VoL. LIII. No. 2343. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 22, 1894. $1.00 per year. 
IN THE LAND OF BIO POTATOES. 
HOW THE GKKAT COLORADO CROPS ARE: HARVE:8TEI). 
Celebration of “ Potato Day.” 
October 10 was “ Potato Day ” in Greeley, and we 
were full of potatoes—not of the potatoes that were 
b iked by the wagon loads, in iiits in the ground, and 
served with slices of the barbecue, and sandwiches 
and coffee, to the thousands who filled our streets and 
parks ; but full of the sight of big potatoes, and the 
estimates of immense crops. It was a great day for 
our little city—really a fair only, as potatoes are the 
crop that has given us a world-wide fame, of course 
they took a prominent part in the exhibit. The first 
tubers that caught my eye were Rural New-Yorker 
No. 2’s, smooth, clean, and weighing three to four 
pounds each. Over them was a card giving the grow¬ 
er’s name, and this statement, “ 160 sacks per acre, 
salable potatoes.” With us, potatoes and apples are 
not sold by the bushel and peck, but by the pound. A 
sack of potatoes weighs from 100 to 120 pounds. 
Near the first group, was another, equally as well 
grown, labeled 
“Northern Spy: 
175 sacks per 
acre—325 bush¬ 
els.” Then, 
“Mammoth 
Pearl: 100 acres, 
125 sacks per 
acre.” And, 
again, “ Rural 
N e w-Y o r k e r 
No. 2’s: 12,000 
bushels to 45 
acres,” and so 
on, for the 
length of the 
tables, esti¬ 
mates and sam¬ 
ples of crops 
from fields va¬ 
rying in extent 
from 30 to 150 
acres. The store 
windows were 
decorated with 
potatoes. In 
one, the word 
‘ • spuds ” was 
made with 
smooth, round 
tubers. Web¬ 
ster defines 
spud as “ a word applied to anything short and thick.” 
Never in any other locality did I hear potatoes called 
“ spuds,” but the use of the word has grown with in¬ 
creasing crops, and it has evidently come to stay— 
among laboring men at least. “ Spuds,” “ spud 
digger,” “ spud sorter ” and “ spud rustler,” are words 
often heard at this season. 
During the summer, excursionists were brought 
here by the train-load to view our farms while irri¬ 
gation was in progress. Citizens met them with car¬ 
riages, and took them to the country, that they might 
see what water could make of a desert. 
On Potato Day, as many of our visitors as could be 
accommodated, were taken out to the farms to see the 
actual process of “spud-digging.” With the aid of 
the pen and the camera, we, too, can catch glimpses 
of the methods employed in raising a crop of potatoes. 
The man who plans for a big crop turns under Alfalfa, 
and plows deep and well. It is claimed that the effect 
of the Alfalfa is felt for three years, and also that a 
better crop may be expected the second year than the 
first. The planting is done largely with the Aspinwall 
planter, so nicely that every 17 inches shows a hill- 
very few miss hills in the whole field. 
The succe.ssful potato grower allows no weeds in his 
field. The ground is harrowed once or twice before 
the potatoes are up, if the weeds show a tendency to 
get the earlier start. Six years ago or less our farm¬ 
ers would have said tl;iat twice irrigating was enough, 
beginning when the vines begun to blossom. Now 
they say, ‘ ‘ Irrigate when your potatoes need water. 
As soon as the leaves droop, water lightly and quickly. 
Do not let the water flood the ground. Never let the 
ground dry out and bake. Follow the water with the 
cultivator and the shovel plow, and after them the 
water again.” 
Night and day, day and night, the ceaseless, careful 
watch is kept, until the irrigating season is over, and 
the tubers are left to dry olf and ripen. Hugs and 
grasshoppers are poisoned, and, in return for all this 
work, the potatoes thrive and grow. 
When harvesting time comes, four horses are at¬ 
tached to the digger. The machine is too wide to 
allow of taking every row in order, so every other row 
is dug, and the potatoes are picked up, after which the 
machine takes the rows that were left. A wide. 
pointed shovel plows out the potatoes. They are car¬ 
ried over wires, the earth and vines shaken from them, 
and they roll out of the back of the digger, clean and 
plump—a sight good for the eyes. They are gathered 
in baskets, and x>oured upon the screen of the sorter. 
This helpful invention is built upon runners, and one 
horse easily moves it where it 's needed. A spout 
leads from the slanting wire screen ; over this a .sack 
is placed to receive the large potatoes, as the screen is 
shaken by the man who changes the sacks. The small 
ones fall upon a finer screen below (slanting in the 
opposite direction), and they in turn are sorted and 
sacked. Such a scene is pictured at Fig. 215. 
The storing of such immense crops is a great prob¬ 
lem, for it is seldom possible to sell largely at the time 
of harvesting. The farmer’s way of storing is in out- 
of-door cellars, commonly called dugouts. These are 
becoming numerous on large potato farms. They 
are cellars dug in the ground, in a hillside if one be 
fortunate enough to own one. See Fig. 218. They 
are seldom bricked or stoned up—the hard earth walls 
rarely cave. They are strongly timbered to support 
the earth-covered roof. Fagots and straw are placed 
pver the timbers to keep the earth out. 8. E. 11. 
CHEAP WINTER FEED FOR THE HORSE. 
WHAT IS the: CnEAPE:8T GR.YIN ? 
Why Not Feed Straw for Bulk? 
This fall thousands of farmers are moi*e than usually 
intere.sted in the question of feeding stuffs for their 
horses. The horses are in abundance, and the feed is 
scant. Putting aside for the moment the tables of 
values of feeding stuffs, I would like to have the bene¬ 
fit of the experience of some practical men on these 
points : If corn, ready for the crib, is worth 50 cents a 
bushel at the crib, and Timothy hay is worth $12 a 
ton in the mow : 1. At how high a price would you 
take bran of winter wheat delivered to you at the 
barn, in exchange for part of the coim ? 2. Middlings ? 
3. Minnesota bran? 4. Oats? 5. Wheat? 6. A ton 
of good average stover for a portion of the Timothy ? 
7. These horses are supposed to be average farm 
horses, weighing 1,150 pounds, idle a part of the 
winter, and working hard the remainder of the year. 
How much money per month, at the prices you name 
for feeding stuffs, would you expect each horse to cost 
you, making 
the estimate an 
average for the 
year ? 8. What 
would be the 
ration per day 
you would use 
in winter? 
What in sum¬ 
mer ? A. A. 
Bran a Good 
Horse Feed. 
I would pay 
$20 per ton for 
bran to feed 
work horses in 
winter to bal¬ 
ance corn and 
Timothy h a y. 
Hut why feed 
much $12 hay ? 
Wheat or oat 
straw can gen¬ 
erally be pur¬ 
chased for $2 to 
$5 per ton. This 
can be fed in 
connection 
with wheat 
bran, and 
horses will 
really do better than when fed on Timothy hay and 
corn. I would not bother to weigh the straw fed ; 
give what they want of it, and measure the grain 
ration. For horses at hard work, give for a day’s ration 
seven pounds of ear corn or coarse corn meal ; seven 
pounds of wheat bran ; two pounds of linseed meal. 
That may be pretty carbonaceous for a balanced 
ration ; yet in our country, horses do most of their 
work on pure corn, and get in a corn habit as it were. 
You will find that they will do well on this ration. 
We have not fed Minnesota bran or oats. I would 
value wheat at 70 cents per bushel, with corn at 50. 
It should be coarsely ground, and great care used not 
to let the horse get to a quantity of it, as founder and 
death generally follow carelessness of this sort. 
Twelve pounds of ground wheat will make a large 
ration for hardworked horses. 
As to corn stover—which I take to mean the fodder 
of our section, stalks, blades and top.s—it is never sold 
here by weight, but by the shock of 12 hdls square. 
Little more than 50 pounds of this shock would be 
eaten, I would say, or about 25 per cent of the total 
weight. I consider it superior in nutriment to Timothy 
hay. So the^^shock^ofiifodder, if well cured, is worth 
HARVESTING POTATOES IN CO DORADO-SORTER, PICKERS AND DIGGER. Fio. 215. 
