1892 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Chemicals  and  Celery.— IV. 
HOW  I  GREW  82,000  WORTH  ON  ONE  ACRE. 
Digging  and  Marketing  the  Crop. 
The  question  “  How  did  you  market  such  a  large 
crop  of  celery  ?  ”  has  been  often  asked  and  it  is  a  very 
important  question  judging  from  the  large  number  of 
inquiries  received. 
In  places  where  the  crop  had  grown  rankly  and 
rapidly  it  was  ready  for  market  in  August.  Two  large 
tubs  made  by  sawing  a  hogshead  in  two  were  taken  to 
the  field  to  hold  water  for  washing  the  celery.  A  man 
went  along  the  rows  digging  up  the  plants  with  a 
spading  fork  with  his  right  hand  and  pulling  them  up 
with  his  left  and  shaking  the  dirt  from  the  roots  by 
striking  them  against  the  handle  of  the  fork.  Then 
the  plants  were  stripped  of  wilted  stalks  and  carried 
to  the  washing  tubs. 
No  knife  was  used  on  the  Golden  Self-Blanching 
variety.  The  roots  were  left  on  and  the  plants  wrashed 
with  a  brush  broom  in  one  tub  and  rinsed  in  the  other, 
then  placed  on  a  table  where  they  were  bunched,  then 
packed  in  water-tight  boxes  or  racks — enough  water 
being  put  in  the  boxes  to  cover  the  roots.  Celery 
marketed  in  this  way  will  keep  good  one  week  in  the 
warm  summer  weather.  Commission  merchants  can 
then  ship  to  hotels  and  stores  throughout  the  country. 
This  is  the  greatest  improvement  ever  made  in  mar¬ 
keting  early  celery.  A  description  of  the  box  or  rack 
is  given  at  Fig.  105. 
These  racks  have  been  highly  praised  by  every  per¬ 
son  using  them.  They  are  made  to  hold  2  or  234  dozen 
each.  If  the  market  is  dull  and  part  of  the  load  is  un¬ 
sold  it  can  be  left  at  some  place  or  brought  home  and 
offered  for  sale  the  next  day  with  a  clear  conscience; 
for  it  will  be  as  good  as  the  celery  taken  up  24  hours 
later. 
The  increase  in  the  consumption  of  celery  the  last 
few  years  has  been  so  great  that  growers  have  not  kept 
up  with  the  demand.  Last  month — February — celery 
was  selling  in  Boston  for  84  per  dozen.  Three  or  four 
years  ago  but  small  quantities  were  sold  before  Thanks¬ 
giving.  Now  large  quantities  are  sold  in  August,  Sep¬ 
tember  and  October. 
To  keep  celery  brittle,  solid  and  salable  these  racks 
are  indispensable  during  the  warm  summer  weather. 
On  Thursdays  I  have  marketed  GO  or  70  dozens  to  com¬ 
mission  merchants,  they  selling  it  on  Fridays  and  Sat¬ 
urdays  to  markets  and  stores,  the  markets  keeping 
some  of  it  till  Tuesday  and  Wednesday  of  the  next 
week,  and  this  in  summer  with  the  thermometer  up  to 
60  and  80  degrees.  Early  celery  cannot  be  marketed 
successfully  without  these  racks.  A  few  customers  at 
first  will  object  to  the  roots  left  on,  but  after  they  see 
the  advantages  they  will  not  have  it  in  any  other  way. 
They  find  they  can  deliver  celery  to  consumers  fresh 
and  solid  with  the  roots  on.  When  celery  is  grown  and 
marketed  in  this  way  three  men  can  take  up  and  pre¬ 
pare  about  100  dozens  in  a  day.  n.  niven. 
Practical  Potato  Points. 
“Chemicals  and  Clover”  Stand  by  Us! 
83,500  FROM  THAT  “CHEMICAL”  JERSEY  FARM. 
We  have  had  much  to  say  about  the  100-acre  farm  of 
Mr.  D.  C.  Lewis  in  New  Jersey.  In  1889,  Mr.  Lewis 
sold  products  to  the  value  of  83,116.73,  and  in  1890  to 
the  value  of  82,435.20.  We  now  have  his  statement 
for  1891,  which  follows: 
“The  products  of  my  farm  having  been  nearly  all 
disposed  of  for  the  year  ending  April  1,  1892,  I  am 
able,  by  estimating  the  price  of  a  few  articles  at  figures 
which  are  under  rather  than  over  the  actual  amount, 
to  give  the  gross  sales  for  the  year,  and  while  prices 
have  not  been  high,  I  am  enabled  to  give  a  better 
showing  than  in  any  previous  year,  so  that  chemicals 
and  clover  continue  to  stand  by  me  in  my  rotation, 
which  is  corn,  potatoes,  wheat  and  hay.  Some  pork 
and  milk,  and  a  few  chickens  and  eggs  are  also  sold. 
My  stock  still  consists  of  one  team  of  horses,  another 
of  mules,  and  four  cows.  I  also  give  the  amount  of 
fertilizer  used  during  the  last  year — a  slight  increase 
over  the  quantity  in  any  former  year.  I  applied  dur¬ 
ing  the  year  on  potatoes,  corn  and  wheat,  16  tons  400 
pounds,  with  the  following 
results  as  the 
total  sales 
from  the  farm  during  the  year. 
Corn  and  wheat . 
Hay . 
Potatoes . 
Pork  and  calves . 
Miscellaneous  Items . 
Chickens,  eggs  and  milk . 
Sales  In 
1891. 
....  $023  01 
751  69 
....  1,676  53 
174  29 
33  35 
284  30 
Sales  in 
1889. 
$461  22 
925  00 
1,304  16 
362  16 
64  19 
Total . 
...  $3,544  77 
$3,116.73 
D.  C. 
LEWIS.” 
For  the  sake  of  comparison  we  have  added  the  sales 
of  1889.  It  appears  that  Mr.  Lewis  sold  less  meat  and 
more  eggs,  receiving  less  money  for  hay  and  more  for 
grain  and  potatoes.  The  corn  brought  more  because 
there  was  more  of  it  to  sell  as,  instead  of  being  fed  to 
stock,  it  was  sold  as  grain.  The  sales  of  hay,  grain 
and  potatoes,  the  three  staples  of  the  farm,  amounted 
to  82,690.38  in  1889,  and  to  83,051.83  in  1891  ;  while  the 
stock  products  amounted  to  8426.35  and  8492.94  for  the 
same  years.  Last  year  was  a  good  season  for  pota¬ 
toes  ;  but  a  poor  one  for  grass.  Prices  for  potatoes 
were  low,  but  the  crop  was  large  enough  to  make  good 
returns.  There  cannot  be  a  season  when  grass,  grain 
and  potatoes  will  all  fail,  and  at  least  once  in  three  or 
four  years  potatoes  are  sure  to  bring  a  high  price. 
Thus  it  is  that,  in  the  long  run,  with  this  rotation*  Mr. 
Lewis  is  sure  of  a  good  average  of  sales.  For  example, 
take  the  sales  for  the  last  three  years,  which  include 
two  extremes  of  very  wet  and  very  dry  growing  sea¬ 
sons.  The  sales  were  83,116.73,  83,435.20  and  $3,544.77 — 
a  total  of  $9,096.70,  or  an  average  of  $3,032.23,  and  the 
beauty  of  it  is  that  the  farm  will  now  produce  more 
than  it  would  three  years  ago. 
“Chemicals  and  Clover”  in  Rhode  Island. 
NO  USE  FOR  “  THE  MACHINE  CALLED  COW.” 
Here  in  Rhode  Island  I  have  practiced  the  system 
outlined  in  the  little  book  with  the  above  name,  for 
seven  years ;  but  in  a  way  a  little  different  from  that 
mentioned,  and  it  has  proved  very  satisfactory.  I 
never  plant  corn  and  do  not  like  a  newly  turned  sod  for 
potatoes,  because  I  cannot  get  the  soil  fine  enough  be¬ 
fore  planting.  I  tried  turning  the  sod  as  soon  as  the 
grass  was  taken  off  in  the  last  of  June,  and  using  what 
stable  manure  I  had  on  top  of  the  furrows  and  harrow¬ 
ing  it  in  and  sowing  the  ground  with  barley,  Hun¬ 
garian  Grass  or  buckwheat.  I  have  always  had  a  good 
crop,  and  after  taking  it  off  I  turn  the  stubble  in  late 
in  the  fall.  By  this  method  two  stubbles  were  turned 
in  and  two  crops  taken  from  the  ground  the  last  year 
before  planting.  In  the  winter  I  apply  a  little  more 
stable  manure,  and  in  the  spring  plow  and  harrow  till 
the  ground  is  in  good  condition  for  planting  potatoes, 
using  1,600  pounds  of  some  good  potato  fertilizer  to 
the  acre  in  the  furrow  after  the  potatoes  have  been 
dropped  and  lightly  covered  with  fine  soil.  With  good 
cultivation  through  the  season  the  crop  speaks  for 
A,  20x4  Inches;  B,  14J^  x  4.  Top  pieces,  C,  lJ4-incb  wide,  %-lneh 
thick.  Posts,  D,  12  Inches  long,  one  inch  square.  The  box  Is  made  of 
94-inch  stuff.  The  joints  are  mitered  and  painted  before  nailing  to¬ 
gether.  The  posts  are  nailed  on  the  Inside  of  the  corners.  Painted 
Inside  and  out  with  any  color— white  preferred. 
itself.  It  is  four  times  greater  than  it  was  when  I  used 
stable  manure  without  the  chemicals.  The  next  season 
the  ground  is  seeded  with  barley  or  oats,  and  the  crop 
is  good  enough  without  extra  manure,  and  there  is 
always  a  good  crop  of  clover. 
Three  years  ago  I  varied  the  plan  by  plowing  the 
crop  of  grass  in  about  the  middle  of  June,  and  sowing 
with  buckwheat  as  before,  and  I  think  I  shall  like  this 
plan  the  best,  as  by  it  is  saved  the  time  required  for 
cutting,  curing  and  carting  the  crop  to  the  barn  and 
then  putting  it  through  the  machine  called  a  cow,  and 
getting  it  well  saturated  with  water  again,  and  then 
carting  it  back  to  the  same  spot  where  it  was  the  year 
before.  I  cannot  see  where  it  has  gained  anything  by 
all  of  this  work,  unless  something  has  been  added  to  it 
in  the  way  of  a  rich  grain  ration. 
Last  year  I  planted  a  small  piece  of  potatoes  on  some 
ground  treated  according  to  the  last  plan,  without 
stable  manure ;  but  I  used  1,600  pounds  of  potato 
fertilizer  to  the  acre.  A  fraction  less  than  30  rods  of 
ground  was  planted  with  the  Rural  No.  2,  and  it 
produced  75  heaping  bushels.  I  liked  the  appearance 
of  the  ground  so  well  after  I  had  turned  the  grass  and 
the  buckwheat  stubble  that  I  thought  I  would  try  to 
do  a  little  better.  In  July,  1891,  I  plowed  in  a  piece 
of  lodged  clover  that  had  been  sown  the  previous  year 
for  the  purpose,  with  20  pounds  of  clover  seed  per  acre 
without  any  other  fine  seed.  The  clover  was  so  large 
that  a  good  deal  was  not  covered  by  the  plow ;  but  I 
sowed  and  harrowed  buckwheat ;  it  came  up  all  right 
and  grew  finely,  and  as  there  was  no  early  frost,  it 
ripened  all  right  and  produced  about  35  bushels  per 
acre.  The  stubble  was  then  turned  in  and  the  ground 
was  very  light  and  mellow.  This  spring  I  intend  to 
plant  potatoes  there  without  any  stable  manure  and 
expect  a  good  crop  should  the  season  be  favorable.  I 
intend  to  use  fertilizer  on  a  part,  and  some  will  get 
nothing  but  the  clover  and  stubble.  w.  c.  s. 
The  Feeding  Value  of  Potatoes. 
In  The  Rural  of  the  5th  inst.,  the  feeding  value  of 
potatoes  is  estimated  to  be  29  cents  per  100  pounds 
when  corn  is  worth  $1.11  per  100  pounds.  This  is 
their  proportionate  value  as  indicated  by  analysis,  but 
1 99 
I  cannot  but  think  that  the  estimate  does  injustice  to 
the  potatoes.  The  chemists  can  determine  only  the 
amounts  of  the  various  food  elements,  and  guess  from 
a  few  data  at  their  digestibility,  but  there  seems  to  be 
a  value  in  potatoes  for  feeding  that  analysis  does  not 
show.  They  are  not  only  very  digestible,  but  they  aid 
in  the  digestion  of  other  foods. 
I  have  fed  thousands  of  bushels  of  small  potatoes, 
and  experience  leads  me  to  think  that  I  can  afford  to 
pay  10  cents  per  bushel  for  them  for  a  limited  daily 
ration  for  horses,  fattening  cattle  and  milch  cows,  when 
corn  can  be  bought  for  30  cents.  They  are  cooling  and 
laxative,  and  have  the  same  advantage  over  an  equal 
amount  of  dry  food  elements  that  ensilage  has  over 
dry  feed. 
Potatoes  have  fully  twice  the  dry  matter  that  tur¬ 
nips  contain,  and  we  know  how  high  a  place  these 
roots  have  in  the  English  farmer’s  estimation.  I  have 
fed  potatoes  to  sheep  with  good  results,  and  have 
found  that  all  kinds  of  stock  relish  them  as  soon  as  a 
little  time  is  given  to  acquire  a  taste  for  them.  For 
hogs  I  have  always  cooked  them,  mixing  ground  grain 
with  the  slop.  For  chickens  also,  they  should  be  cooked, 
but  I  prefer  them  raw  for  all  other  kinds  of  stock. 
It  is  a  certainty  that  potatoes  increase  the  flow  of 
milk.  They  are  good  for  ewes  with  lambs  on  this  ac¬ 
count.  In  the  case  of  cows,  care  should  be  taken  to 
give  no  rotten  ones,  as  they  will  taint  the  milk.  While 
I  have  fed  one-half  bushel  per  day  to  a  cow  and  ob¬ 
tained  a  big  flow  of  milk,  such  a  large  amount  is  unde¬ 
sirable,  as  the  butter  will  taste  somewhat,  and  the 
amount  is  too  great  to  be  easily  balanced  with  nitro¬ 
genous  grains.  When  one  has  no  ensilage,  a  gallon  of 
potatoes  per  day  to  cows  or  horses  is  worth  at  the  rate 
of  40  cents  per  100  pounds,  when  corn  is  estimated  at 
$1.11 ;  and  for  those  farmers  who  feed  no  other  grain 
than  corn  to  their  stock,  keeping  the  system  heated 
and  bound  up,  this  estimate  is  not  nearly  high  enough. 
ALVA  AGEE. 
[R.  N.-Y. — This  corresponds  with  our  experience. 
We  have  fed  potatoes  to  horses  with  excellent  results. 
Two  quarts  of  raw  tubers,  morning  and  night,  will  be 
of  great  benefit  to  any  horse.  When  feeding  larger 
quantities  than  this  we  have  usually  baked  them. 
The  horses  greatly  relish  baked  potatoes.  Too  many 
raw  potatoes  will  give  a  horse  the  colie.  | 
Two  Potato  Points. 
The  Rural  New-Yorker  No.  2  Potato,  herein  Niagara 
County,  N.  Y.,  simply  did  “immensely”  with  us  last 
year.  It  stood  up  remarkably  well  so  that  we  could 
cultivate  it  long  after  the  rest  of  the  field  were  so 
blowed  down  that  we  had  to  abandon  all  efforts 
towards  further  cultivation.  It  was  by  far  freer  from 
blight  than  any  other  kinds.  Although  there  was  no 
rot,  blight  struck  our  field  about  the  middle  of  August, 
and  in  a  week  the  vines  of  every  other  kind  were 
entirely  dead,  but  those  of  the  R.  N.-Y  No.  2  remained 
green  for  nearly  two  weeks.  When  we  came  to  digging, 
it  surprised  everybody.  We  used  the  Triumph  digger, 
and  the  potatoes,  about  the  size  of  bricks,  only  rounder, 
simply  filled  the  furrow.  They  are  of  fine  quality  and 
the  only  fault  we  could  find  with  them  was  that  they 
were  too  large. 
Early  Sun-Rise. — While  this  is  not  a  new  sort,  it 
has  never  been  appreciated.  We  have  raised  it  as  an 
early  variety  for  many  years  and,  although  we  have 
tried  scores  of  new  kinds,  we  have  never  found  one  we 
liked  so  well.  It  is  a  good  grower,  healthy,  a  good 
yielder  and  of  first  quality.  It  is  good  to  eat,  and 
cooks  dry  and  mealy  when  no  larger  than  a  hen’s  egg, 
and  those  left  in  the  ground  grow  to  good  size.  Last 
year  we  planted  three  acres  for  early,  but  we  had 
frosts  which  cut  them  flat  to  the  ground  three  times 
and  the  last  time  we  thought  to  give  up,  plow  the 
ground  and  plant  with  some  other  crop,  but  being  busy 
for  a  few  days,  we  were  agreeably  surprised  to  see  the 
potatoes  coming  on  again.  They  looked  so  well  that 
we  gave  them  a  good  harrowing  and  followed  this  up 
with  suitable  cultivation.  Although  the  freezing  made 
them  so  much  later  that  we  did  not  attempt  to  put 
them  in  an  early  market,  but  left  them  until  fall,  when 
we  dug  them,  the  three  acres  gave  over  600  bushels 
of  very  fine  tubers.  .J.  s.  woodward. 
One  Way  of  Introducing  New  Varieties. 
A  friend  at  Huntington,  L.  I.,  sends  this  bit  of 
information  : 
“A  seed  company  has  an  agent  about  here  giving 
away  a  new  seedling  potato  three  years  from  the  seed 
ball.  He  starts  in  by  saying  that  he  thought  so  much 
of  the  seedling  that  he  gave  $100  for  a  barrel  last  year 
and  before  the  note  was  due  the  company  gave  it  back 
and  paid  him  for  growing  the  potato.  Then  comes  in 
the  new  plan  to  take  in  the  potato  grower.  The  com¬ 
pany  wants  to  give  a  barrel  of  this  choice  seedling  to 
responsible  farmers  on  about  the  following  printed 
terms:  ” 
“  ‘I  hereby  agree  to  plant  this  barrel  of  potatoes  on 
half  an  acre  of  rich,  well  prepared  soil  enriched  with 
