1895 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
781 
THE COST OF A BUSHEL OF POTATOES. 
Potatoes at Five Cents a Bushel. 
The R. N.-Y. says, on page 742, that according to 
G. E. Chapman, it costs nine cents a bushel to raise 
and store a bushel of potatoes. As Mr. Chapman 
writes as though his figures would be questioned, I 
can’t help writing a few lines in reference to the cost 
of a bushel of potatoes in the West ; although my 
figures are far below his, they are still above actual 
cost as given by Western potato growers. 
About May 15 last, I had 15 acres of strawberries in 
bloom, that were so badly damaged by frost that 
swept over the country at that time, that I decided to 
plow up about half of them, and plant to potatoes, 
and see which made the most profit—potatoes or 
frosted berries. I accordingly plowed and planted 
eight acres the latter part of May, and kept an account 
of the expense of growing and marketing the crop. 
For the sake of Rural, readers who have to pay high 
wages, I will change my figures from $1 per day to 
$1.50 each for man and team of two horses, although, 
with men at $1(5 to $18 per month, $1 will cover the 
expense for each man per day : 
COST OF THE EIGHT ACHES. 
Plowing 3*4 days for man and team. $10.50 
Harrowing three times, six hours for man and team. 1.80 
Planting, 1*4 day for man and team.*.. 4.50 
Cutting seed, 2% days. 4.00 
Harrowing five times after planting, one day. 3.00 
Cultivating three times, four davs for man and one horse.. 9.00 
Cultivating three times with weeder, one day for man and 
one horse. 2.25 
Digging with Hoover digger. 8.00 
Picking up and putting in sacks of one bushel each, 21 days. 31.50 
Hauling to factory, one mile, five days for one man and team 15.00 
80 bushels of seed at 25 cents per bushel. 20.00 
Rent on machinery used, $1 per acre. 8.00 
Rent on land, $3 per acre. 24.00 
Total cost for eight acres .$141.55 
Cost per acre. $17.62 
Total product, 2,432 bushels; cost per bushel, about b%c. 
Selling price, 12 cents per bushel at factory.$291.84 
Net profit.$150.29 
The above is not guess work as to time put in, 
and the cost per day is about one-third too high for 
this locality. The actual cost to me is about four 
cents per bushel, and the net profit per acre about 
$24. I have allowed for rent on land and machinery, 
Mr. Chapman did not. Too large a yield for an aver¬ 
age crop, you say ? I had seven acres of Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2’s that yielded a trifle over 2,600 bushels, 
starch factory weight; and 37 acres that yielded 
11,215 bushels, starch factory weight. 
The harrow that I use on my potato ground has 
four sections, cuts about 17 feet wide, and is of light 
draft for two horses. The teeth are %-inch round 
steel (old rake teeth cut up), and the wood is 1% inch 
by \% inch, four feet long. We had no bugs to speak 
of this year ; but with a crop of 200 bushels per acre, 
the decrease in cost of handling would pay for the 
cost of killing bugs. The strawberries on the rest of 
the 15 acres yielded about seven tons of fair hay. 
Wisconsin. e. h. currier. 
A Vermont Man on Chapman’s Figures. 
Mr. Chapman makes no charge for the use of land. 
An acre of land in condition to produce 200 bushels of 
potatoes with the aid of only 200 pounds of phosphate, 
should rent for, at least, $0. Neither has he given 
any expense for killing bugs, which would range 
from 50 cents to $3 according to the method used and 
the number of bugs. To harrow an acre for 22 cents, 
it must be in extra fine condition to begin with ; pos¬ 
sibly it could be done in three-quarters of an hour, as 
that is all the time allowable at the figures given. A 
horse and man to cultivate, are worth 20 cents per 
hour at that season ; so to cultivate an acre for 20 
cents, a horse and man should cultivate 10 acres per 
day, which would be very hard to do. The weeds 
could not be cut for 25 cents by hand. Three men 2% 
hours to drop, mark, fertilize and cover for $1, 
would be only 13 X cents per hour for the men, and 
no allowance for horses or tools. They ought to be 
dug for less than 3>£ cents per bushel, as three of us 
dug and put in the cellar, 100 bushels in eight hours, 
using forks to dig. If a machine cannot reduce the 
cost, of what practical benefit is it ? A. l. s. 
Charlotte, Vt. 
Chapman Makes no Charges for Skill. 
Mr. Chapman claims that his prophecy has been 
fulfilled, viz.: That with the advent of a good potato 
digger, he could raise potatoes for 10 cents a bushel. 
He figures his crop this year at nine cents. This esti¬ 
mate is surely very faulty and misleading. It is true 
that Ohio is not so good a potato State as New York, 
but I do not know a grower who has the record of an 
average yield of 200 bushels of merchantable potatoes 
per acre for a long series of years. In our older 
States, all growers will agree with me that it takes 
skill to grow that amount, annually. The ordinary 
laborer cannot do it, to say the least. Yet, in this 
estimate, I see no charge for that skill. Mr. Chapman 
imagines that he is content with the wage of the man 
who furnishes only the muscle, while he furnishes 
both muscle and skill. The mason and his family ex¬ 
pect that he will get a better wag'e than the man who 
carries the hod. As a matter of fact, Mr. C. doubtless 
also gets a better wage than his employee, but it does 
not appear in his estimate. When there is no reward 
for skill, most men will choose to be free from the ex¬ 
pense of acquiring it, and it is extra skill that makes 
an average yield of 200 bushels of potatoes a certainty. 
Of course, if the average were less, the cost of pro¬ 
ducing is greater than nine cents. Mr. C. is not 
only giving his skill free of charge, but his land also. 
It is usually the best land on the farm that goes into 
potatoes—a clover sod that is ready for the best pay¬ 
ing crop of the rotation. The rental of potato land 
is usually placed at a figure twice as great as that of 
wheat land. But Mr. C. makes no charge for the use 
of the land. He gives his best field, he gives his 
skill, he contents himself with a laborer’s wages, and 
pays his taxes out of his wages, and thus makes good 
his prophecy of ability to grow potatoes for less than 
10 cents a bushel. If Mr. Chapman obtains an average 
of 200 bushels of merchantable potatoes per acre in a 
series of years, the potatoes really cost him 20 cents 
a bushel. If he obtains a less average, the cost is 
correspondingly greater. ai,va agee. 
Ohio. 
NOTES FROM THE CARNATION BELT. 
Lessons in Transplanting. —I have about reached 
the conclusion that Nature’s laws are often kinder to 
us carnation growers than we deserve. The farmer 
who would dig up his half-grown corn or potatoes, 
and plant them in a new place with the expectation 
of a scarcely interrupted growth, would be considered 
a very foolish person ; but that is pretty much what 
we do with our plants when housing them in the fall. 
This year, we are paying rather dearly for it, as never 
in my experience, has the shock of transplanting been 
so severe, or the plants so long in recovering. This is 
the general complaint, and is attributed to the effects 
of dry weather. To take up a plant in full growth, 
full of blooming shoots, buds or even expanded flow¬ 
ers, plant it on a bench under glass in a necessarily 
higher temperature, and ask it to go on growing and 
blooming with very little check, is certainly requiring 
a great deal. Yet, as a rule, this seemingly harsh 
treatment is successful in a high degree, and is usually 
considered the best way to manage. And possibly it 
is as a general thing; but where one aims at the best 
attainable results, and can devote the time and labor 
during summer to the details, I am coming more and 
more to the opinion that the plan of growing the 
young plants in pots under glass, shifting to larger 
sizes as needed, somewhat after the routine of rose 
growing, will eventually be followed. I saw some 
Buttercups to-day that were a revelation, and they 
had been grown in this way. Several of our growers 
have been experimenting in this line, with very 
encouraging results. One modification of this system 
is to pot them in four or five-inch pots, letting them 
stand in the potting shed for a week or so until new 
roots are formed, when they are shifted to their per¬ 
manent place on the bench. This plan works very 
nicely, and plants so treated did not suffer any ap¬ 
preciable check. 
Mushrooms. —The culture of mushrooms as a side 
issue, is assuming considerable proportions with the 
florists here who devote the otherwise useless space 
under the benches to the purpose. Some quite profit¬ 
able crops have been raised in this way, and the out¬ 
lay is not at all excessive. Only the best quality of 
horse manure is bought—unless one has a supply from 
the home stable—and it is worth a fair proportion of 
the first cost for fertilizing purposes after the mush¬ 
rooms are through with it. It comes out in the spring 
very fine and well rotted, just the thing for potting-, 
top-dressing, etc. I do not wish to lead any one into 
that which may prove unprofitable without due warn¬ 
ing, for it certainly is an uncertain business some¬ 
times. But as any of your readers who have a supply 
of horse manure and a cellar or warm stable where 
the temperature may be kept somewhere near 50 de¬ 
grees, can easily try a bed at little outlay and with a 
possibility of success, I feel like suggesting to those 
so situated, that a good bearing bed of mushrooms is 
one of the most profitable of crops. It does not neces¬ 
sarily follow that much experience is necessary, as 
the best crop grown here was by a beginner. 
Marketing. —It is gratifying to note the progress 
m methods of handling cut flowers. Heretofore, it 
has been a rather difficult matter for the commission 
man to adjust the returns from sales fully on the 
merits of each consignment. By the new arrange¬ 
ment of tagging each bunch with the grower’s num¬ 
ber, each lot will be sold and accounted for on its 
merits or demerits. Among other advantages, this 
will teach and emphasize the value of quality of bloom. 
Chester County, Pa. c. p. Barnard. 
THE EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 
Alabama Station, (Auburn).— Bulletin 66 describes the methods 
of making syrup from cane for home use or local consumption. 
There is no more reason why the Southern people should buy the 
poor stuff labeled “ syrup” than there is for buying Northern 
pork. This bulletin gives the needed directions for supplying a 
cheap sweet. Cane grown on high and lighter lands gives the 
best syrup. Bulletin 65 gives the results of various cooperative 
seed tests, showing the behavior of various varieties in different 
parts of the State. 
Southern Hog Raising. —Bulletin 35 of the Mississippi Station 
(A. and M. College P. O.) is a practical and suggestive pamphlet, 
not so much in the way of a record of experiments, as an essay 
on Hog Raising. The South is paying immense sums for North¬ 
ern pork and bacon. This condition of affairs is all wrong. It is 
opposed to all principles of science or progress. The bulletin 
gives a list of the various breeds of hogs, with their good qualities 
and objectionable features. Then we are told how to pick out a 
“ meat hog,” how to care for him, what food to raise, and how to 
keep him well. Of course, all this applies to the South—a warm 
climate and characteristic feed crops. This bulletin ought to act 
as bacteria to change many a Southern feed of cow peas and 
corn into good pork. 
“ Raupenleim” and “ Denduolene.” —It will puzzle a “Philadel¬ 
phia lawyer” to know what these words mean until he sends for 
Bulletin 111 of the New Jersey Station (New Brunswick). It is 
really insect lime or glue, a substance to be painted on the bark 
of trees to kill insects or keep them from climbing. “Raupenleim” 
is a German product—the other is a substance made in America. 
Both are made from crude petroleum, and appear like an impure 
vaseline. The former has something like coal tar added. It can 
be painted or daubed on trees, and remains sticky for a long 
time. When painted on peach trees early in the season, it killed 
off the borers entirely. It will probably protect apple, quince and 
pear trees from the attacks of either the round or Hat-headed 
borers. In the latter part of May, after scraping off the loose 
bark, a coating at least three-sixteenths of an inch thick is applied 
to the trunks from the ground to the branches. This will form a 
surface that will kill any insect that alights upon it. A band 
painted around the tree will probably prevent climbing insects 
from passing over it. It is also recommended as protection 
against mice and rabbits, or even for shade trees that are gnawed 
by horses. It will not dissolve in water, or be washed off by 
rains. 
Sheep Feeding in Colorado. —This is the title of Bulletin 32 from 
the Colorado Station (Fort Collins). This is one of the most com¬ 
prehensible and readable bulletins on stock feeding that we have 
ever read. One excellent thing about it is that the summary 
comes as a preface, so that one gets an idea of what it’s all 
about as he reads on. Colorado has 1,200,000 sheep and raises 
200,000 lambs every year. With her vast areas of cheap pasture, 
mutton can be easily made during summer and fall. Many of the 
sheep and lambs are sent to Nebraska to be fattened on the cheap 
corn of that State. Why not keep the sheep in Colorado and fat¬ 
ten them at home ? That is the question Colorado farmers have 
often asked, and it is one that the experiment station has tried to 
answer. Colorado is not a corn-growing State—the nights are 
too cool. Sugar beets and Alfalfa will thrive well there, and wheat 
is so cheap now that it is, at least, worth while seeing if four- 
footed animals will not pay more for it than humans. This bulletin 
gives many of the results obtained in an experiment showing 
what can be done feeding Colorado sheep on Colorado products. 
The great point about these products is that almost any suitable 
ration made up from them would contain a large proportion of 
muscle-makers, as Alfalfa is the cheapest hay, and wheat is 
“ stronger ” than corn. Sugar beets were used to supply the * 
fats which other climates supply in corn, and a combination of 
beets and Alfalfa alone gave good results. We shall keep this ex- 
eellent bulletin for reference. It will pay every Western feeder to 
do likewise. 
The Report of the Horticultural Department of the Maine Sta¬ 
tion (Orona), contains a variety of interesting matter. There is 
a good set of notes on tomatoes, both as regards Held culture and 
forcing under glass. Several excellent pictures showing how the 
plants are handled in the greenhouse, are given in this report. 
Prof. Munson finds that plants grown in boxes give, on the whole, 
better results than those grown in open beds. He also compared 
plants from seed gi-own in the Held and that produced after sev¬ 
eral generations under glass. It was thought that a vigorous 
strain of fruit might be obtained by forcing jdants to an early 
development under glass and then limiting the amount of fruit 
such plants should bear. The results do not indicate much be¬ 
yond the possibility that this may be true of some varieties and 
less so of others. As to best varieties for forcing, the Lorillard, 
Optimus, Chemung, Ithaca and Long Keeper give best results. 
Prof. Munson also tried the plan of “cutting back” tomato plants 
for field culture. The object was to check the growth of such 
plants as seemed likely to become “leggy” or spindling. The 
plants were trimmed off about four inches, and this improved the 
yield of early varieties, but did not benefit late ones. As to mulch¬ 
ing, as against frequent cultivation, it was found that the mulched 
plants matured a little earlier, but that the cultivated ones were 
much superior in other 'respects. Under the head of “Notes on 
Plant Breeding,” Prof. Munson gives some interesting facts about 
the improvement of plants. There are 107,000 species of flowering 
plants of which 4,223 have furnished food for man at various 
times. At the present time, about 300 species are generally culti¬ 
vated. Many of these species present almost numberless varie¬ 
ties—like the apple and pear with over 3,000 each and the potato 
with over 1,000. These varieties represent the care and selection 
of man through years or centuries, and such improvement as we 
may expect in the future must come in the same way. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
If you care to put in some of your spare time taking orders for 
nursery stock, write to Chase Brothers Company, Rochester, N. Y. 
Several of the new varieties of potatoes are offered as sxiecial- 
ties by O. H. White & Son, Miller Corners, N. Y., as well as many 
of the standard varieties. Their stock is warranted absolutely 
pure. Write for their catalogue—free. 
There is no longer any question as to the value of cooking feed 
and warming water for stock. D. R. Sperry & Co., Batavia, Ill., 
will send full particulars about their “Profit Farm Boiler,” which 
seems to be a very satisfactory arrangement. 
How are the rats ? Troublesome ? They should have a dose of 
Taylor’s Fuma Carbon-Bisulphide. Woodchucks, gophers and 
other vermin can also be disposed of by it. Write to Edward R. 
Taylor, Cleveland, O., for book on the subject. 
M. B. Rowe & Co., Fredericksburg, Va., farm an old battle 
field. The “fight” they have to sell is found in half-wild turkeys 
—for breeding purposes. These birds have the vigor of their wild 
ancestors. Their blood in your flock will fight disease and weak¬ 
ness out of the flock. 
