366 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1920 



peek or $8.00 a bushel. In that article in 

 April Gleanings I told you I received 

 $25.00 for the potatoes dug from four rows 

 120 feet long. Well, that same long bed 

 now contains a better stand of potatoes 

 than those that brought the $25.00. How 

 is that for Florida, in one single winter 

 of just six months'? Below is a picture of 

 that bed of potatoes. 



Four rows of potatoes, 120 feet loug, the second 

 croi) grown in one winter, at Bradentown, Fla. 



Why do the people of Manatee County 

 permit me, alone, year after year, to grow 

 all the winter potatoes? Well, they say 

 the business is a " gamble." So it is, to 

 some extent. Almost every winter frost 

 catches me niore or less, but here comes 

 in my new method. By starting in a pro- 

 tected bed or a bed that can easily be pro- 

 tected, I save three and sometimes four 

 Aveeks. They transplant so easily, the po- 

 tatoes don't know it, and people who see 

 them next day " don't know it." I have 

 told you all about it, over and over again. 

 Now, let us go back briefly to where I 

 started. If almost everything, as well as 

 daily bread, has advanced, and is still ad- 

 vancingj kind, patient " old Dame Nature " 



has not raised her price " one iota." If 

 you talk about hiring help to " make gar- 

 den," I admit that the cost has advanced, 

 but that is a different matter. This is the 

 point. Dear old Dame Nature pays old 

 men like myself just as liberally for their 

 work in the garden, as she ever did, and if 

 the sunshine and showei-s cost any more 

 than they used to cost, I haven't heard of it. 



There is one thing more, that is the 

 '■ same old price." . The wind that blows 

 over our heads, day and night, has not ad- 

 vanced. This same " cold North wind," 

 that has made such havoc all over the great 

 North, is now running that auto, and of 

 late, lighting my study, warming it up 

 when needed by a beautiful little electric 

 radiator; and still further, cooking my 

 meals, at least to a certain extent. I never 

 ate any nicer Hamburg steak, than that 

 cooked right on the table by a beautiful 

 little electric " gi-ill." With the two wind- 

 mills, all the batteries are easily kept fully 

 charged. 



Later, — I am now back in my home in 

 Medina, Ohio; and instead of finding po- 

 tatoes worth $6.00 a bushel, which I 

 thought an awful price down in Florida, I 

 find the following announcement in the 

 Cleveland Plain Dealer for May 1 : 



NEW POTATOES HIT 25-CENTS-LB. 

 MARK 



HASTINGS VARIETY WHOLESALE AT $30 A 

 BARREL. 



At 25 cents a pound, you will notice this 

 would be $15.00 a bushel — not a barrel, 

 mind you, but $15.00 for one bushel of new 

 potatoes grown in Florida; and at that 

 price per bushel they would probably re- 

 tail at $4.00 a peek. " Did you ever ! " 



Well, now perhaps the great wide Avorld 

 will listen to me when I urge again that 

 Irish potatoes, at least a few of them, 

 should be started in almost every home, in 

 a protected bed. Today is May 4; and in- 

 stead of the fields being green with oats 

 in this stiff clay region, there has been such 

 a succession of rains that scarcely a field 

 has been touched by the plow or anything 

 else. Of course no one could plant potatoes 

 just now, even if they were $4.00 a peck. 

 Now see where my invention comes in. 

 Start your potatoes in a bed which can be 

 covered with sashes, and these same sashes 

 that now protect fi'om frost will keep off 

 the rain when it is not wanted; and when 

 the time comes that the ground can be 

 worked out in the open, instead of plant- 

 ing a piece of potato you can plant a little 

 hill of potatoes having big bushy roots and 

 some green tops. 



