HO IV MUCH SEED SHOULD IVE SOW. 



102 



can be grown in the north . Were they grown in sufficient 

 quantities to market, they would sell for more money in 

 Philadelphia or New York markets than any northern 

 potatoes offered, but so far as we know, none are sent 

 to the larger markets, though at least one dealer in 

 Maryland makes a specialty of them and is able to sell 

 them at remunerative prices. 



The fact is that the talk about northern seed pota- 

 toes being so much superior to southern is "all bosh." 

 It is and has been the custom for a long time for our 

 border state farmers to send their potatoes to northern 

 markets in the spring to their commission men and re- 

 ceive, perhaps, fifty to sixty cents per bushel for Early 

 Rose potatoes, and order from the same commission men 

 northern-grown seed potatoes for which they were com- 

 pelled to pay $1 to $1.25 per bushel. 



An amusing true story, is told of a Caroline county, 

 Maryland, farmer who shipped some Early Rose 

 potatoes to his Philadelphia commission man and 

 at the same time ordered a barrel of the best 

 northern-grown Early Rose potatoes for planting. 

 In the meantime his jack-knife, which he highly 



prized, had been lost and could not be found, bu* 

 when his barrel of seed was unpacked his knife was 

 found among the potatoes ! It was the identical barrel 

 of potatoes sent by the farmer to the commission man, 

 and returned as "best northern seed potatoes." Seed 

 potatoes that have the most unexpended vitality will give 

 the best results. Potatoes grown in the far north and 

 kept there or elsewhere in a dormant condition till 

 planting time have the most starch and other nutriment 

 for the young plant. If their vitality has been ex- 

 pended in sprouting, as is often the case, they cannot 

 support the young plant until it is able to draw its 

 nourishment from the soil, and it fails to produce a full 

 crop. This is why second crop potatoes, grown where 

 second crops are possible, give the largest yields. 



Delaware. R. W. Hargadine. 



[Note. — The potatoes procured from T. C. Davenport, 

 in the tests under discussion, were obtained purposely for 

 the experiment, and were Pennsylvania grown, as stated 

 in the article in The American Garden for November. 

 — L. H.B.] 



HOW MUCH SEED 



Professor Bailey's comments on my remarks in 

 the December number of The American Garden, 

 page 455, somewhat surprise me. He says : "Some 

 of Mr. Harris's comments are wide of the mark and 

 demand modification in the interest of a record of 

 facts." But he does not say in what respect they 

 should be modified. The point I wished to make 

 was that no experiment has been made. Many of 

 our agricultural and horticultural papers have quoted 

 Professor Bailey's bulletin on this subject, and evi- 

 dently considered what he calls a "record of facts" 

 as an "experiment." No experiments were made. 

 All that Professor Bailey did was to sow different 

 seeds, and ascertain the quantity sowed. So far, 

 so good. If others would do the same thing and 

 give us a record of the facts, it would be found that 

 some sowed more and some less (of certain seeds), 

 but a thousand of such observations would not be 

 worth as much as a dozen well planned and well 

 tried experiments, such as Professor Bailey is capa- 

 ble of making. 



Professor Bailey says that he sent circulars to 50 truck 

 gardeners on Long Island, asking them how much seed 

 they sowed on given areas of land. This is a good thing 

 for an editor to do, but we are looking to our experiment 

 stations for actual experiments, and not for the opinions 

 and practices of farmers and gardeners. 



Of the 50 gardeners. Professor Bailey tells us that 

 "eight parties gave definite replies," and he tabulates 



SHOULD WE SOW. 



the results and makes no comments. None are needed. 

 If the whole fifty had replied, the table would have been 

 useful as a " record of facts. ' ' But those of us who have 

 had the most experience are looking to the experiment 

 stations for definite information. We know the need of 

 it, and we do not care about votes and resolutions unless 

 we know who is voting. At a meeting of the N. Y. 

 Dairymen's Association, the late Professor L. B. Arnold 

 offered in sober seriousness the following resolution : 

 "Resolved, that green corn fodder is an excellent food 

 for cows"; and the resolution was solemnly passed, the 

 voters evidently thinking that the cows after that must 

 give lots of milk (when fed corn fodder). The fact is, it 

 is easier to write and talk and pass resolutions than to 

 make careful and repeated experiments. But this is not 

 what we want. 



In regard to peas I said, "many of us make the rows 

 three inches wide, and if the peas stood three abreast 

 they would stand 2)4 inches apart in the row." My ob- 

 ject was to show that Professor Bailey sows his peas 

 decidedly thin. The printers made me say "rows" 

 when I wrote "peas," and Professor Bailey seems to 

 think I make rows three inches wide and drop rows 

 abreast. Of course I do nothing of the kind. For a 

 garden crop we make the rows from three to four feet 

 apart, according to the variety. We set a line and make 

 a row about three inches wide with a hoe, and drop the 

 peas, one in the middle and one on each side, and about 

 an inch apart in the row. This would take nearly three 

 times as many peas to a given length of row as Professor 

 Bailey sowed. Now whether Professor Bailey is right 

 or whether I am right is precisely what we want to know. 



