1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1135 



the next two lengths let yonr spirit-level rest 

 on the end of E. D is the uneven surface 

 of dirt piled on the tiles. 



Now, some of you will ol)jeet, saying you 

 can not get a nice grade in this way. Well, 

 we had four-inch tiles and a pretty good fall. 

 so there was no difficulty in laying the tiles 

 ,st> they would work perfectly. In case you 

 want something more exact, just stretch a 

 ■ line of wire or even very strong twine over 

 your head, with just the amount of fall you 

 want the bottom of the drain to have. This 

 conl or wii'e should be high enough to clear 

 your heat! while digging on the surface of 

 the ground. AVheu you have got it on just 

 the incline you want it for the liottom of 

 your ditch, cut a stick that will just reach 

 from the top of the tile E to the wire over- 

 head: or, if you choose, from the ])ottom of 

 the ditch where the tile is to lie, to the wire 

 overhead. Keep this stick right along with 

 you while you dig, and you can easily tell 

 when you have got the bottom just right. 

 •The wire overhead should be pulled very 

 tight, and supported at frequent intervals. 

 In order that the supports may be out of the 

 way, drive two tong stakes each side of 

 your ditch, say three feet away on each side. 

 This will make the stakes six feet apart. 

 Now nail a cross-piece from one stake to the 

 other, the exact height you want it. Winil 

 the wire ai"ouud this cross-piece and have 

 these supports near enough so that, when 

 you sight through from end to end of your 

 wire, there is no visible sag. As a matter of 

 course, when you get to the end of the ditch 

 you will have some tiles uncovered, and the 

 dirt that you threw out must be wheeled 

 from the end where you started: or if your 

 line of tiling is too long, get some more ilirt 

 from a nearby place. 



It may be urged that, if a rainstorm comes 

 (•n. your ditch will till up with water and 

 have no outlet. This can be olniated by 

 commencing at the outlet instead of up to 

 the wall of the house as we ■ did. In that 

 case, if your ditch gets deeper into the ground 

 as you progress, you would have to leave 

 little piles of surface dirt to Ije taken away or 

 moved up to the point where you stop. 

 Throw this dirt on some boards, an old <loor. 

 or. l)etter still, a piece of canvas, and then 

 you can pick it all up quickly without dis- 

 ligurement to your lawn ov other grounds. 



Now I submit the matter to those who 

 have ilone a good deal of tile-laying. Is it 

 not worth while to adopt a plan whereby the 

 dirt may be handled h/d oiicc'^ And then 

 there is another thing: When you have the 

 ridge of dirt piled up along your ditch, ami 

 a severe rainstorm comes on. it is a nasty 

 mess to get liack again. If you wait until it 

 dries off, then it is a good deal more W(jrk 

 to handle than to handle fresh dirt. If it is 

 thrr)wn on to grass or weeds it is still more 

 ditficult to get it all back into the ditch 

 again. Of course, where you have a big job 

 you can plow the dirt l)ack with a team. I 

 am familiar, I think, with most of the short 

 cuts in tile drainage — not only those given in 

 our own book, but l)y other authors — and I 



have never seen my plan of moving the dirt 

 Imt once (and having the job all finished, as 

 you go along) mentipned. Once before 

 when we were laying some IH-inch sewer- 

 pipe I adopted the same plan — had the man 

 who was digging throw the dirt on top of 

 the two-foot piece that he had just placed in 

 the bottom of the ditch.* 



A couple of weeks have now passed, and 

 we have had several good showers since the 

 dit(4ies were laid through our lawn; but the 

 jolj was so well done that one can hardly 

 find the place where the ditch was made 

 through. In fact, no one would ever notice 

 there had been any distigui'ement unless you 

 took pains to point out to him where tiie 

 ditch had been cut through. 



SELECTING YOUH SEED POTATOES AT DIG- 

 GING-TIME. TO BE PLANTED ANOTHER 

 YEAR, ETC. 



In our last issue I gave you a glimpse of 

 what wonderful things have been accomplish- 

 ed by the use of lietter seed in planting corn. 

 Our Ohio Experiment Station has issued a 

 little bulletin, dated June 15. 1906. No. 58. on 

 the early and late blight of potatoes, and how 

 to combat them. Well, this circular strikes 

 on doing the same thing with potatoes that 

 Prof. Holden recommends for corn. In our 

 potato-book I gave the results of selecting 

 seed from certain hills that stayed green aft- 

 er all the rest were withered and dead. This 

 seed, when planted, gave us entire rows of 

 potatoes that remained green when all the 

 rest were dead. Here is what the Experi- 

 ment Station says in regard to it: 



When dug- and weighed it was found that the aver- 

 age total yield of the resistant rows was 2.5 per cent 

 greater than of the non-resistant row, and the yield 

 of marketable potatoes was 4ii per cent greater. 



Besides the selection of blight-resistant varieties, 

 there is no doubt that much can be done in the way of 

 building up varieties which will be resistant to the 

 early blight by selecting seed from resistant hills. 

 All of the extra labor necessary is to go over the rows, 

 when most of the vines are badly blighted, and drive 

 a stake at each hill which shows a resistant tendency, 

 these hills to be dug by hand and saved for seed. 



When digging, all hills which are poor in yield, even 

 though they may have been very resistant to blight, 

 should be thrown out. By islanting the seed and sav- 

 ing all of the product to plant for seed another year, 

 a sufficient quantity can be secured in two or three 

 seasons to plant a considerable area. In the Station 

 tests, the seed from resistant hills has retained that 

 characteristic for three years. 



HOW IT PAYS TO SPRAY FOR BLIGHT. 



In regard to the benefit of spraying for 

 blight, the same circular gives us the follow- 

 ing: 



Soon after the spraying of August .5th had been 

 made, the vines on the unsprayed area were blighted 

 very badly. The difference between the sprayed and 

 the unsprayed vines became more marked each day 

 until the first of September, when the unsprayed vines 



* The steeper you pile the dirt on the line D. the less 

 distance you will have to pitch it: and you could put 

 in three tiles at a time instead of two if you do not 

 ob,iect to throwing the dirt a little further. In the 

 diagram, I have represented cutting down two steps 

 in depth; and with good soil and a nice slender (SO-in. 

 blade) tiling-spade you coirid get down three feet by 

 making only two steps. If you prefer, however, to 

 make three it will do just as well, but you would have 

 to throw the dirt a little further on the first spading. 



