802 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



October, 1917 



HIGH - PRESSURE GARDENING 



SEED POTATOES BY MAIL. 



It is getting to be time, good friends, to 

 think about making preparations for pota- 

 toes for planting next season ; and our 

 friends down in Florida, many of them, are 

 prejjaring to plant at least a few potatoes 

 about the middle of this month of Septem- 

 ber. We do not know what seed potatoes 

 are going to cost, but they will probably be 

 pretty well up. Some time about the last 

 of March I saw the following in one of our 

 seed catalogs : 



POTATO EYES BY MAIL POSTPAID. 



For several years we have been furnishing our 

 customers good sound potato eyes by mail. It saves 

 high freight and allows you to get a start of new 

 varieties for a mere nothing. These potato eyes give 

 very best of satisfaction. Remember they come by 

 mail postpaid, and sure to grow. Try our new 

 kinds. At a very small expense you can grow an 

 experiment patch for exhibition. It is very inter- 

 esting and profitable; 75 eyes should produce a 

 bushel or more of good sound potatoes any variety. 



In order to have some early potatoes in 

 Ohio I sent $1.00 for 125 eyes as above. My 

 daughter here in Medina put them in her 

 greenhouse about the first of April in a box 

 of very rich comi^ost, mostly well-rotted 

 stable manure. When I got back about the 

 first of May there were 75 pretty good 

 strong plants. I gave them good care and 

 planted them outdoors about the middle of 

 May in good rich ground reinforced witli 

 some fine old stable manure. Today, Au- 

 gust 11, I have just finished digging, and 

 have got a good half-bushel of nice Six 

 Weeks potatoes. Let us now go back a 

 little. 



About April 1, 1 gave another dollar for a 

 P'?ck of Early Ohio potatoes. These Avere 

 bedded in good rich soil in the sun, pro- 

 tected nights until they made good strong 

 shoots and roots, as I described repeatedly 

 during the past winter; and this peck of po- 

 tatoes were cut to one or two eyes, and 

 planted in the open ground about the same 

 time I planted my Six Weeks potatoes; but 

 in spite of everything I could do the pota- 

 toes from eyes that cam.e by mail never grew 

 near as thrifty and strong as the Early 

 Ohio that had a good chunk of potato for 

 each plant. The trouble with the potato 

 eyes by mail was that they were cut too 

 small — that is, there was but very little po- 

 tato attaclied to each eye. Some of them 

 were not much larger than a nickel (potato, 

 eye, and all). May be the largest of them 

 was as large as a quarter; but they were 

 sliced vei'y thin. My opinion is that unless 

 there is a pretty good chunk of potato with 

 each eye, nothing can well make up for il. 



It is like bringing up babies oil some substi- 

 tute for mother's milk. Nature's provisions 

 for the young animal or for the young 

 plant cannot be very much imjaroved on. 

 Now for the Early Ohics. 



Erom the one peck I got about 10 pecks 

 of very nice potatoes, most of them large. 

 By the way, a point comes in right here 

 about Terry's plan of cutting to one eye. 

 The Six Weeks potatoes were, of course, 

 one eye. As a rule there was just one stalk 

 and no more, and the potatoes are almost in- 

 variably of good size — almost none of them 

 small. In several cases I found just one 

 good large potato in a hill. The one eye 

 and one stalk had given all its energies to 

 the support of just the one potato. If you 

 wish to avoid having little potatoes, follow 

 Terry, cutting to one eye; and if you wish 

 to go to the trouble you can pull out all 

 stalks but one. Some of our Early Ohios 

 are almost too large. Some writer years 

 ago said that 20 bushels of potatoes for one 

 planted was a very good crop; and that is 

 exactly one-half what I got from my Early 

 Ohios — 10 pecks from the one peck planted. 

 Perhaps I should add that a severe drouth, 

 just as the potatoes were beginning to ma- 

 ture, probably cut short the crop of both 

 kinds. The Six Weeks potato is probably 

 an improved variety of the Early Ohio. It 

 is a little earlier, looks very much like the 

 Early Ohio, and we think, as a rule, it is 

 of rather better quality. 



rHE " HIGH COST OF LIVING " — ^^SOMETHING 

 MORE IN REGARD TO IT. 



The following, from a good Canadian 

 friend, meets my hearty indorsement : 



THIS AFFECTS YOUR POCKETBOOK. 



I have no sympathy with the continual cry about 

 the "high cost of living." If we would take a few 

 moments to consider and change our ways, we 

 should soon have this vexed question solved. We throw 

 away or feed to the pigs much valuable food that 

 sliould 1 o used on the family table — for instance, 

 milk, shorts, bran, and potato peelings. Science 

 plainly proves that a quart of milk contains as much 

 human nourishment as two pounds of cliicken or two 

 pounds of beefsteak (prevailing prices here, milk 

 -0 cents per quart, chicken 28 cents per pound, and 

 beefsteak 30 cents per pound). Again, take the 

 skim milk that is considered almost worthless. We 

 are taught by science that it contains the bone and 

 muscle forming elements ; yet how few use a ,iug of 

 milk on the meal-table instead of the.nerve-wreckinT 

 tea and coffee! The milk is thrown to the pigs and 

 the tea given to the children, whereas it should le 

 uice fersa. Tlie bran and shorts — the mviscle and 

 bnne forming elements — are separated from the 

 v.'lica*. and the starchy part ground into flour. 

 The former is fed to the cattle, the latter to the 

 family : u licicas the whole wheat should be ground 

 iukI usc:I fur I, read and porridge, etc. 



