696 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 1. 



Now, besides the bugs and the blight there 

 is one other trouble we have had to contend 

 with this year. The scab is fearfully bad on 

 certain varieties. You may remember I bought 

 a barrel of potatoes of one of our friends who 

 thought they never would be scabby. I plant- 

 ed them on our worst ground for scab, and the 

 product is the worst lot of scabby potatoes I 

 ever saw. I also bad some russet pota'oes 

 that were claimed to be exempt from scab. I 

 think they are a httle better than some other 

 kinds, but a great many of them are quite 

 scabby. There certainly is a great difference 

 in varieties. Our Carman No. 3, Sir Walter 

 Raleigh, and Mills' Prize, are comparatively 

 free from scab ; and the New Craig is, we 

 might say, entirely free. This year, like all 

 other years since we have had it, it seems to 

 be almost proof against bugs, blight, and scab ; 

 but, sad to tell, it does not behave thus in all 

 other localities. In fact, the Ohio Experiment 

 Station reported that it seenn d to be particu- 

 larly susceptible to blight ; and yet I was going 

 to call it a blight-proof potato. Did you ever ! 



Now there is another thing about blight and 

 scab both — yes, and we might say bugs also. 

 As a rule, potatoes planted in July escape all 

 three. During the extremely hot weather the 

 last of August, the blight began to show on 

 my late-planted potatoes. But we have had 

 abundant rains and cooler weather for about 

 ten days, and the potatoes have taken a new 

 start, and are just growing grandly. I think 

 we might grow even the Triumph without 

 blight if we could plant it so as to have it ma- 

 ture just before frost. We planted a few the 

 7th of July. These were from potatoes grown 

 this spring. They were doing grandly until 

 the severely hot weather about the first of 

 September, and then they began to blight, and 

 almost dried up. Since the rains and cool 

 weather, however, they too are starting up 

 green ; and if frost holds off we may get a fair 

 crop, 



Sept. 75. — I have just been down, raking 

 over the surface, and fixing them up, and I 

 pushed my hand into one of the hills and 

 pulled out a beautiful clean handsome potato 

 the size of a hen's egg. 



You may remember that I paid Wm. Henry 

 Maule S10 00 for a single potato just two years 

 ago. Well, this year I am going to have a big 

 story to tell you about the quantity of pota- 

 toes I grew in the two years, from just one 

 potato. They are not dug yet, however. I 

 put my fingers into one hill and pulled out 

 a potato that weighed 2% lbs. It is going to 

 be the largest potato, as a rule, that I know 

 any thing about ; but, unfortunately, it is not 

 as smooth and handsome a potato as the Car- 

 mans ; and, by the way, when we come to 

 quality, there is nothing in the whole list that 

 comes up to the Freeman, unless it is Mills' 

 Prize. The latter is not as handsome in shape 

 as Carman No. 3, but it comes pretty near it ; 

 and if the quality this year should be equal to 

 what it was last, I think I would place it at 

 the top of the heap for an all-round late pota- 

 to. Let me make a brief summary : 



The Triumph is the earliest ; Bovee comes 

 next ; the Early Ohio is the most popular early 



potato ; the Freeman is the best quality of any 

 thing, either early or late ; Carman No. 3 is 

 the handsomest ; and the New Craig, on our 

 grounds, is the nearest to being bug-proof, 

 blight-proof, and scab-proof. 



BUGS, POTATOES, AND COTTON-SEED MEAL. 



In regard to using cotton-seed meal on po- 

 tatoes, this is my experience this year : 



I planted two acres with 200 lbs. of meal in 

 the drill, per acre. In two rows I put double 

 that quantity in the drill. Right alongside 

 this patch was an acre and a half without any 

 thing on it except the potatoes. The potato- 

 bugs attacked the entire patch, "without fear 

 or favor." But one of your Faultless spray- 

 ers "laid them out." (Don't tell Mr. Tay- 

 lor.) M. S. Lusby. 



Nursery, Texas. 



Humbugs and Swindles. 



Just now there seems to be a good deal of 

 money got by advertising to teach hypnotism. 

 A subscriber of ours, away across the ocean, 

 sent to a man in Chicago, in answer to an ad- 

 vertisement. First he had to send 50 cents ; 

 but the fifty-cent book was mainly devoted to 

 advertising a larger one, the price of which 

 was 64.00. The little book was so sure the 

 four-dollar one would make the directions so 

 clear that any one could hypnotize folks, that 

 our friend sent on the $4.00. He received the 

 book ; but this, too, was devoted mainly to 

 telling about the wonderful things an expert 

 could accomplish in this line. But the author 

 stated that the only way to get to be a real old 

 hand at the business was to attend a school of 

 instruction. I think this instruction could be 

 given by mail, where the parties were off at a 

 great distance. Said " instruction " required 

 $50. 00, and our subscriber was asking me if I 

 could ascertain whether Prof. So and So was 

 reliable. We located the man, and found on 

 inquiry that he was getting a good deal of 

 money from some source, and lived in pretty 

 big style, but did not seem to own any thing. 



Just now a professor hailing from Jackson, 

 Mich., is sending out circulars of similar im- 

 port. His course of 20 lessons costs $5.00. 



Now, friends, this whole business is simply 

 a revival of an old humbug and swindle. 

 When you get to the point where you are pre- 

 pared to believe every thing some humbug 

 professor says, where you promise to do every 

 thing he tells you, no doubt some very curious 

 things may be accomplished ; but the state- 

 ment that one man can hypnotize another, 

 whether he consents to be hypnotized or not, 

 is a point-blank falsehood ; and the statement 

 that any one can be hypnotized is another 

 falsehood. There are some wonderful things, 

 it is true, that can be accomplished along the 

 line of clairvoyance and hypnotism ; but you 

 will find it is safe to let the whole thing en- 

 tirely alone. Its victims usually get into idi- 

 otic or insane asylums, and it is a great pity 

 the "professors" who take their money are 

 not equally sure to get into penitentiary^ for life. 



