come up. I had supposed, until 

 this season, that, when potatoes were sprout- 

 ed on the barn floor, with tough green sprouts, 

 they would always come up ; but they did not 

 this time. I am" having the potatoes cultivat- 

 ed where the growth is not too rank for the 

 horses to get through, and then I am having 

 them nicely hoed. Where hills are missing, 

 the boys are pulling the dirt, with hoes, vip 

 around the other hills. Do you say this is 

 lots of work? Well, the potatoes are the Bo- 

 vee, Manu'n's Enormous, and other valuable 

 varieties. I know I can get a big yield — yes, 

 a much bigger yield — by going to the expense 

 of this handwork, and I rather think it will 

 pay with high-priced potatoes such as I have 

 mentioned. 



OUR TEST OF EARLY POTATOES. 



It is a very hard matter indeed to say which 

 potato was earliest, except that, as I have 

 stated many times before, the White and Red 

 Triumph were died down and ripe away ahead 

 of any others. But there were potatoes among 

 the Bovee, Early Ohio, and others, almost as 

 large for table use as the Triumphs of the 

 same date. Both of the latter kept on grow- 

 ing, and made a much better yield. The 

 Triumphs are certainly more susceptible to 

 blight, or dying down from early maturity — 

 perhaps I might say from preinature maturity 

 — than any of the other varieties. 



By the way, the New Queen and Early 

 Vaughn are growing yet just like the potatoes 

 in the swamp. They lived long enough to 

 catch the rains and start a second growth. 

 The other earlies died down. Now, which 

 one gave the most and nicest potatoes ? Well, 

 my answer is a surprise to myself. In fact, I 

 do not know but it is another of my ' ' happy 

 surprises," because it is our old friend the 

 Early Ohio. Once more I can say with the 

 Experiment Station, the world has not yet 

 produced, all things considered, any better 

 early potato than the Early Ohio. They are 

 of good shape, good yield, and more uniform- 

 Iv of good size, than any other unless it is the 

 Bovee. The Bovee is going to be, I predict, 



