64 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



Monroe Seedlings.* They are a larger potato 

 than the others, and better yielders ; but it 

 would seem they are rather later in maturing, 

 and there is a strong probability that they will 

 resist the blight better than the ordinary 

 strain picked up just as they come. Now, 

 here is something exceedingly important to 

 the potato-grower. By selecting the best hills 

 for seed next year he can not only improve 

 the quality of his potatoes but increase the crop 

 to one-half or to double. Whether it will 

 work the same every season or not, experi- 

 ment alone can determine; but I have tried 

 the same thing myself enough to know that a 

 good deal can be accomplished in this manner. 

 I managed to get one bushel of these improv- 

 ed Monroes; but Mr. Fenn did not really want 

 to spare even one bushel. The Monroe Seed- 

 lings seem to be not only equal, but rather 

 ahead, all things considered, in that locality — 

 Summit County ; and this improved strain 

 ought to give something wonderful in the way 

 of results. 



Now, there was another stretch of a few 

 rows in the same patch, that showed a differ- 

 ence, and this was what he called his Russet 

 potato. The surface of the potato is rough or 

 netted just like a russet apple. A fertilizer 

 agent had given him some of these potatoes 

 to try, declaring that that they would never 

 scab under any circumstances nor in any 

 ground; and I believe that, after digging, he 

 found no scabby potatoes among the Russets ; 

 but, for that matter, there were almost none 

 among his Monroe Seedlings, for Cousin Wil- 

 bur has managed for years (by taking great 

 pains) to keep pretty nearly clear of scabby 

 potatoes. I said then and I say now that I 

 will give a thousand dollars for a barrel of 

 potatoes, equal to our best in other respects, 

 that will not scab in any ground with any 

 kind of fertilizer. I should not want to pay 

 this thousand dollars, however, till I had test- 

 ed the potatoes for about two seasons. If any 

 of you have such a potato, send along your 

 barrel. I have a bushel of the Russets, and 

 they may fill the bill ; but I have so much 

 doubt in regard to it that I make the above 

 offer. 



Special Notices by A. I. Root. 



POTATOES WE HAVE TESTED AND FOUND WORTHY 

 OF MENTION. 



I suppose you are aware that I have for many years 

 been testing all the promising varieties of potatoes, 

 and I have the following quantities of the kind men- 

 tioned below: 



Poor Man's Friend, 12 bushels; Sir Walter Raleigh, 

 Queen of the Valley, 4 bushels each; Russets, 1 bushel; 

 Fenn's Improved Monroe Seedling, 1 bushel; Early 



* When I visited James Smith, of Green Bay. Wis., 

 he told me that, notwithstanding a good many people 

 claim the Early Ohio potato had deteriorated, by con- 

 stantly selecting his seed from the best and most 

 thrifty hills he had succeeded in keeping it up to its 

 original productiveness and good qualities in every 

 respect. Seed potatoes saved from selected hills in 

 this manner would, of course, have to bring a better 

 price, and they will be worth it. Now, who will go to 

 work and win for himself a reputation for extra se- 

 lected seed potatoes? The simple claim that they are 

 thus selected, without the name of some good careful 

 man to back it up, would not amount to very much. 

 Vaughn and Zehr, 2% bushels each; Early Andes and 



Burpee's Extra Early, 2 bushels each; Hundred Fold, 

 2 bushels; Adirondack, 7 bushels. 



Poor Man's Friend gives a good crop of great round 

 red potatoes, and the yield is tremendous, even on 

 very poor soil. Sir Walter is a good deal like Carman 

 No. 3 From my own experience I can not see that it 

 is particularly better. Queen of the Valley is consid- 

 erably like New Queen, but it is of extra quality. 

 The four early potatoes — Vaughn, Zehr, Andes, and 

 Burpee's — all yield about alike. Early Vaughn kept 

 on growing clear into the rainy fall, while all the rest 

 died down, with the exception of the New Queen. 

 Hundred Fold is an exceedingly good late potato, and 

 I may say the same of the Adirondack. 



Now, you see I have not enough of the above to offer 

 them for sale unless it is in very small quantities; but 

 if any of you want some of them to try we will send 

 1 lb. by mail for 18 cts.; or 3 lbs. by mail for 45 cts. By 

 freight with other goods, l/ 2 peck for 25 cts. 



Fenn's Improved Monroe Seedling and the Russets 

 we shall offer onlv by the pound. By the way, I notice 

 quite a number of the new seed catalogs are offering 

 a Russet potato ; and although they call it by differ- 

 ent names, my opinion is, from the picture and the 

 description, it is the same thing I have described. 



MILLS' PRIZE POTATO. 



I always dislike to make our list of strawberries, 

 potatoes, or any thing else, larger when it can be 

 avoided. We have already too many good kinds of 

 almost every thing ; and unless the new corner is 

 something very much ahead of varieties already listed, 

 we can not afford to give them a place. Just now, 

 however, we are so much pleased with the potato 

 called Mills' Prize that I have decided to add it to our 

 list. It very much resembles the Rural and the Car- 

 mans; in fact, I could not tell it from a very nice sam- 

 ple of Carman No. 3. The potato yields as well as any 

 of these varieties; and last, but not least, it is the best 

 cooking potato I have ever got hold of unless it is the 

 Freeman. The potatoes are very much larger than 

 the Freeman, of nice shape, and as handsome as any 

 potato I ever saw. If they are always as good as the 

 crop of the present season, I can not understand why 

 there has been no more stir in regard to them. Mills, 

 in his catalog, gives them only about half a dozen 

 lines. He says, it is true, they are " fine-grained, and 

 cook dry and "mealy;" but the catalogs are in the habit 

 of saying this of almost every variety. By Khe way. a 

 recent number of the Rural New- Yorker suggests that 

 quality in potatoes is an uncertan element in spite of 

 us. They say the Rural New-Yorker some years 

 cooks beautifully ; then at other times in other sea- 

 sons it does not, and I have frequently noticed this. 

 Notwithstanding, there are certain kinds, like the 

 Freeman and Snowflake, that are always fine. Now, 

 I can not tell whether Mills' Prize is always up to its 

 present quality or not. A neighbor who has grown 

 them for several years, and who sold me about 50 

 bushels, says they are always nice. If you want to try 

 them, either for planting or eating, we will fill your 

 order at the same price as the Rural New-Yorker; 

 viz., 1 lb., by mail. 15 cts.; 3 lbs.. 45 cts.; by freight or 

 express, Y 2 peck, 20 cts.: peck, 25 cts.; ^ bushel, 40 cts.; 

 bushel, 75 cts.; barrel of 11 pecks, $2.00. 



CARLOAD SHIPMENTS. 



Since we started our factory again, six weeks ago, 

 we have shipped six carlcads of goods for export, a 

 car to the Rawlings Imp't Co., of Baltimore, Md.;one 

 to J. M. Jenkins, Wetumpka, Ala.; one to Walter S. 

 Pouder, Indianapolis, Ind.; a car of sections to Provo 

 City, Utah; a carload of hives to E. A. Watkins Mdse. 

 Co., Denver, Col.; and as we go to press we are loading 

 a car for our northeastern branch at Mechanic Falls, 

 Maine, and another for Chicago. We have orders 

 booked and material partly made for fourteen more 

 carloads for..export, besides a number of carloads for 

 different points in the United States. 



CATALOG CHANGES FOR 189!>. 



In our forthcoming catalog, which we will begin 

 distributing about Feb. 1, we will show a number of 

 improvements in the details of our Dovetailed hives. 

 The table of prices is slightly advanced to partially 

 cover the advancing price of lumber. The wedge-top 

 Hoffman frame is substituted for the molded top as 

 regularly sent out; and if any prefer the molded top 

 this will have to be specified in the order. The price 

 of Root zinc will be advanced to SI. 40 per sheet ; 90c 

 per 100 strips ; and honey-boards of R. zinc will be 

 advanced 2c each right through. There will be no 

 change in price of Tinker zinc. The Danz. hive will 

 be omitted from the general catalog, as we have a 



