1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



to kill tomato-vines, injured grapes. We have 

 been in the habit of saying that grapes are 

 never really sweet until they have been through 

 one pretty good frost. But this time they got 

 "sweetened" with a "vengeance." They 

 were frozen as hard as bullets, and some of 

 them actually burst open. Of course, there 

 was not any more growth of potatoes after 

 that severe frost ; but we grew a second crop 

 of the Triumph, and the vines all died down 

 before the frost "happened." This year the 

 frost came rather earlier than usual. 



Our buckwheat, sown about the first of Au- 

 gust, is, so far as seed is concerned, mostly a 

 failure. There was considerable ripe seed when 

 the frost took it, but I judge not enough to 

 pay for harvesting. There is enough, howev- 

 er, so the hens are having quite a picnic in 

 picking the grain from the drooping heads. I 

 should have had a magnificent yield if the 

 frost had held off ten days longer. But as it 

 is, it will make a splendid mulch for the crim- 

 son clover that just looks handsome as it 

 peeps through the blackened stalks of buck- 

 wheat ; and besides the crimson clover, we 

 put in a sprinkling of turnip seed. The tur- 

 nips look, too, as though they were very well 

 pleased to have the buckwheat and pusley get 

 out of the way with such alacrity. All three 

 crops were sown on our rich creek-bottom po- 

 tato-ground, and somehow pusley has got in 

 of late ; and around the edges of the field, or 

 wherever there is a place, the pusley was mak- 

 ing a most enormous growth, and I really 

 thought of having one of the men clean it out, 

 because it looked so bad, only about a week 

 ago. But the pusley is not anywhere now ; so 

 you see a frost helps to get rid of a good many 

 pernicious weeds. Well, I imagine the pusley 

 and buckwheat are going to be just the sort of 

 mulch the crimson clover needs to have it do 

 its very best. There is plenty of moisture 

 now, and I do think crimson clover is about 

 the handsomest shade of green I ever saw any- 

 where. The buckwheat was growing so rank 

 it was rather crowding the clover, and I began 

 to doubt somewhat the expediency of having 

 two strong-growing crops on the same ground; 

 but now, you see, I am all right. If we had 

 poultry enough to gather all the grain, there 

 would not be any loss ; but I suppose the ri- 

 pened grain will be worth something as a fer- 

 tilizer. I once plowed under a crop of mam- 

 moth clover to sow to buckwheat. The clo- 

 ver was full of seed, and a neighbor told me 

 the clover seed would be worth more than any 

 crop of buckwheat I could grow ; and I have 

 always thought that that clover seed had 

 something to do with the enormous crop of 

 buckwheat that I took off from the ground in 

 a very short space of time. 



We are just now getting in wheat where we 

 dug our potatoes. The first week in October 

 is a little late, but with our rich ground the 

 wheat will be strong enough ; and next spring 

 I am going to sow mammoth peavine clover on 

 the wheat, and get the biggest growth I possi- 

 bly can, and then plow every bit of it under 

 for potatoes. I saw it stated somewhere, that 

 where anybody wanted clover to plow under, 

 and for no other purpose, and did not expect 



to cut or feed a leaf of it, peavine clover is the 

 clover above all others. 



POTATOES UNDER STRAW. 

 The experiment that I had hoped so much 

 for was a good deal injured in result by the 

 severe drouth, as I have mentioned; but it has 

 given me some pointers. The potatoes are of 

 excellent quality, nice shape where the straw 

 was in sufficient quantity, and almost entirely 

 free from scab and blight. July 12 the boys 

 found two Rural New-Yorker potatoes that 

 had been overlooked. They were wilted, 

 sprouted-, and not at all in good order; but we 

 cut them to one eye, and planted them near 

 the strawstack, under the damp rotten straw. 

 I noticed once or twice they had sent up some 

 very thrifty shoots, and were growing quite 

 well. When digging the potatoes out of the 

 straw the boys were surprised on finding a 

 dozen or more of the handsomest Rural New- 

 Yorker potatoes — in fact, the handsomest po- 

 tatoes I ever saw in my life of any kind. They 

 were as clean and white as water would wash 

 them, and as round and smooth as an apple. 

 For some time back I have been wondering 

 what a potato would be like if it could expand 

 in all directions without any pressure from the 

 earth surrounding it. Well, here we had it — 

 the natural shape of the potato when grown 

 without hindrance from any environment. 

 These potatoes grew in about 72 days (the 

 frost came Oct. 1st), and their growth was al- 

 most all made right during the drouth. Now, 

 I am going to try that over again next year. 

 The straw that we have used this year will an- 

 swer all right another season, I am sure, at 

 least so far as it goes ; but I think I shall cul- 

 tivate the ground and work it up nice and 

 mellow under the potatoes so the roots can get 

 down into the earth if they want to. Then I 

 am going to have straw enough to keep them 

 damp and cool all through the season ; and, 

 finally, I am not going to have the chickens 

 working in it next year as they did last. The 

 greater part of the potatoes were right near 

 their quarters ; and one day they would hoist 

 the straw one way and the next day the next. 

 By the way, what an azvful amount of muscu- 

 lar work an enterprising hen will do in one 

 day, any way, especially when she finds some 

 rotten straw or chaff to dig or scratch in ! All 

 around the poultry-house they pulled the 

 straw off from the potatoes so persistently 

 they were not only greened but brozvned by 

 the hot sun. This spoils them for eating, but 

 it will not hurt them for planting. The Rural 

 — or better still, perhaps, Carman No. 3 — is an 

 especially nice potato, I think, to put under 

 straw. The tendency is to grow handsome in 

 shape any way; and under rotten straw they 

 would have a big chance to sustain their repu- 

 tation of being the handsomest potato, both 

 in size and shape, that the w ">rld has ever seen. 



maui/e's commercial potato. 

 In just two vears I have grown 40 bushels of 

 these potatos from one potato to start with. 

 The yield was certainly fair. The potatoes 

 were large, and some extra large; and if it had 

 not been for Carman No. 3 right alongside of 

 them I should have been quite enthusiastic 



