8o6 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



several times said the Gault never did as well 

 on our ground as on that of the originator. 

 Perhaps my soil is too low and too rich. But, 

 worst of all, we have had to abandon growing 

 all kinds of black-cap raspberries on account 

 of anthracnose, and the Gault was no excep- 

 tion. But let us now go back to the potatoes. 



A great many people are surprised to see 

 me plow under not only raspberries but black- 

 berries, when they are as high as the horses' 

 backs. We do it with a plow specially made 

 for this purpose. With a heavy log-chain, 

 and a good stout man like my German friend 

 to follow and put the brush under with soil 

 over it, with his big heavy feet, we succeed in 

 getting every brush and brier out of sight, and 

 usually have fine crops of potatoes where we 

 ttirn the berries under. This time, however, 

 with the drouth that followed just after plant- 

 ing, the large amount of brush made the 

 ground so dry that not half of the potatoes 

 started at all. The part that did start, how- 

 ever, received such extra care by hilling, etc., 

 that the vines finally covered the missing 

 spaces, and we had an astonishing yield for 

 the small number of hills of potatoes. On 

 this same strip of ground we planted also the 

 potatoes from Maule that were grown in the 

 greenhouse last winter. The experiment came 

 very near being a failure, however, becaiise 

 the new green potatoes taken out of the green- 

 house would not sprout right away. In fact, 

 almost none of them sprouted until they had 

 been planted about a month. Then occasion- 

 all)' one would come up, and so on, all through 

 September and October. We took great care 

 of them; and, even with all these drawbacks, 

 we secured three bushels, and some of them 

 weighed 2 pounds apiece. From the one 

 potato that Maule let me take for experiment 

 last winter, I have now three heaping bushels 

 — or, rather, Mr. Maule has, for the potatoes 

 belong to him and not to myself. I have 

 proved this, that potatoes may be grown in a 

 greenhouse over winter, and the potatoes thus 

 grown may be planted so as to raise a crop the 

 summer following. 



The worst drawback in my experiment was, 

 as I have mentioned before, that I put the 

 potatoes in some soil that had been on the 

 benches for five or six j'ears. Had I used new 

 soil from outdoors, I think I might have had 

 two or three times as large a crop from one 

 potato. 



Now, friends, here is where the "high 

 pressure" comes in: That little piece of 

 ground gave us a splendid crop of strawberries 

 in June, and a magnificent crop of potatoes in 

 October, and we are now preparing to put in 

 rye, and in a few days I expect to see the 

 ground green with the third crop in one sea- 

 son, outdoors. By the way, this new potato 

 of Maule's looks considerably like the Enor- 

 mous, and behaves much like it, only it is a 

 red or reddish potato, instead of white, and I 

 think it is more disposed to be prongy than 

 the Enormous. The great amount of rain, 

 however, during this past season, has made 

 many potatoes badly shaped that would other- 

 wise have been smooth and round. Our potato 

 crop, however, is a splendid one, especially 



the late-grown sorts. Nobody succeeded, if I 

 am correct, in growing extra-early potatoes 

 planted early. 



SCABBY POTATOES. 



A year ago I was unfortunate in selecting a 

 piece of ground for my test-plot of early 

 potatoes. They were so scabby that a great 

 part of them were apparently unfit for any 

 thing. Some varieties, it is true, were worse 

 affected than others ; but nearly all of them 

 were very bad. As an experiment I took a 

 peck of each kind and treated them with cor- 

 rosive sublimate, and planted them on a piece 

 of ground where the potatoes had never been 

 affected by scab, and the result was a nice lot 

 of potatoes. The scabby seed, after treatment, 

 seemed to be just as good as any. Some nice 

 clean potatoes, however, planted where scab 

 had been so bad last year, were very badly 

 affected, but not as badly as last year ; and 

 this piece of ground that seems to be so badly 

 affected by scab was very heavily treated with 

 sulphur three or foiir years ago. These ex- 

 periments seem to prove that corrosive sub- 

 limate kills the scab in potatoes; but sulphur 

 does not kill scab fungus in the ground — at 

 least, not with us. My experience is that 

 potatoes planted late, say toward the first of 

 July, are very much less liable to be scabby. 



BUDDING POTATOES. 



I clip the following from Auicrican Garden- 

 ing for Sept. 3 : 



The Rhode Island Experiment Station reports an 

 interesting experiment on budding potatoes for the 

 purpose of hastening their maturity. The results 

 showed very favoribly for budding. Not only did the 

 potatoes from the budded seed mature earlier, hut the 

 yield was very much larger, showing an average in- 

 crease for the budded seed of about 44 bushels an acre. 



The process of budding is described as follows: The 

 most desirable tubers for budding are those about the 

 size of a hen's egg, sound, and not mutilated in dig- 

 ging. They may be reserved for the purpose when 

 digging the previous crop, and. if allowed to become 

 greened by exposure to sunlight so much the better, 

 or they may be selected from the bin at any time. 

 During stormy days, or at any convenient time during 

 the winter, these seed tubers can be placed in the 

 trays and then stacked up anywhere in the cellar, se- 

 cure from rats and frost until wanted. The tray to be 

 filled is placed upon a box or bench, and one end ele- 

 vated about a foot by placing a box or measure under 

 it. Then, beginnning at the lower side, the potatoes 

 selected are carefully packed into the rack, stem end 

 down, as closely as possible, one layer deep. Tubers 

 cut or pierced by the tines of a potato-digger or fork 

 should not be used, as they are likely to produce sick- 

 ly or inferior buds. 



About six or eight weeks before planting-time, the 

 rack should be placed in a warm and light place, 

 where there is no danger of frost, or damage from rats 

 and mice, and the tray placed in the rack, If the tern- 

 perature is moderate. (lO or 75 degrees, and a fair 

 amount of light reaches all parts of each tray, no fur- 

 ther attention is necessary; they do not require water- 

 ing. After a few days tiny white points will be .seen 

 at the eyes of the tubers, "and a few days later it will 

 be noticed that one and often two buds" on each tuber 

 will have made more growth than the others. These 

 buds are far different from the white watery sprouts 

 of potatoes kept in a dark cellar. They are thick, 

 firm, and tough. 



If conditions are right, at the end of six weeks they 

 will be from half an inch to an inch in length, and 

 from one-fourth to threeeigrhths of an inch in diam- 

 eter, with many rudimentary roots at the base waiting 

 for the moment when contact with mother earth shall 

 enable them to burst forth and go about their work of 

 gathering plant food. 



This, of course, is only a condensed account 

 of the plan outlined in our book on potato- 



