1894 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
for 11 years, and cannot get any of the same variety 
from the North that will equal them. 5. In the fol¬ 
lowing order : Bliss’s Triumph, Early Ohio, Houlton 
Early Rose ; further South the Peerless is used, but 
we prefer earlier sorts. 6. All the difference between 
a full crop and a poor one or none at all. The North¬ 
ern seed cannot be kept in good condition until plant¬ 
ing time. We will experiment this year with some of 
last fall’s crop kept over, and the produce of some of 
the same planted early, and will be able to say more 
upon this point next winter. There are many late 
crop potatoes raised about Louisville, Ky., from seed 
kept over, and these are being sold as second-crop seed 
North. But these are planted early in July and reach 
maturity and will start to grow just as badly as 
Northern seed. Northern growers who want to test 
the Southern seed should be sure to get potatoes 
raised from the early crop of the same season. This 
crop cannot be produced north of Southern Virginia. 
We bed the early potatoes as soon as dug ; that is, clip 
a little piece off just through the skin, as this seems to 
make them sprout quicker, and spread them in a 
single layer and just cover them with soil. We begin 
to plant in trenches as fast as they start to sprout, and 
cover very lightly at first. Planting is continued 
until August 15. In this climate, when the tops are 
cut by frost, we can clean them off, and then cover 
the ground with pine leaves to prevent freezing and 
they will keep perfectly until February, when the 
advancing season requires all to be dug and the early 
crop planted at once. One grower in Beaufort County 
dug his last January, sent them to Buffalo, N. Y., and 
realized a fine price as New Bermudas. 
North Carolina Station. w. f. massey. 
Results With Second Crop Seed in Ohio. 
1 and 2. Second-crop potatoes are grown for two 
purposes, and there are two kinds of so-called “ second 
crop.” True second-crop potatoes are those grown 
from seed that is taken from an early crop of the same 
season. They are grown for use as seed the next 
spring, and it is not desirable that they mature. It is 
supposed that this forcing process and the selection 
of those tubers that incline to reproduce themselves 
in the same season, tend to earliness—a most desirable 
quality for Southern growers as well as Northern 
market gardeners. These immature potatoes do not 
sprout until planted in the spring, and the rule is that 
a seed piece sends up only one sprout, even if the seed 
be a whole tuber. The sprout is, therefore, very 
thrifty, and the sets are few in number. Such condi¬ 
tions produce tubers of a marketable size very early 
in the season. The South formerly sent North for all of 
its winter eating potatoes. It is now becoming a com¬ 
mon practice to plant potatoes after other early vege¬ 
tables or potatoes themselves have been harvested, 
old seed being used, and this second crop furnishes 
eating potatoes throughout the winter. As the old 
seed—potatoes grown the preceding autumn—sprout 
readily, and are ready for planting j ast as early in 
the summer as the grower chooses, large tubers and 
good yields are gotten in this second crop; while in 
the case of true second crop, the seed being taken 
from the early crop, the planting is often delayed, as 
the seed must be wilted and coaxed to sprout. This 
kind of a second crop is really no different from the 
very late crops grown in various sections of the North. 
They are merely late potatoes, usually stopped before 
fall maturity by autumn frosts. In the succeeding 
spring they command a good price in Northern mar¬ 
kets for table use, being preferred to choice Northern 
stock. They come branded “ second crop,” and they 
either may or may not be the second crop produced 
on a certain plat of ground—a matter of no moment 
to the consumer, who merely seeks a late-grown 
potato for table use because it is plump and free from 
sprouts. The Northern potato-grower who orders 
second-crop seed from the South for planting wants 
the true second-crop seed, believing that the forcing 
and selection of seed that will grow in the autumn of 
the same year it was grown, tends to earliness, and 
also because such potatoes are necessarily planted late 
in the South, and therefore are pretty sure to be im¬ 
mature. Last spring, among thousands of bushels of 
so-called second-crop potatoes on the Cincinnati mar¬ 
ket, I found it difficult to select any true second crop, 
the entire stock being large in size, some of it wilted, 
and all bearing the evidences of a rather long grow¬ 
ing season—a very possible thing when the old seed 
is used, and the potatoes are only a late crop. I 
planted eight acres with the best of such seed, and the 
vines are not so vigorous as those from small and im¬ 
mature seed—true second crop—used in 1893. Still, 
the crop is early, furnishing marketable tubers the 
first week in June in southern Ohio. Owing to the 
difficulty in getting such seed as I want from the 
South, I am wilting seed from this early crop, and 
have an acre and a half of land prepared for planting 
in July with this seed. I will thus grow my own seed 
for the planting of my early field next spring. I want 
the potatoes in this plat half-grown when the growing 
season ends this fall. 
3 and 4. I cannot say. Growers of long experience 
in the South assure me that the variety is not weak¬ 
ened. It would seem that it would be in a term of 
years. In such an event. Northern early seed may be 
planted, dug when half-grown, wilted, and otherwise 
properly treated, and made to grow a second crop, 
thus giving a new start. Last May, I took a set out 
of a hill when it was near the size of a marble, wilted 
it after cutting a little off one side of it, and after it 
became fully convinced that it could not live to re¬ 
produce itself next year, it obeyed the law of nature 
and hastened to do the work at once. It was planted 
early in J une and sent forth a nice sprout. So we can 
return to thrifty Northern stock every few years if we 
find the variety weakening. 5. I am using Early Rose, 
Crown Jewel and Early Hebron. I now think that I 
want no more Crown Jewel. I like the Hebron, but 
noticed last spring that Cincinnati market gardeners 
were using the Rose chiefiy. 
6. As in other matters, so in regard to this potato 
question, I hold my views subject to change as more 
information, gained by experience and in other ways, 
may indicate. I now believe that true second-crop 
potatoes are most desirable for seed in the North when 
early potatoes are wanted ; that choice Northern pota¬ 
toes are more desirable in my latitude when only a 
big yield is sought; that a very late-grown crop in 
the South, branded “ second crop,” but grown from 
old seed and pretty fully matured before frost, is not 
superior to a late-grown crop in the North for table 
use the next spring, but slightly earlier when used for 
seed, and that farmers and gardeners in the latitude 
of Ohio will find it profitable to dig a few early pota¬ 
toes in June, wilt and prepare them for planting as 
soon as possible, and thus grow a second crop to be 
used for early seed the next spring. alva agee. 
Gallia County, O. 
Practices of the Louisville Gardeners. 
1 and 2. Second crop potatoes aie dug immediately 
after the frost kills the vines. If they are planted be¬ 
fore the middle of July, in manured land, they are 
usually dead ripe when frost comes, and with a favor¬ 
able season as to rains, just as large second crops as 
first may be grown. All such potatoes are sold for 
eating, and they command the top prices being far 
the best at that season. Being mature, they are no 
better than first-crop potatoes for seed. In sod land, 
the vines grow several weeks longer than in manured 
garden soil, and the potatoes are slower in ripening. 
In rich manured land, the gardeners who wish to sell 
the big potatoes and save the small ones for seed, 
usually begin planting July 20 and keep it up until 
perhaps as late as August 10. If frost comes late, they 
get a full crop, and their seed is riper than it should 
be ; then they have a good crop to sell and a poor one 
for planting purposes. If frost comes early, they have 
a poor crop for market, but a fine one for seed. The 
main trouble with second-crop seed is that the gar¬ 
deners are anxious to get all the money they can from 
their crops, and so plant too early or dig too late. We 
grow second-crop potatoes for seed purposes only, and 
we usually plant very late in manured ground and 
rather late in sod land. The immature second-crop 
potatoes keep longer without sprouting, grow more 
quickly and strongly, and produce earlier and larger 
tubers than any mature seed. It matters not how 
small or how large they may be. We plant them whole 
the size of marbles for our spring crop for market, and 
these little ones do as well as pieces from large second- 
crop seed. 
3 and 4. Growing from second-crop seed does not 
weaken the variety in the least. Gardeners around 
Louisville have been growing two crops a year, always 
from second-crop seed, for 15 years, and their crops 
are as big as are grown anywhere under similar 
conditions of soil and season; in fact, owing to the 
second-crop seed used, their crops of marketable 
potatoes are larger than elsewhere. 
5. The only potato we have so far found not to be 
adapted to this second cropping is the Early Ohio. 
From Northern seed, this variety makes little vines, 
ripens very early, and is not very productive. Prom 
second-crop seed, it is the opposite kind of potato ; the 
vine is luxuriant and the potato is the last of all to 
ripen. As the late Ohio it would do splendidly under 
the second-crop method, but late potatoes are not 
wanted. Early Hebron, Thorburn, New Qaeen, Early 
Norther, Empire State, and Puritan have all proved 
perfectly adapted to the second-crop treatment. We 
are trying other varieties, and expect to be successful 
with most of them, if not all. 6. Northern seed kept 
in a cool place and planted late in July, would make 
second-crop potato seed, but not more than half as 
much to the acre as second-crop seed saved from the 
previous autumn until the same time. The latter are 
more vigorous and do not set more potatoes than can 
be developed to a fair size in the short time allowed. 
Besides this, the second-crop seed may be planted 
441 
closer, because they send up a shoot from only one 
eye to the piece (though usually cut to two or three 
eyes), and thus do not shade the ground so much. We 
plant 8 to 10 inches in the rows 28 inches apart. 
_ WM S. nODLEY. 
WHAT CAUSES BLOODY EGGS. 
What Is the cause of, and remedy for, bloody eggs? For the first 
time since producing eggs, I have to candle them. When broken, the 
white Is bloody, and there will be a clot varying frcm the size of a pea 
to that of a large bean. My eggs are gathered twice a day; any egg 
found outside the nests Is net shipped. I have no roosters with the 
hens, and I take every precaution to have my eggs perfectly fresh. 
The hens are fed a mash of potatoes, five pecks, wheat bran, one-half 
bushel, animal meal, eight quarts. In the morning, with oats at noon 
and corn at night. They have an unlimited range. A. w. b. 
Thomaston, Me. 
I wish I could tell what causes bloody eggs, but 
really I cannot. I think I have heard of such a thing 
in my life, but not often, I cannot believe that A. W. 
B. had a great many, and if he had some one day that 
he would not have them the next. p. williams. 
It is due to the rupture of a minute blood vessel, 
during the passage of the yolk along the oviduct, a 
small clot of blood being taken up and carried with it. 
It occurs mostly with pullets, but hens are also sub¬ 
ject to the difficulty. It denotes a fat condition, lack 
of exercise and overfeeding with grain. In the above 
case, during the summer season, the hens being on a 
range, they need no grain at all. The mixture 
allowed, with the food secured from the range, has 
made them excessively fat, perhaps. The ruptured 
blood vessel soon heals, as it is very small, and the 
difficulty passes away if the hens are not kept too fat. 
P. n. JACOBS. 
The cause of bloody eggs lies in A. W. B. He has 
forced the hens beyond their strength. 'I he ovaries 
and passage have become weakened, and some of the 
small blood vessels have been ruptured. If he stops 
their laying for a time they will get all right again. 
JAMES n SEELY. 
The Philosophy of the Matter. 
The cause of this trouble may be best understood 
by means of a simple description of the ovarian organs 
of the hen. These consist of the ovary which is 
known to every person who has dressed or dissected 
a bird, and appears as a mass of embryo eggs of all 
sizes from the minutest form of the mere germ up to 
the completed yolk. The latter passes into the ovi¬ 
duct, which is the other part of the ovarian organs. 
This is a long passage, and during the descent of the 
egg through this, it is enveloped in several layers of 
albumen, and fibrous tissue, and finally is covered 
with the shell. All this matter is secreted from the 
walls of the oviduct which are furnished with a close 
network of blood vessels and secreting glands. Thus 
this part of the organ is exceedingly prone to disturb¬ 
ance by any diseased condition, and when any severe 
inflammation of the secreting membrane occurs, there 
may easily be some escape of blood, which, as in the 
udder of a cow in which the milk is sometimes bloody, 
may find its way into the albumen of the egg and pro¬ 
duce the result complained of. This, however, is a 
rare occurrence, for in the whole of my experience 
personally and otherwise for nearly 50 years, this is 
the first instance which has come under my notice. 
The remedy, if there be any in such a case, must ob¬ 
viously lie in the way of reducing the inflammation of 
the walls of the oviduct, or if, as does not appear to 
be at all reasonable, it is a special physiological fail¬ 
ing of the fowls, the whole flock should be changed. 
The ration described is evidently too stimulating, for 
the large proportion of animal meal in the food is 
wholly in excess of the natural requirements of the 
fowls. It might be suggested that this part of the 
food might be withheld for a time altogether, and re¬ 
sumed again in part in the future. h. stewart. 
Using: Fertilizers in Illinois. 
W. C., Waterloo, 111. —I have rented a badly run¬ 
down farm for a cash rent of $150 per year. 1. Which 
is the best way to bring up a couple of acres for pota¬ 
toes next spring without commercial fertilizer ? 2. If 
I sow buckwheat with my Crimson clover will it hurt 
the clover to cut the wheat this fall, or should I leave 
it on the ground ? 3. Is rape as good as, or better than 
rye ? 4. Wheat middlings are $12 per ton of 2,000 
pounds here ; are they good for anything as a fertil¬ 
izer, or would it be beter to spend the $12 in fertilizers? 
Ans.— 1. We do not believe you can bring up a run¬ 
down farm without manure or fertilizers of some sort. 
Green manuring alone is too slow. 2, You can safely 
cut off the buckwheat this fall and leave the Crimson 
clover. 3. We prefer rye to rape for a green crop, 
though rye is not of much value alone. 4. It will not 
pay to use the middlings as a fertilizer. Why not sow 
rape and pasture it off with sheep—feeding the mid¬ 
dlings to the aheep in the field. Or, why not feed the 
middlings to cattle or hogs? It will pay you best to 
buy ground bone and some form o£ potash like muriate 
or wood ashes. If you can buy wood ashes near you, 
let U3 know the price and also the cost of ground bone. 
Perhaps then we can help you. 
Grass Named. —F. G., Wolfborough, N. H.—The gassr 
is Orchard grass, Dactylis glomerata. 
