July, 1917 



GLEANING S IN BEE CULTURE 



559 



statistics are not yet obtainable, it is known that 

 tlie total yield will exceed 3000 solid carloads, which 

 moans fully 570,000 barrels, or over $4,000,000 net 

 to the growers. This vast sum has been dug out of 

 about 11,000 acres. 



HIGH - PRESSURE GARDENING WITH A VEN- 

 GEANCE; FORTY BUSHELS OF POTATOES 

 ON A PWT 6x8 FEET SQUARE. 



Some time during May I found in our 

 county paper, the Medina Gazette, an arti- 

 cle telling how the above feat was accom- 

 plished. Shortly afterward clipping's were 

 sent me by many friends. These clippings 

 were from different periodicals describing 

 the same thing. Most of the accounts were 

 from some of our Sunday dailies. After 

 some trouble I ascertained the man who 

 claimed he had performed the above feat 

 was R. E. Hendricks. I applied to him at 

 once for anything he might have in print 

 describing the invention. Below is his 

 reply : 



Mr. Root: — I am out of booklets now, but will 

 try to describe to you my plan. You can build a 

 pen 6 feet wide and 6 high, and as long as you 

 wish. I think 6 feet wide is best. The first dia- 

 gram represents 



the ground plan, 

 0x8 feet, 35 

 hills of potatoes 

 to each 6 inches 

 i n height o f 

 earth. Plant a 

 l)otato eye on 

 each one of the 

 cross-lines, 35 in 

 each layer of 

 dirt as shown 

 above ; then put 

 a little rotten 

 manure on the potatoes; then water each layer well 

 as fast as you plant them. The first row inside of 

 the pen must be 8 inches inside the pen line; then 

 space and mark olf and plant and repeat, making 

 each layer of dirt 6 inches deep (or high), one on 

 top of the other. The mark across the upper part 

 of the side ele- 

 vation is known 

 as a " moist- 

 tester." 



If you use 

 boards for the 

 pen, leave a 

 three-inch space 

 between each 

 t w o rows f 

 boards. Build 

 the pen as you 

 plant, and fill 

 the thi-ee' - inch 

 space with hay 

 or straw, and 

 vines will grow out thru them all around the pen 

 and at top. Use wires crosswise thru the pen to 

 keep the sides from springing. 



The moist-tester may be made out of a pole about 

 4 inches in diameter and 3 feet long. Place it in 

 one side of the pen about two feet above ground. 

 After the potatoes have been planted three weeks, 

 pull the tester out and run your hand in and ex- 

 amine the dirt as to moisture, then repeat one or 

 two times after this. By so doing you can tell how 

 much water to use on the pen. Watch it closely, 



£A/0 £i.e{/AT/OA^ 



and keep the dirt 

 in proper condi- 

 tion. If there is 

 too much rain, 

 cover the pen up. 

 Thanking you for 

 copy of your jour- 

 nal, and wi.slung 

 you success, I 

 hope to hear from 

 you again. 

 U. E. Hi-:nm)RIC'ks. 

 2536 Ebnwood, 

 Kansas City, Mo. 



Please notice in the above he says nothing 

 about the forty or more bushels. Among 

 the clippings from the different periodicals 

 sent me is one from the San Francisco 

 Bulletin. This one clipping describes the 

 whole matter more in detail than the others, 

 and so I give it entire : 



42 BUSHELS OF POTATOKS GROWN ON EIGHT-FOOT 



PLOT; MISSOURI man's METHOD PROMISES TO 



REVOLUTIONIZE THE INDUSTRY. 



Forty-two bushels of potatoes in the season of 1916 

 from a plot of ground only eight feet square, or an 

 equivalent of over 28,000 bushels to the acre of 

 ground space used, was the astonishing feat of R. 

 E. Hendricks, a resident of Kansas City, Mo. 



Tills sensational achievement was made possible 

 by the use of an entirely new and original method 

 which, when generally introduced, promises not only 

 to revolutionize the potato-growing industry thruout 

 the world, but to solve the problem of an unfailing 

 source of cheap food supply for the nations of the 

 earth. 



The story of Hendrick's successful experiments in 

 potato-growing, covering a period of three years, 

 sounds more like a fairy tale than a recital of "facts, 

 yet it is so unique and interesting that it at once 

 compels attention. Expert gardeners and farmers 

 who have looked into the plan carefully pronounced 

 it not only practical, but call the originator the great- 

 est plant wizard of the age, and declare that he has 

 anything in plant culture and intensive agriculture 

 beaten by a wide margin. 



Like all great discoveries, Hendi-icks' method of 

 raising potatoes is founded on such simple elemental 

 principles that one wonders " why some one didn't 

 think of it before." He had often watched the po- 

 tato-pile in the cellar-bin, which every spring sent 

 out its shoots thru every possible crack and crevice. 

 Sometimes these sprouts would crawl out along the 

 floor a distance of seven feet in order to reach the 

 light. From this beginning he conceived the idea 

 that if this pile were removed out into the open and 

 given soil and fertilizer, with proper conditions of 

 light and moisture, the potatoes would grow and re- 

 produce their kind. 



IN A POTATO-PEN. 



Three years ago he built what he called a "potato- 

 pen," which was nothing more nor less than a huge 

 potato-hill, the sides of which were supported by a 

 loosely constructed enclosure, built after the fashion 

 of an old rail fence. Within this enclosure, only 

 eight by eight feet in size, he planted his potatoes 

 in thin layers of dirt and manure, piling one layer on 

 another until the pen was eight feet high. The po- 

 tato-pen become a mound of green. 



He had found that his potatoes not only grew 

 better than they did in the cellar, but that at digging 

 time he was able to harvest 40 bushels of as fine 

 potatoes as are grown anywhere. The following year 

 he secured 32 bushels in the same-sized pen, and 

 last year the astonishing total of 42 bushels. 



Up to this time Hendricks had conducted his ex- 



