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1895 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 2i9 
in with the weeder, and follow a few days after with 
the harrow. Should the weather change to cold and 
retard the plants, I run the weeder or harrow and 
keep the grass from getting anything of a start. After 
the plants get too large for the harrow, I use a one- 
horse cultivator, the first time medium deep, but after 
that always shallow, only deep enough and often 
enough to kill all weeds, grass and to conserve mois¬ 
ture. The first plowing in the fall is eight inches 
deep ; in some soils, this may be too deep. I use 
Paris-green dry with Leggett’s gun. I never hill. 
There must be a sufficient supply of available food. 
The plants must not be checked in their growth. 
There is a limit to profitable production which I 
have not as yet reached. The Rural Trench Method 
as I use it has more than doubled my crop without 
increasing the expense materially. This method tends 
to double settings of tubers. The trench method con¬ 
serves moisture sufficient for all ordinary conditions, 
and with a mellow, porous soil, will carry the plant 
through without a check to its growth ; this is all 
important. It is the plant and its roots that make 
the tubers ; moisture makes the food available. This 
method secures the best benefits of all rains and dews. 
Deep cultivation destroys the roots that feed the 
tubers ; these roots spread across the entire distance 
between rows. A few cultivations with the harrow 
after planting, level the field, and it should remain 
in that condition. Don’t work the ground with heavy 
teams. Always keep the horse between the rows and 
never on the row. The soil must be perfectly drained. 
During dry weather, give often shallow cultivation. 
Four hundred bushels is the result, and I sell right 
from the field to market, never store any but the next 
year’s seed. I have never been troubled 
with any kind of disease, and never fol¬ 
low one crop with another. M. L. s. 
Selin’s Grove, Pa. 
WHAT VERMONT POTATOES SAY 
IN ANSWER TO EXPERIMENTS. 
Experiments to find the earliest kind 
of potatoes among Six Weeks, Polaris, 
New Queen, Burpee’s Extra Early, Early 
Vermont, and Triumph, prove : 1. That 
Six Weeks has the shortest season of 
growth, but the others were six inches 
above ground and hoed before it was 
visible, although all were planted April 
20, and equally sprouted in a light room 
before planting. 2. That Early Vermont 
sets tubers as early as any, which get 
large enough to eat as soon as others, 
but keeps growingafter others are dead, 
and yields more than three times as 
much, with the exception of Triumph 
which is not fit to eat till the tops are 
dead. 3. Polaris is the best early for quality, Triumph 
for market,and Early Vermont for an all-around earliest 
potato. 4. That, three years out of four, Early Ver¬ 
mont, planted very early and unsprouted, even though 
the soil is clayey and the season rainy, will not rot, 
but will come up soon enough to be nipped by frost. 
Triumph, cut to three eyes, was planted 6, 8, 10, 12, 
14 and 15 inches apart, measuring from the centers of 
the pieces. At six inches, the potatoes averaged small, 
and increased in size up to 12 inches. The six-inch 
distance gave the largest weight of tubers, the 15- 
inch g-ave the least. The yields of marketable tubers 
at 6, 8, 10 and 12 inches were alike. There were nearly 
twice as many potatoes of the first size under mar¬ 
ketable, at six as at eight inches. The 12-inch dis¬ 
tance gave the best results, as the potatoes were as 
large as those of the 14 and 15-inch distance, and 
with as many potatoes, both marketable and small 
ones, to a hill. Although the six-inch distance gave 
the largest yield, it did not pay for extra seed and 
extra time to pick them up. 
The yield of marketable tubers per acre in a trial 
plot 21 rods long is as follows : Six weeks, two bar¬ 
rels ; Polaris, 10 ; New Queen, 12 ; Burpee’s Extra 
Early, 15 ; Triumph, 40 ; Early Vermont, 40 ; White 
Star, 45 ; Lightning Express, 60 ; Carman No. 1, 65 ; 
Unknown kind, 70 ; and of late potatoes planted later 
and cut to three eyes, Delaware, 43 ; Monroe County 
Prize, 44 ; Fillbasket, 45 ; and R. N.-Y. No. 2, 44. The 
last kind having but few eyes, required five bushels 
more seed per acre, but had $6 less fertilizer per acre. 
If this season be favorable, I shall find out whether 
the R. N.-Y. No. 2 is a better yielder than others with 
equal conditions, or whether five bushels of them to 
plant are equal to $6 worth of bag manure. 
In preparing sod ground for potatoes, the piece was 
harrowed with a spring-tooth harrow, and marked out 
with a shovel plow, going twice in a row. This left 
lots of sod on the surface, and it would have been an 
everlasting job to cover with a hoe, so a light, straight 
tooth harrow went over the piece four times and cov¬ 
ered the potatoes in one-fourth of the time it could 
have been done with hoes under the most favorable cir¬ 
cumstances. When digging, I found very few hills miss¬ 
ing, and all the best hills had sods on top. Triumph 
in this piece yielded 60 barrels of marketable tubers 
per acre, although planted 10 days later than those in 
the trial plot. With every variety, the best yield of 
marketable tubers to a hill, was in the hill having the 
least number and of nearly equal size. Occasionally 
a hill would be found with five or eight large tubers, 
but when put on the scales, they were not in it with a 
set of four. 
The following varieties tested July 30 for quality 
with potatoes of equal size ranked as follows : Polaris, 
100 ; New Queen, Carman No. 1, Crown Jewel, 90 ; 
Burpee’s Extra Early, Early Vermont, 85 ; White 
Star, Triumph, 70 ; Unknown kind, 10. Six Weeks, if 
I had found any large ones, would have ranked 90. 
In selecting new kinds, I pick out the ones adver¬ 
tised as growing extra large, having few or no small 
ones, having few and shallow eyes, flattened round 
or oblong instead of long, and from catalogues con 
taining accurate descriptions. An account of one 
new kind covering one or two pages, says, “ It is a 
peer of the Burbank in its palmiest days.” That 
little statement saved me one or two dollars last year. 
A description of another says, “ One hill contained 27 
merchantable potatoes, with a net weight of over 15 
pounds from two eyes of seed planted. With com¬ 
mon field culture on ordinary sandy loam, they 
yielded at the rate of a bushel from five hills for the 
entire field.” With hills three feet two inches by 15 
inches, as mine are planted, this would be nearly 
2,200 bushels per acre. The first part of the state¬ 
ment may be true. Last year I dug a hill of Eureka 
containing 12 large potatoes, with no small ones, and 
weighing 7% pounds; but the whole field averaged 
but 85 barrels per acre, and there probably was not 
another hill that contained 10 marketable tubers of 
a smaller size than the above. I see no reason why a 
man should grow 16 potatoes in a hill, weighing four 
pounds, when another kind would produce four pota¬ 
toes weighing four pounds. As far as my experience 
goes, the former would be absolutely worthless on 
ordinary soil, while the latter with more seed, could 
be made to produce more salable tubers on any soil ; 
as it is very evident that if more seed were used of 
the first kind, the whole product would be too small 
for market. c. E. knapp. 
Bennington County, Vt. 
GROWING STRAWBERRIES IN GRASS. 
THE PRO ANI) CON OF IT. 
Crimson Clover and Fertilizer. —I don’t think it 
would work to sow clover in the strawberries, as the 
clover would get so high that it would smother the 
berries, and they would be soft, and light colored. 
Better pick the berries, plow under the vines as soon 
as possible after picking, sow Crimson clover and 
plow under the following spring. Be satisfied with a 
crop of berries, or, if you must have two crops, plow 
under after picking, plant sweet corn and you will 
get a fine lot of corn and the fodder will be about as 
good as hay. When you plow the corn the last time, 
sow to Crimson clover and you still have the clover for 
next year. I intend to sow my raspberries to Crimson 
clover after laying by, in the usual manner. I don’t 
think it would pay to cut the vines out. I expect to 
improve my berries and land by using Crimson clover 
and fertilizer. F. B. f. 
Plainville, 0. 
Berries in Timothy. —On a patch of Sharpless, after 
being set the usual way, I used horse manure for 
mulch. The horses were fed on Timothy hay, and the 
seed was ripe. When they blossomed, the late frost 
nipped them all. I let the patch go without cultivat¬ 
ing or hoeing until the next spring, when the grass 
began to come up out of that manure ahead of the 
plants. We had another late frost when they were in 
bloom ; the grass was so high that it protected nearly 
every one. As a i*esult, I picked 500 quarts of the 
nicest and largest strawberries I ever raised. They 
were on clay land in rows six feet apart, and potatoes 
were planted in every other row the first year. After 
picking, I mowed and turned over the bed, and the 
next year I picked another good crop. I know noth¬ 
ing about clover, but I know that I can grow nicer 
berries in Timothy on clay soil, than in any other 
way. I had no trouble in finding the berries. We 
always find the largest wild strawberries in tall grass. 
Why ? WM. L. 
Auburn, N. Y. 
Learned From Experience. —A few yeai - s ago, I 
had a quarter of an acre of rich land set to straw¬ 
berries, and as they had been carefully cultivated 
during the growing season, they were in excellent 
condition when the ground was first crusted with 
frost, early in November. I then gave the entire patch 
a good coating of very fine manure from animals that 
had been fed on clover hay, and contained a good 
many seeds ; but I felt quite satisfied that they would 
not start early enough in the spring to do any harm. 
For a covering mulch, I used wheat straw that con¬ 
tained some chess, and also some Timothy seed ; but 
I thought these were of no consequence. After the 
mulch was put on, the weather became warm and 
damp, and remained so until nearly Christmas, anti 
every seed among that manure and mulch sprouted 
and took a firm hold upon the earth. Early the fol¬ 
lowing spring, they were up and coming in great 
shape, even before the straw berry plants 
started ; and in a short time the ground 
was covered with a thick mat of green. 
At that time, it was considered the 
height of foolishness to touch a bearing 
strawberry bed with a hoe or other soil¬ 
stirring implement before the crop was 
gathered; so, of course, I let the grass, 
clover, etc., gi’ow at their own sweet 
will. When the berries began to ripen, 
the plants were almost entirely hidden 
from view, and picking them during the 
early part of the day was like picking 
pebbles from the bottom of a stream. 
The thick, rank growth held the dew all 
day, and after the first picking, which 
was a light one of inferior berries, the 
fruit rotted before it began to ripen. 
One dose of that sort of strawberry 
culture was quite sufficient for me, 
and I decided that thereafter I would 
cut out every weed and spire of grass 
that showed itself, even if the fruit 
were actually ripening. The follow¬ 
ing autumn, a lot of winter weeds started in my 
new patch, and also some oats and chess which 
were in the mulch, and they went into winter quar¬ 
ters in good condition. The next spring, as soon as 
the soil was sufficiently dry to work nicely, I raked 
off the mulch, one row at a time, and with a sharp 
hoe, cleaned out every living thing, both between the 
rows and among the plants, and then returned the 
mulch. The result was a splendid crop of fine, lus¬ 
cious berries, and a strawberry bed entirely clear of 
weeds and grass. I wouldn’t cultivate a strawberry 
bed in the spring unless it were foul with weeds and 
grass, because it is quite a tedious job. When I did 
cultivate, I would be sure that the soil was dry enough 
to work nicely, and remain mellow after working, and 
I would not cut or rake more than half an inch deep. 
Christian County, Ill. fred grundy. 
WHAT SAY? 
Rake Teeth and Meadows. —For the past two 
years, my meadows have been badly injured by 
drought and sun after haying, the grass roots on some 
of my best meadows being nearly all killed. I have 
thoughr, that the wire-tooth rake may have something 
to do with it. What do Rural readers think about it? 
Pine City, N. Y. A. l. 
Fall Sown Lettuce. —Have any of the readers of 
The R. N.-Y. had experience in raising lettuce in the 
fall, in trenches or otherwise, and then keeping it by 
covering, and marketing it during December, January 
and February ? If so will they give us their experi- 
ence through The R. N.-Y. ? d. f. 
Oregon. 
A IIen With a Horn. —My Leghorn hen has an ex¬ 
crescence growing on her leg, just above the claw. It 
has been growing for some months, is some three 
inches long, by an inch in diameter, curving as it 
grows, and is a dark brown, hard, horny looking sub¬ 
stance. She is apparently well otherwise, quite 
lively, but handicapped by this clog. What is its 
nature, and the cure ? K. J. f. 
Where the Bordeaux Mixture was used. Fig. 64. Where no Bordeaux Mixture was used. Fio 65. 
BORDEAUX MIXTURE FOR THE FLEA-BEETLE ON POTATOES. 
