1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
5i 
* 
He told me, however, that when his parents were 
married, the value of their possessions did not exceed 
$100, at the outside. They now owned 400 acres of 
good land, 100 of which they farmed, the other 300 
being leased to tenants. His father attributed his 
success to his practice of making and saving every 
cent he could when “ times” were good and everybody 
spending freely, and buying what he wanted at almost 
his own figures when they were bad and everybody 
hard up; and to the fact that he was thorough in every¬ 
thing, and never undertook more than he could do. 
Christian County, Ill. feed. grundy. 
THE CANADA BALDWIN. 
This apple (Fig. 17) is probably the most valuable of 
the list of Fameuse seedlings that have become well 
known. It is certainly the longest keeper among 
them, and in quality for any use it has few superiors. 
The tree is an upright grower, vigorous and healthy, 
and in hardiness against severe cold it is not inferior 
to the well-known Wealthy. As grown here in north¬ 
ern Vermont, it proves to be a good all-winter keeper. 
As regards fungous spottings, it is much less affected 
than its parent under the same conditions, in fact 
hardly more so than the Wealthy. In Canada, where 
it has been considerably disseminated, it has become 
quite popular; but it has been found rather more 
sensitive to the action of the sun’s heat in winter, 
causing the bark to become unhealthy on the south¬ 
west side of the trunk, than the Fameuse. This is par¬ 
ticularly the case when planted on south or southwest 
slopes, and on light soils On heavy soil, with a north 
slope, the trees are free from this evil. Even on level 
land they are rarely injured; but a south or southwest 
slope is undesirable for this as for many other sorts 
of fruit trees. t. h. hoskins. 
GETTING OUT OF THE RUT. 
HOW SOME OHIO FARMERS ARE DOING THIS. 
Sweet Potatoes—How Grown and Stored, and the Profit 
From the Crop. 
Nearly two months ago I visited Marietta, Ohio, to 
learn something of the sweet potato business of that 
vicinity. Driving up the Muskingum River Valley 
five miles, we came to the home of Mr. W. D. Devol. 
“ Tell us of your sweet potato crop for 1892, Mr. 
Devol. How was the yield and how are prices ?” 
“ I grew 4,200 bushels last year on 14 acres. Within 
two or three miles of my farm 25,000 bushels were 
grown the past season. The price is pretty good. We 
are now getting $2.75 a barrel. The usual Louisville 
stock is not in our way of selling, and the demand is 
good. Come to the cellar and see my stock.” 
We found his cellar, 40x44 feet, nearly full of pota¬ 
toes, a few bins having been emptied. They were 
stored six feet deep, each bin being probably four feet 
wide. With the exception of common board partitions 
to prevent bruising in handling, the cellar was nearly 
one solid mass of tubers. A shipment was being 
prepared while we were there. The barrels are 
double-lined with paper, and the potatoes are well 
shaken in the barrels and the heads put in by screw 
pressure. The heat of the cellar is kept about 50 to 55 
degrees, and should not be allowed to fall below 45. 
Except in very severe weather, no artificial heat is 
needed. 
Mr. Waldo Brown, whom I accompanied on this trip, 
says that he visited this cellar eight years ago, when 
the mercury was nearly 20 degrees below zero, and 
the 2,500 bushels in the cellar were throwing off 
enough heat to keep the temperature above 50 degrees 
without the aid of any artificial heat. In continued 
cold weather, an oil stove or other simple heater is 
sufficient to maintain a good temperature. The cellar 
is rat-proof, and must be so, as rats would burrow in 
the bins and cause rotting, besides doing other damage. 
It would appear that large quantities of sweet pota¬ 
toes can be kept in much better condition than smaller 
amounts. Several thousand bushels in a cellar produce 
a “sweet potato atmosphere” and heat that seems to 
help to preserve them and prevent the chemical changes 
that small lots usually undergo. The Marietta 
growers have little difficulty in keeping them until 
May, and they are so toothsome that Ohio restaurants 
sometimes display the sign “ Marietta sweet potatoes 
for dinner ” as an attraction to passersby. 
“ The man who raises only six or eight acres,” said 
Mr. Devol, “andean push them off without storing 
makes the most money, but all of us cannot dispose of 
our crops without storing. The shrinkage is heavy. 
We expect to put five bushels in the cellar for every 
barrel of three bushels taken out. They lose in weight, 
pack tighter, and then there is some loss from rot. 
The dampness from the potatoes is very destructive to 
our barn floors when we store in our cellars. It will 
rot timber within a very few years.” 
Mr. Devol raises his own plants, of course, and finds 
that uniform and even heat in his hot-beds is a prime 
consideration. First, he puts down a foot of rotten 
straw, taking care to do it evenly, and on this are 
placed about six inches of manure and rotted sawdust 
well mixed. On this are put five or six inches of soil, 
care being taken that it be not too damp. The bed is 
then left until it warms up, and about April 20 the 
potatoes are put into the beds about two inches under 
the surface. As soon as weeds show, a little more 
earth is put on. The heat is regulated by punching 
holes in the beds to cool them and by adding hot water 
to increase it. Canvas is used as a covering. 
Mr. Devol finds a clayey loam superior to a sandy 
loam for growing potatoes, and has the best success 
on what he calls “gravel land.” It is apparently 
nearly all gravel at the surface, but is a clay abound¬ 
ing in gravel. He likes rolling land best, and says the 
water must not stand on top of the soil. It is plowed 
about four inches deep, and a disc harrow would prob- 
Canada Bai/dwin. Fig. 17. 
ably do fully as well as a breaking plow in preparing 
the land. 
Ridges are made with a very broad, shallow-running 
shovel, and are 32 or 33 inches from center to center. 
They are flat on top and broad. The plants are set 18 
inches apart, and no water or puddle is used, as a rule. 
Mr. Devol prefers the puddle to water, saying that 
very little land will stand watering. The plants must 
be set deep, and the stems protected from the sun’s 
rays by dragging loose earth around them. In the 
latitude of Marietta about May 20 the setting be¬ 
gins, and continues until into the first week of June. 
A good hand can set 5,000 or (5,000 plants a day. 
The Yellow Jersey is the popular variety. It grows 
short and thick. The Early Carolina is a desirable 
sort, but Queens are not wanted except to be sold for 
seed. Being an early variety, there is a demand for 
the purpose. The small roots of all varieties sell for 
fully as much as the larger, as they are wanted for 
seed. One barrel of the seed will cover (50 square feet 
in the bed and produce enough plants for an acre of 
land. Mr. Devol cautions against close bedding of the 
seed, as it produces spindling plants. 
Mr. Devol has found no rotation suited to sweet 
potatoes. Clover or any other manurial crop makes 
the ground too loose, and he thinks clover gives too 
much nitrogen to the soil. It is the practice in his 
vicinity to plant a field continuously with sweet 
potatoes, as this keeps the soil packed. A top-dressing 
of six loads of well rotted manure per acre is con¬ 
sidered sufficient to grow a good crop on land con¬ 
tinuously run in this crop. An additional amount of 
manure will increase the size and yield of the potatoes, 
but it adds to the danger of rot. 
Mr. Devol estimates the cost of labor in growing an 
acre of sweet potatoes at $23. As the land is con¬ 
tinuously cropped with only a limited amount of 
barnyard manure, and his yield the past season was 
300 bushels per acre, it can readily be seen that he has 
solved the problem of evading Western competition in 
a most satisfactory manner. It would seem safe to 
estimate his net receipts per acre the last season at 
above $100. However, he finds that potato disease is 
increasing in his vicinity, and all are anxiously wait¬ 
ing for our experiment stations to furnish some 
practical remedy. 
The success of Mr. Devol and his neighbors goes to 
show that there is plenty of room for the most progres¬ 
sive and intelligent farmers. The Muskingum and Ohio 
bottoms at Marietta have been cropped nearly 100 
years, the town being the oldest in the State, having 
celebrated its centennial five years ago. These gentle¬ 
men see no money in raising wheat corn and cattle, but 
by getting out of the rut and finding a special cash crop 
fitted to their land, they are making more money to¬ 
day than they probably did before the vast Western 
plains were brought into '•ompetition with the East. 
A former neighbor of Mr. Devol once refused to 
give his experience in sweet potato growing and his 
receipts per acre, averring that he had learned by ex¬ 
perience and others must do the same. This is a spirit 
too often found, I fear, among all classes. In contrast 
to it, Mr. Devol was glad to give us all the information 
that he could for Rural readers, confident, no doubt, 
that he will thrive none the less by helping his fellows 
to a good thing when possible. alva AGEE. 
AN EXCELLENT FENCE. 
I often read in The Rural’s instructive pages much 
that interests me. “The fence question” does. A 
year ago I had need of a few hundred loads of stone 
to fill a washed out road. 1 had a tumble-down wall 
and hedgerow on a recently purchased place. It was a 
line fence, so a fence was desired there and not a stone 
wall. I pondered and concluded that the stone row 
would fill the washed out part of the road, and soon it 
did. Then for a fence, I had chestnut timber for 
posts. They were soon cut, charred and set eight feet 
apart. I always char the ends of posts to be put into 
the ground, as they last from two to four times longer 
than those not burned. Then I stretched on these posts 
three fence wires and two strips of woven galvanized 
wire one foot wide, thoroughly fastened to the posts 
with proper staples, and I have a fence that is orna¬ 
mental and has proved exceedingly good so far and 
gives promise to remain so for many years. (See 
Fig. 18). The hedgerow is gone ; the grazing of the 
stock and the use of the scythe will keep it away. 
By this arrangement I get for three cents a foot a 
four-foot fence which has been perfect as a line fence 
for horses, cows and sheep, and fowls also by putting 
something below the smooth twisted wire A. I think 
it criminal to use barbed wire, and so have always 
used the two smooth wires twisted together, in my 
fencing. The woven strips a foot wide work like a 
charm to prevent any effort to get between the wires, 
and, being well galvanized, should last a long time. 
A, R and c are twisted fence wires, and D and E are 
the woven strips. This appears to me a very good 
fence, the best for the money of any I have seen. 
Greene County, N. Y. geo. c. mott. 
FRUIT NOTES FROM MAINE. 
Four or five years ago I commenced to raise small 
fruits, first for the family, and later, for market, and 
although I do not raise a great many (owing to the 
scarcity of help in picking time), still I think the 
business pays well and I would go into it quite exten¬ 
sively if I could get the proper help as I wanted it. 
□ Of strawberries I have raised the Crescent, Bubach, 
Cloud, Manchester, Wilson, Charles Downing and 
Jessie, and shall discard them all except the Crescent 
and Jessie. The former will bear more neglect and 
produce more quarts of berries than any other variety 
I have ever seen, and bring a good price in the 
market—it was sold for 12 cents wholesale the past 
season. The Jessie is not a very profitable berry, but 
it is the only one I have had that would grow well and 
properly fertilize the Crescent. I shall try a few others 
the coming year on a small scale. 
Of raspberries the Cuthbert is indeed the “ queen of 
the market.” It is quite hardy and will produce more 
first-class berries than any other sort I have ever tried. 
From a small patch two years ago 1 sold at the rate of 
$400 per acre. The plants were set in rows three feet 
apart, and the rows were five feet apart. Now I plant 
in hills four feet apart each way. In hills the horse 
will do all the work except trimming and pulling out 
the suckers. The Turner I do not consider any better 
than the wild kinds. The Marlboro is a good berry, 
but the Cuthbert outyields it two to one. I think the 
cane is a little hardier than that of the Cuthbert and 
perhaps it would do well in sections where the latter 
winter-kills badly. The Golden Queen is a nice 
berry for home use, but the color would kill it for 
market. 
Of black-caps the Gregg is the only variety I can do 
anything with, but there is no sale for it here. The 
Shaffer will yield immense crops of fine fruit, but 
it does not take in the market any better than the 
black-caps, but a few for home use are indispensable. 
Of blackberries the Snyder is the only kind I have 
tried that will stand our winter and produce a full 
crop. My bushes last summer were a handsome sight, 
being fairly black with berries, but there are so many 
wild ones about here that it would be hard to find a 
market for a large crop. 
The currants and gooseberries are not much raised 
in this section, but there seems to be a good market 
for both, and I shall increase the number of my bushes 
the coming spring. Judging from my own community, 
there are thousands of farmers who do not raise 
