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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15. 



HOW TO GET EXTRA-EARLY POTATOES. 

 The following is from a press bulletin from 

 the Kansas Experiment Station : 



The Horticultural Department has been experiment- 

 ing for two years on the methods of hastening the 

 growth and maturity of early potatoes. On Feb. 23, 

 LS!I7, tubers of White Ohio, Beauty of Hebron, Early 

 Harvest, and Carman No. 1 were set in shallow boxes 

 with the blossom ends up. They were filled around 

 ■with sand, leaving the upper fourth exposed, and the 

 boxes placed in a room of rather subdued light, and a 

 temperature of 50 to 60 degrees. Vigorous sprouts 

 soon began to push from the exposed eyes. 



On March 22 the potatoes were planted in furrows, 

 the tubers being removed carefully from the sand, 

 and planted in the same position in which they stood 

 in the box, and 14 inches apart in the row. They were 

 not cut, but were kept entire. Similar parallel rows 

 of each sort were planted of whole tubers selected 

 from potatoes taken from the storage room, and un- 

 exposed to light till planted. 



As they grew, the sprouted potatoes took the lead 

 from the start in vigor and strength of top ; and both 

 lots of whole seed kept ahead of cut seed of the same 

 varieties. June 1 the sand-sprouted lots showed ex- 

 cellent young table potatoes while none of the others 

 were }-et large enough for use. A week's difference 

 was a r pparent in the two lots. On June 10, the sand- 

 sprouted potatoes were still ahead in size, though not 

 as much as at the first examination. At the final dig- 

 ging, July 24, the sand-sprouted lots showed better 

 tubers, and 10 per cent larger yields, than the others. 

 _ In the spring of 1898 a similar experiment was car- 

 ried on, using four other varieties ; viz.. Triumph, New 

 Queen, Thoroughbred, and Early Six Weeks. Two 

 methods of treatment were also employed. The lots 

 were divided, one half of each lot being placed in 

 sand under the conditions employed the year before, 

 and kept moistened, the other half of each lot being 

 put in open boxes, and placed in a light dry room 

 with a temperature averaging about 50 degrees. 

 March 26, all lots were planted. The tubers that were 

 placed in sand had strong vigorous sprouts, and were 

 nearly all rooted. Those in the open boxes were be- 

 ginning to sprout, but of course had thrown out no 

 roots. The sand-sprouted lots took the lead in growth, 

 and furnished table potatoes several days in advance 

 of the lots sprouted in open boxes, although the latter 

 were ahead of the lots planted at the same time from 

 the storage-room. 



Whole tubers sprouted in rather moist sand, and 

 planted about the 25th of March, give the best results, 

 and produce table potatoes seven to ten days earlier 

 than the same variety planted at the same time but 

 not so sprouted. 



Such a difference in time is of great importance to 

 the grower, whether the crop is for the home garden 

 or market. The gain of a week's time will well repay 

 the efforts required to produce the extra earlv crop. 



3\V. H" Hall. 



The above is simply a modifiation of the 

 method employed in the Island of Jersey. 

 Please notice the potatoes are set in moist sand 

 about a month before the usual time for plant- 

 ing. We have failed several times by getting 

 th-m into the open ground too early, so the 

 potato- plants got a setback by being nipped 

 by the frost. In our locality I do not believe 

 it will pay to put them in the open ground be- 

 fore about the middle of April. If a frost 

 comes, of course you can pull a little soft dirt 

 over the sprouts — that is, if they are not too 

 far above ground. 



POTATOES THAT DO NOT SCAB — THE WHITE 

 ELEPHANT. 



I have raised the White Elephant potato, and have 

 been acquainted with it for 18 years, and have never 

 known it to scab, although others planted alongside 

 were so scabby as to be unfit for use They are pro- 

 lific, and fine p tatoes for the table, being a smooth 

 wh te, rather long, and flat-sided. Our neighbors 

 have all got seed of us, and have never heard of scab 

 or a failure of crop. Mrs. R. E. Hammond. 



Sa\ lersville, Ky., Feb. 28. 



The above potato is comparatively well 



known; but I have never heard before that it 

 was less liable to scab. I notice that Lan- 

 dreth, in his catalog, describes it as late, does 

 best in light sand, heavy yielder. He quotes 

 it in January at $2.70 per barrel. Has any- 

 body else noticed this same peculiarity in the 

 White Elephant ? 



COW PEAS — HOW TO CURE THE HAY, ETC. 

 On pages 148 and 149 I note what is said of "cow 

 peas." I live in a section of North Carolina that was 



f rowing cow peas as a renovator of the soil, and for 

 eed to stock as forage, before Prof. W. F. Massey left 

 the '' Miller" school in Virginia to go to our North 

 Carolina Experiment Station. I don't know the Ben- 

 son pea by that name, but there are a great variety of 

 cow peas. Some of them mature in 60 days from 

 planting, hence should mature anywhere north. Cow 

 peas ripen very irregularly. There can always be 

 found ripe peas and blossoms among any variety of 

 them, as the first ripe peas appear. And if the ripe 

 peas are kept gathered off the vines, these same vines 

 will continue to blossom and bear peas for a long sea- 

 son. 



They require warm weather to grow in. hence 

 should not be planted till two weeks after all danger 

 of frost has passed. 



Peavine hay is obtained by sowing the peas broad- 

 cast at the rate of \% to 2 bushels per acre, and then 

 plowing them in, or cutting them in with a disk har- 

 row, without allowing them to lie in the hot sun over 

 two hours, exposed; if you do they will not come up 

 well. When the first ripe pods begin to show, mow 

 your peas down after the dew and moisture have dried 

 out. In the evening, before the dew falls, rake it into 

 large winrows and let them remain until the next 

 evening (unless it threatens rain ; if it does, pile them 

 in cocks of 400 or 500 lbs. ) ; then go and cock them up 

 in cocks, the same as other hay. 5 or 6 feet high, and 

 as small at the bottom as possible for them to stand 

 up well. After being cocked up for 4 or 5 days, so 

 they have wilted, and the stems of the vines are rea- 

 sonably dry, thus being air-dried instead of sun-dried, 

 thej' are ready to be put into large stacks, or hauled 

 up to the barn, but should be exposed so all the air 

 possible will pass through them — in either event un- 

 til the stems are dry enough to break when bent. 



Never feed peavine hay, that has been frost-bitten, 

 to stock. Cut when the fiTst dry pods show, then air- 

 dry by any plan you like. By not letting it get damp 

 or wet after it is cut until it is thoroughly cured you 

 will have some of the finest green or bright forage 

 you ever fed, and all stock eat it readily; will leave 

 other hay or forage for the pea hay. Getting wet 

 turns it dark, and creates a dry dust among the vines 

 and stems If left to mature peas before it is cut, the 

 leaves all shed off and you have nothing but dry stems 

 and vines that are tough and little good. 

 Goldsboro, N. C. Abbott E- Swinson. 



A NEST-EGG THAT KEEPS OUT VERMIN. 

 I believe my first hobby in the way of any 

 sort of business was raising doves ; and when 

 some wicked sportsman shot one of my pair 

 of doves, oh what wailing and weeping there 

 was around our home ! and I do not know 

 but I have had a spite against sportsmen — yes, 

 and against guns also — ever since. Well, 

 when I got a little older I went into the egg 

 business, and I succeeded too; and every little 

 while through the fifty years that have passed 

 I have felt a longing to study "chickens" 

 once more. Well, here is something from the 

 American Cultivator that took my attention 

 strongly : 



onion-peeling in hens' nests. 

 One of the best materials for making hens' nests is 

 the outside peel of onions It will drive away if it 

 does not destroy hen lice. These peelings, or a piece 

 of the onion itself, ought to be always in nests where 

 hens are sitting on eggs. The warmth of the hen's 

 body will so scent her feathers that the lice will be 

 glad to clear out, and the hen will be equally glad to 

 have them do so. With a good place for rolling in the 

 dust, under cover, so that the dust will not be turned 



