t40 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



years ago in'a book called "Miner's Domes- 

 tic Poultry-book." It was the first poultry 

 book I ever saw or heard of, and to my boy- 

 ish imagination it was a veritable gold- 

 mine. Miner advised putting a piece of 

 liver in a stone crock and covering it most- 

 ly with bran, but allowing enough of the 

 meat to be exposed so the flies could get 

 at it. While down on Shumard's island, 

 where they catch and clean great quanti- 

 ties of fish, he told m.e his chickens almost 

 lived on the larvse of the fly, and, if I am 

 correct, he said he feared ttiey neglected 



other food to such an extent that they 

 stopped laying. I should be a little cau- 

 tious about feeding chickens meat that 

 smells bad, especially as so many of the 

 poultry-journals have declared it would 

 make trouble. As I take it, your plan of 

 ridding the neighborhood of flies is to coax 

 them all to some out-of-the way spot where 

 they will lay eggs that will never be per- 

 mitted to hatch out. In this way you se- 

 cure a sort of race suicide. If a fly can not 

 bring to maturity any offspring they will 

 soon all be gone. 



POTATOES ON THE "HALF-SHELL;" ALSO 

 SOMETHING IN REGARD TO " GILT- 

 EDGE " POTATOES FOR QUALITY. 



In my boyhood days we children (for I 

 was one of a family of seven — three older 

 and three younger than myself) were very 

 fond of having a little fire outdoors for roast- 

 ing potatoes. We not only got our fingers 

 blackened, but I fear our good mother had 

 quite a time in getting the black off from 

 our faces. You see our potatoes that were 

 served on the half-shell were not even ' ' shell- 

 ed " at all. You know how much is said 

 nowadays about the beneficial effects of 

 charcoal for chickens and other animals. 

 Well, we children had the charcoal all right, 

 as well as the delicious roasted potatoes. 

 Now, this expression, " potatoes on the half- 

 shell," came from an article in the October 

 number of the Farm Journal; and it so 

 vividly recalled to memory those childhood 

 days I have been speaking about that I want 

 to copy it. 



POTATO DAY AT CARBONDALE; THE LAND WHERE 

 PEACHBLOWS GROW TO PERFECTION. 



One of the agricultural fete days of the West is 

 " I'otato Day " at Carbondale, Colo. It is celebrat- 

 ed each year oii the last Saturday in October. On 

 that day the Potato Growers' Association of the 

 Valley, from a mammoth tent put up in the center 

 of the town, serves thousands of visitors with Car- 

 bondale potatoes baked and stuflfed in the half- 

 shell. In booths near by are fancy Carbondale po- 

 tatoes of many varieties on exhibition. 



The Carbondale potato, although a more newly 

 perfected product of ( 'olorado soil than the Rocky 

 Ford melon and the ( Irand Junction apple, is fast 

 receiving equal recognition with them in eastern 

 markets. Tt took its biggest jump into prominence 

 last fall when in whirlwind succession it carried ofl 

 the grand prize at the ( 'olorado State Fair, the Hrst 

 prize at the ( )maha Corn Exposition, and the first 

 prize at the Chicago Land Show. There are several 

 Carbondale potato-ranches of from 1000 to 3000 acres 

 in size. One of these is owned by the Cleveland 

 millionaire, H. W. E. Yeomans. Most of the val- 

 ley, however, is in the hands of small growers who 

 are applying intensive methods of cultivation to 

 tracts of small acreage. 



The land is economically irrigated from the Crys- 

 tal and Roaring Fork rivers, which traverse the re- 

 gion. The soil is disintegated granite, and sand- 

 stone amply supplied with phosphates and potash. 

 The wash from the neighboring mountains keeps 

 its vitality constantly renewed. The climate, due 

 to an altitude of 6000 feet, is ideally suited to the 

 best development of the potato. Under these ad- 

 mirable soil and climatic conditions, by careful 

 seed selection and scientific methods of cultivation, 

 the Carbondale farmers have l)rought the Peach- 

 blow to a perfection that has not been elsewhere 

 equaled. It commands top prices in New York and 

 other eastern cities. 



G Itiis not only the quality of the potatoes raised at 

 Carbondale that is making the region famous as 

 the habitat of the spud: but in quantity produced 

 it is breaking records. The yields are reaching 

 enormous figures. Five hundred bushels have been 

 grown on a single acre. Yields of 300 bushels are 

 common. 

 Canon City, Colo. Florence L. Clark. 



If Carbondale, Col., has succeeded in mak- 

 ing its locality "famous" in the same way 

 the Rocky Ford region has become famous 

 for its 7nelons, they are certainly doing a 

 wonderful thing for the lovers of fine-flavor- 

 ed potatoes as well as setting a good example 

 before potato-growers. 



SWEET CLOVER COMING TO THE FRONT. 



A few issues back I said a certain article 

 in one of the poultry-journals was worth 

 $10.00 to me; butsomeof my friends thought 

 me a little extravagant. But The Dakota 

 Farmer of Nov. 1 gives us an account of a 

 single article that might be worth §1000 to 

 any good farmer. What do you suppose 

 said article was about? Why, our poor 

 abused old friend sweet clover We clip the 

 following from the paper in question: 

 a thousand-dollar article. 



At the State Fair, at Huron. I heard a man say 

 that on page 924 of the September 1st issue of The 

 Dakota Farmer there was an article worth 81000 to 

 any good farmer. The article was " Melilotus, or 

 Sweet Clover," by F. H. Hoyt. 



At first thought it seems ridiculous to think of a 

 newspaper article being worth SlOOO to one man; 

 but let us look into this matter a little: 



Can any farmer in South Dakota afford to prac- 

 tice wrong methods? Can he afford to think wrong 

 for one year — or, what is just as fatal, be thought- 

 less? The next thing to doing wrong is thinking 

 wrong. 



What I am getting at is this: The farmers of the 

 Northwest have wrong thoughts in regard to the 

 plant known as sweet clover. Mr. Hoyt in his arti- 

 cle has endeavored to set them right, and ifs worth 

 SlOOO to any farmer who fully comprehends it. 



In certain localities in this Northwest during the 

 present year, farmers can be found who tilled 160 

 acres of land and didn't harvest a dollar's worth of 

 crop. They will tell you it was too dry. Now, if a 

 farmer had 40 acres of sweet clover— as dry as the 

 season was — he could have put up two crops of 

 sweet-clover hay, or 4 tons per acre— 160 tons on the 

 40 acres— and that at S8.00 per ton would be worth 

 S1280 from the 40 acres, giving him SlOOO for his 

 knowledge and S280 for his work on 40 acres. And 

 besides this he could have followed it with wheat 

 the next year, and been almost sure of a large crop. 



All I can say is, read Mr. Iloyfs article again in 

 the September 1st issue of The Dakota Farmer, and 

 prove for yourselves the truth of it. 



Vermillion, S. D. R, A. Morgan. 



