©fce  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
being  lost  by  evaporation  than  at  any  other  time. 
This  is  the  time  when  the  potato  grower  should 
never  allow  any  other  work  to  keep  him  from  the 
potato  field.  One  hour’s  work  now  is  worth  several 
later. 
ELIMINATING  WEEDS.—' The  use  of  these  tillage 
tools  has  made  it  possible  for  me  to  grow  potatoes 
with  very  few  weeds  and  with  but  little  hand  work. 
Even  in  as  wet  a  season  as  1915  I  had  ven  few 
weeds,  not  enough  to  bother  at  digging.  Very  few 
other  growers  in  this  section  were  able  to  use  dig¬ 
gers  because  the  wet  season  produced  a  mat  of 
weeds,  which  matted  the  sticky  soil  together. 
Where  weeds  are  kept  down  by  leveling  tools  and 
weeder  early  in  the  season  a  man  can  go  through  the 
rows  in  July  or  August  and  clip  out  those  that  have 
escaped  in  a  short  time  by  using  a  sharp  hoe.  Last 
year  the  Summer  grass  started  under  the  tops  after 
the  July  heavy  rains,  and  it  was  necessary  to  go 
through  the  field  twice.  T  have  so  few  of  the  weeds 
growing  from  seed,  like  ragweed,  smartweed,  pig¬ 
weed,  etc.,  that  sometimes  I  do  not  even  take  time 
to  go  all  over  the  held. 
CULTIVATORS. — Walking  and  riding  cultivators 
are  an  evolution  from  the  use  of  small  plows  to 
till  the  ground  between  the  rows.  This  evolution 
The  Care  of  Late  Planted  Potatoes 
Planting,  Cultivating  and  Handling 
Pakt  III. 
ARLY  CULTIVATION 
l  leave  the  ridge  left 
by  the  planter  till  after  the  first  rain  if  not  too 
long  delayed,  and  then  level.  I  prefer  if  possible  to 
do  this  just,  after  the  potato  sprouts  have  begun  to 
grow,  and  before  they  are  long  enough  to  be  broken 
off  by  the  grinding  of  the  soil  particles.  Formerly 
I  used  a  peg- tooth  harrow  with  the  teeth  slanting 
back  nearly  level  for  this  purpose.  As  my  soil  be¬ 
came  more  mellow  with  the  incorporation  of  plenty 
of  organic  matter,  in  the  shape  of  heavy  sods  and 
straw  plowed  under,  the  harrow  became  too  heavy. 
Next  I  used  a  plank  float.  This  was  even  worse, 
not  only  grinding  the  soil  too  much  about  the  young 
sprouts,  but  also  packing  the  soil,  a  bad  fault  for 
potatoes.  Now  I  have  built  a  leveling  tool  out  of 
plank  which  perfectly  levels  the  whole  surface  and 
kills  every  weed  in  the  soil,  moved  about  without 
pressing  very  heavily  to  pack  the  soil.  The  ■working 
part  is  a  2x10  plank  set  on  edge,  and  kept  in  posi¬ 
tion  by  a  horizontal  plank  on  which  the  driver 
stands.  Details  of  the  degree  of  slant  to  give  the 
upright  plank  and  the  depth  to  which  it  drops  be¬ 
low  the  horizontal  plank  must  be  var- 
ied  with  every  soil,  and  indeed  after 
each  rain.  The  length  of  the  traces 
also  affects  this,  but  I  like  to  have  the 
horse  close  to  the  tool  to  pull  upwards 
on  the  level  and  keep  it  from  digging 
into  the  ground.  It  is  made  for  two  nAj 
rows  and  one  horse,  on  account  of  trou¬ 
ble  with  tools  for  three  rows  and  two 
horses.  On  account  of  so  many  spots 
not  being  quite  perfectly  level  these 
will  go  either  too  deep  or  too  shallow 
in  part  of  the  three ’rows  much  of  the  _ 
time. 
CONTROLLING  WEEDS.— I  do  not 
believe  that  it  pays  to  drive  any  tool, 
such  as  the  harrow  or  weeder.  cross- 
ways  of  the  rows.  I  am  aware  that 
many  farmers  do  this,  but  have  found 
that  it  is  unnecessary.  I  control  weeds 
perfectly  by  going  only  one  way  of  the 
field,  with  horses  always  between  the 
rows.  If  the  number  of  tracks  which 
horses  must  make  in  covering  each  /, 
acre  is  figured  it  will  he  seen  that  the  .  /j 
soil  around  the  plants  will  often  he  / / 
packed.  When  we  remember  how  ten-  //\ 
del*  is  the  young  sprout  of  the  potato  I  / /  ^ 
do  not  want  to  have  a  horse  trampling  / / 
on  it.  This  level  leaves  the  top  of  the  / / 
seed  pieces  from  two  to  four  inches  be-  W  ~ 
low  the  surface.  Having  already 
started  the  sprouts  the  plants  come  up  lb 
very  soon.  As  soon  as  the  young  plants 
are  all  up  and  have  started  the  green 
leaves  and  the  feeding  roots  below  I 
start  tlie  weeder.  Not  before,  because 
the  tender  white  sprouts  cannot  stand 
much  knocking  about  by  the  weeder  / 
teetb  at  that  stage  of  their  growth.  ~T\ 
Later  the  tops  can  stand  a  lot  of  /  V 
thrashing  about  without  injury.  From  Ay 
now  until  the  tops  are  a  foot  high  the  /  / _ 
weeder  can  do  work  that  no  other  tool  A  / 
can  equal.  It  must  be  used  with  care  A _ 
and  judgment.  Early  in  the  morning, 
when  the  leaves  are  wet  with  dew. 
some  will  be  cut  off  that  would  not  be 
hurt  if  left  till  dry  in  the  afternoon.  As  the  plants 
get  large  a  few  leaves  will  be  lost.  There  is  then  a 
case  for  judgment  as  to  how  much  the  loss  of  leaves 
is  offset  by  the  weed-killing  and  mellow  soil  on  the 
rows.  Care  must  be  taken  at  all  times  to  keep  the 
teeth  free  from  trash  that  would  Injure  the  plants. 
Some  weeders  are  too  heavy  or  the  teeth  too  stiff  for 
one  soil  when  they  might  be  just  right  for  one 
heavier. 
BEST  TIME  FOR  ALL  TILLAGE.— There  is  a 
short  time  after  every  rain  when  all  tillage  tools 
work  best.  The  soil  is  at  first  a  stiff  and  salvy 
mud.  Then  as  it  dries  after  a  few  hours  there  comes 
a  time  when  it  is  just  right  and  crumbles  easily. 
Now  is  the  time  to  use  the  weeder.  It  will  work 
perfectly  in  many  soils  if  used  at.  the  right  time, 
when  it  would  be  perfectly  useless  after  the  soil  had 
time  to  dry  out  for  a  few  hours  more.  When  weed¬ 
ers  were  new  I  saw  the  director  of  an  agricultural 
college  test  one  and  pronounce  it  worthless.  The 
trial  was  on  a  gravel  soil  baked  hard  by  the  sun. 
Soon  after  a  rain  the  air  is  cool,  horses  can  cover 
more  acres  in  the  mellow  soil,  the  weed  seeds  which 
have  started  to  sprout  are  killed  easier  than  at  any 
other  time  and  tillage  will  save  more  water  from 
I  AM  sending  by  parcel  post,  a  sample  of  evolution 
in  strawberry  baskets  (see  Fig.  205 1.  My  father 
raised  a  few  berries  for  market,  somewhere  about 
1S55  and  carried  them  to  market  in  homemade  mar¬ 
ket  baskets  bolding  from  six  to  eight  quarts.  Then 
he  tried  quart  cans,  and  a  few  quart  bowls, 
_  being  very  satisfactory 
bis  brother 
neither 
Later  lie  with 
made  a  bargain  with  an  old 
basket  maker  to  furnish  basket  timber 
rand  take  their  pay  in  quart  baskets 
with  the  result  shown  in  the  sample. 
The  Cook  basket,  at  center,  was  manu¬ 
factured  in  New  Hampshire,  the  date 
of  patent  on  the  basket  is  1859;  and  I 
think  were  the  first  baskets  made  for 
berries.  The  large  round  one  is  the 
Beecher  basket  made  in  Westville  near 
New  Hampshire,  between  ISdii  and 
^ -  1870.  From  that  on  we  had  several 
different  styles  until  the  square  basket 
came  into  use.  .HI  baskets  were  sup¬ 
posed  to  be  returned  in  those  days.  I 
remember  that  we  boys  used  to  pick 
out  the  basket  that  looked  the  smallest 
to  pick  in.  when  we  bad  the  splint 
basket,  and  emptied  them,  which  was 
bad  for  the  berries.  The  blight  is  so 
bad  here  now  that  we  seldom  get  a  full 
Cl'OP.  J.  M.  ATWATER. 
Connecticut. 
R.  X.-Y. — These  old-time  baskets  are 
Shown  at  Fig.  205,  The  writer  can 
\  "ell  remember  when  in  Massachusetts, 
\\  50  'ears  ago,  berry  baskets  were  to  be 
\\  returned  the  same  as  milk  bottles  are 
yV .  today.  In  those  happy  days  no  one 
MX,  knew  anything  about  germs  or  bae- 
- -  teria.  Even  "Old  Spelling-book  \Veb- 
ster"  had  not  thought  of  the  last 
named  word  for  his  books,  or  diction¬ 
aries!  Few  of  our  modern  berry  grow¬ 
ers  ever  stop  to  think  what  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  modern  basket  making  lias  done 
""A  for  their  industry.  We  have  seen  in 
,  A _  the  Old  time  the  village  basket-maker 
fashioning  these  packages  one  by  one 
y,A  entirely  by  hand  labor.  Later  we  went 
\\A  through  a  basket  factory.  At  one  end 
— V  A-J  the  beech  logs  were  floating  in  water. 
\  \  Great  machines  picked  them  up  and 
- LA  rapidly  shaved  them  up  into  thin 
\  A  strips.  Then  machines  as  dexterous  as 
\ — ^  tireless  human  fingers  and  much 
stronger  bent  and  twisted  these  strips 
until  they  dropped  out  by  the  hundred — clean,  cheap 
gift  packages  for  fruit.  Without  these  cheap  boxes 
the  fruit  industry  never  could  have  developed. 
Evolution  of  the  Berry  Basket.  Fig.  305 
Laying  Out  Rafter.  Fig.  307.  See  page  809. 
has  constantly  been  iu  the  direction  of  more  shallow 
cultivation.  Few  good  farmers  now  expect  to  cul¬ 
tivate  very  deep,  except  the  first  or  possibly  second 
time  over.  This  deep  work  is  to  loosen  up  the  soil 
packed  by  the  feet  of  the  horses  in  planting,  or  by 
planter  wheels.  At  this  time  the  roots  have  not 
started,  or  are  so  small  that  they  cannot  be  hurt. 
Later  such  deep  tillage  would  injure  the  roots  so 
much  that  the  loss  in  that  way  would  be  greater 
than  the  gain  from  loosening  the  soil  and  weed  kill¬ 
ing.  Cultivators  have  been  developed  to  such  a 
pitch  of  perfection  that  in  any  ordinary  season  it  is 
easy  to  kill  all  the  weeds  between  the  rows  except 
perennials  like  quack  grass.  The  weeds  growing 
close  to  the  hills  are  the  ones  hard  to  get.  In  cool 
and  damp  climates  like  Maine  ridging  is  the  easy 
way  to  get  these  without  losing  anything.  Here  in 
Central  New  York  I  have  made  four  trials  of  ridg¬ 
ing  with  such  a  shallow  working  tool  as  a  tobacco- 
hoe,  and  have  not  had  in  any  case  a  -gain  in  yield 
from  its  use.  In  two  of  the  four  trial  .he  yield  was 
reduced.  In  every  case  the  weeds  had  been  s<>  com¬ 
pletely  killed  by  the  use  of  the  other  tools  that  it 
would  have  been  hard  to  find  the  rows  not  ridged 
if  they  had  not  been  marked.  A  farmer  will  see  by 
Iron  Corncribs 
THE  picture  at  Fig.  30-1  shows  the  family  of  Mr. 
Julius  Steffen  of  Montcalm  County.  Mich.,  lined 
up  before  the  new  iron  corncrib.  Mr  Steffen  is 
good  friend  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  and  like  the  rest  of 
them,  tries  to  help  us  out  with  pictures  of  appro¬ 
priate  farm  buildings,  and  good  human  live  sn>ck. 
M'e  have  had  a  good  many  people  ask  us  about  the 
value  of  these  cribs  of  iron.  Mr.  Steffen  says  that 
lie  cannot  say  too  much  about  liis.  He  has  kept  the 
same  corn  in  the  crib  for  two  years,  and  lie  is  now 
selling  this  old  corn  for  seed,  with  a  test  germina¬ 
tion  of  9S%,  The  crib  is  vermin-proof.  He  calls  it 
the  best  investment  he  has  yet  made  in  putting  up 
farm  buildings.  Such  a  crib  will  keep  tlie  corn  so 
well  that  it  will  enable  a  farmer  to  play  the  part  of 
Joseph  and  hold  the  grain  produced  in  the  fat  years 
until  the  coming  lean  year  puts  up  the  price  so  that 
it  will  bring  more  money. 
