F3© 
wilted seed sooner than they did on the others. 
It wasnoticed incidentally that the vines from 
large seed flowered before those from small 
seed. When small potatoes were used as seed, 
a decidedly larger number of stalks grew 
from those tubers which bad been strongly 
wilted than from those which were planted in 
the fresh state. At the same time a slightly 
larger number of prominent stalks were ob¬ 
tained from the wilted seed than from the 
fresh seed, but the average bight of the vines 
grown from wilted small potatoes was less 
than that of the vines grown from fresh seed; 
whence it appears that the stalks from wilted 
are really less vigorous than those from fresh 
seed. 
Large seed not only gave a larger number 
of stalks anyway than small seed, but the 
number of stalks was still further increased 
when the large seed was slightly wilted. 
There was, however, no increase in tho num¬ 
ber of stalks on wilting the seed more strongly, 
though the number of strong stalks from a 
given seed increased. In a moist season, it 
was judged from the appearance of the vines 
that the term of growth of the plants from 
wilted seed hud not been perceptibly short¬ 
ened; but in a dry year it appeared distinctly 
enough that tho plants from wilted seed rip¬ 
ened earlier than the others. At the time of 
harvest there were obtained both a decidedly 
larger number and a much larger weight of 
potatoes from the seed which had been wilted 
than from that which had been planted fresh. 
And it appeared tliat. in general the product¬ 
iveness of each single stem was greater in pro¬ 
portion as the seed from which it grew had 
been more strongly wilted. Large seed al¬ 
ways gave better results than small seed, of 
similar condition; but there was obtained 
from small wilted seed almost as largo a yield, 
both in respect to the number and the weight 
of the tubers, as was got from large fresh 
seed. It appeared, furthermore, that wilted 
seed yielded a somewhat larger number of 
small potatoes than were got from fresh seed, 
and the difference was specially marked in the 
case of experiments made in a particularly 
dry season. 
Similar experiments made with Jerusalem 
Artichokes gave corresponding results. It was 
specially noticeable that the plants grown from 
wilted seed were much less vigorous than those 
from fresh seed. Some of tho wilted seed 
never grew at all, especially in cases where 
the sets were small; and during the entire 
period of growth tho stalks from wilted seed 
were always inferior to those from fresh seed, 
and this in spite of the fact that a larger num¬ 
ber of stalks grew from the large wilted seed 
than from seed of the same size when fresh. 
In seeking to explain the cause of these ap¬ 
pearances Dr. Kraus argues that, owing to a 
deficiency of water in the wilted seed, the de¬ 
velopment of the eyes at the butt or “seed- 
end ” of tho tuber is hindered to such an ex¬ 
tent that a larger number of the side eyes find 
opportunity to send forth shoots than would 
otherwise be the case. If the seed was planted 
in the fresh condition, the eyes at the seed-end 
would naturally develop first, and were it not 
for the lack of water they would start so 
quickly and grow so rapidly that most of tho 
side eyes would have no chance to grow at all. 
By hindering, at the start, the natural devel¬ 
opment of the eyes at tho seed-end, a compar¬ 
atively large number of the side eyes are en¬ 
abled to develop, even to the stage at which 
they strike root for t hemselves and support an 
independent existence. This view consists 
perfectly with the observed facts that the 
sprouts from wilted seed appear above ground 
at a later period than those from fresh seed; 
that the wilted seed give a larger number of 
stalks; and that there are more tall stalks to 
the bill,and more tubers. Naturally enough, the 
larger the number of independent stalks there 
are the more potatoes will they produce. But, 
from the very nature of the changes brought 
about by the wilting, it is manifest that little 
if any advantage can bo expected from wilted 
seed unless the soil is good and the season fa¬ 
vorable throughout the term of growth of the 
crop. In a very dry year, for example, Kraus 
got no larger weight of potatoes from his 
wilted seed than from the fresh seed, although 
the number of tubers to the hill was actually 
greater. There would be small use in striving 
for many potatoes to the hill unless the condi¬ 
tions are such that the tubers can grow to a 
good size. 
It is plain that these experiments have an 
important bearing upon some other points in 
potato-growing beside those specially studied. 
They reenforce, for example, the modem view 
that it is best to put comparatively few eyes 
in each “liill,” in cases where potatoes are 
grown for table use. It is thought by many 
farmers now-a-days that our ancestors were 
decidedly at fault when they took pains to 
plant a largo number of eyes; and the old plan 
of putting a couple of large potatoes iu each 
hill has in good part given place to a system 
in accordance with which no more than two 
eyes are planted in a given place. The motive 
for this change is the desire to get the largest 
THE BUBAL MIW- 
©6T. 2© 
possible number of merchantable potatoes and 
Low small ones, and it is plain that, as soilsand 
seasons go, the desideratum will be much more 
likely to be obtained where there are no more 
than two competing plants at a given spot 
than where there are a dozen. 
It is noticeable that these experiments, 
made with whole potatoes, do not touch the 
question of the utility of wilting seed that is 
to be cut to the small number of eyes custom¬ 
ary in modern practice. Even the explana¬ 
tion offered by Kraus fails to meet this con¬ 
sideration. In this respect it is less satisfac¬ 
tory than a suggestion made some years since 
by Franz, viz., that the process of wilting in¬ 
volves a transfusion of soluble matters irom 
one part of the tuber to another, of such kind 
and character that the side-eyes have a bet¬ 
ter opportunity to draw iu nutriment than 
they had before. This suggestion has much 
to recommend it, for undoubtedly ono nec¬ 
essary consequence of the loss of water dur¬ 
ing the wilting is that the contents of the cells, 
such as albumen and other matters fit to feed 
the young shoots, must move about from one 
cell to another and be readjusted, as it were, 
but as a result of these movements, there is 
a certain tendency in the potato to germinate, 
that is to send forth shoots, or, at all events, 
to make the eyes begin to start; and it is a 
fact, thanks apparently to the slow and 
equable transfusion of nutritive matter, that 
the side eyes get almost as good a start, or 
preparation for starting, as those at the seed 
end. Were it not for the movements induced 
by the wilting, that is to say if the potatoes 
were put in the ground in the fresh state, a 
large proportion of the original soluble food 
contained in them would go at once to start 
tho seed eyes and the side eyes would have 
comparatively little chance to prosper. 
In reply to the question, how far the pro¬ 
cess of wilting should be pushed < Franz ar¬ 
gues that it should never be allowed to go so 
far that the potatoes cannot be handled and 
transported without risk of rubbing off the 
the sprouts; but that up to this point wilting 
is advantageous. The wilting needs to be 
gradual and may bo effected iu a light, mod¬ 
erately warm place. It appears, however, 
from the foregoing that there would be no 
sense in trying to hasten the process by means 
of artificial heat. It would seem, moreover, 
that if potatoes are to be wilted, the wilting 
should occur before they are cut for seed, and 
not afterwards, and this remark must be 
specially true in case the eyes at the seed- 
end are not to be planted. It is a noteworthy 
fact that some American farmers discard 
altogether the eyes at the seed-end of 
the potatoes and throw it aside when 
preparing the tubers for planting, appar¬ 
ently for the reason that it is not easy to 
leave attached to these crowded eyes such 
a supply of the substance of the potato as 
would serve for the proper nourishment of 
the young shoots. But it is notorious that the 
seed-eves of uuwilted potatoes are provided 
naturally with a somewhat better supply of 
nourishment than tho side-eyes, and if wilting 
does really serve to transfer some of this su¬ 
perabundant food to other parts of the tuber, 
it should manifestly be allowed to occur be¬ 
fore the time of cutting. Furthermore, there 
would seem to be no good reason why the 
eyes at the seed-end should not bo planted, 
in ease the potatoes have been wilted. The 
smallness of the slice attached to these eyes 
will be no great detriment provided the 
sprouts are fairly started, for, in that event, 
enough nourishment will have gone into the 
sprout to insure its continued growth. 
VARIOUS TOPICS. 
B. F. .TOIINSON. 
We often meet with striking examples bow 
that which may lie true for tho East is not 
tine for the West in many matters of agricul¬ 
tural practice. As an example: the agricultu¬ 
ral editor of a New York city paper applauds 
the course of a correspondent who at the 
South commenced a clearing—deadening the 
trees in the Spring contrary to the advice of 
his neighbors and in opposition to the local 
custom, which is to do all that work in the 
Autumn. The reason given for this course in 
the South is that when the wooded surface is 
exposed suddenly to the heat of the direct 
rays of the sun in Summer, the soil is impov¬ 
erished in some way—many say by too great 
an evaporation of the nitrogen, which does 
not take place in so great a degree in the 
North. And one objection which cotton 
planters make to small grain crops is that 
baring the surface in May and thereafter 
leaving it exposed to tho sun in the hot¬ 
test part of the year, deprives the soil of much 
of its natural fertility, which cannot be re¬ 
covered for several years. 
animals are such as to invite accidents of the 
kind. 
And this may bo the explanation of tho ad¬ 
vantage which follows summer-fallowing on 
tho strong, black soils of the prairie. If these 
new soils are not summer-fallowed, the wheat 
crop is apt to fail in respect to the y icld of gruiu, 
but not of straw, which is liable to rust and 
lodge. But as the soil loses a portion of this 
excess of nitrogen the custom is abandoned 
and we see the summer-fallow system gradu¬ 
ally going out of use—as some time ago in 
Ohio, and more lately in Indiana, Illinois and 
farther west, as these lands become worn ami 
pa rtially exhausted of their nitrogen, and their 
vegetable matter is reduced. These and the 
above are facts perhaps worth Mr. Lawes's at¬ 
tention in discussing the subject of the rela¬ 
tion of nitrogen to crops. 
And in this connection let me ask if Mr. 
Lawes has a correct idea of the greater 
amount of nitrogen in the atmosphere in the 
West and South than in the East and North. 
As a measure of this difference, lie is probably 
not aware that an unpainted tin roof, in 
the latitude of Toronto or Montreal or Quebec, 
will remain bright and sound for a quarter 
of a century; whereas in the latitude of 
Chicago, St. Louis or Vicksburg it would tar 
uish in a month, and rust out in a year or 
two. This is on account of the little nitric 
acid precipitated from the atmosphere in the 
North and the much more in the South, so 
much that bright steel and iron surfaces show 
red-rust in a few minutes after being exposed 
to the drops from a passing shower. Until Mr. 
Lawes sees the corn fields of Illinois, the cot¬ 
ton fields ol tlic Yazoo Iiivor country in Mis¬ 
sissippi, and the sugar-cane fields of the Tecbe, 
iu Louisiana, he will have but a feeble con¬ 
ception of the role nitrogen plays in the crops 
of the West and South in comparison with 
those of the East and the North. 
Ears with, the Shucks on. 
In writing from any given section of the 
country it is almost always well to preserve 
the local color, and therefore in the epigraph 
above I have chosen the word “shucks” in 
preference to husks—the one being a common 
and tho other a sectional word. Thus tho 
Illinois farmer “shucks” his corn but does 
not “ husk” it, and he cuts it up and puts it 
in “shocks,” but not in “ stocks.” 
And, by the way, in cutting up corn the 
green -hand finds it very difficult at first to 
place tho corn so it will stand without further 
support than tho three or four tied or top-fas¬ 
tened stalks he begins with—simply because 
he has not acquired tho knack of settingup 
each armful perpendicularly. But this is easily 
corrected if, instead of cutting around one 
way till the shock is finished, ho cuts first 
from right to left once round, then from left 
to right the next time, and so on until the job 
is finished. In this case the inclination to 
slant one way is corrected by half tho armfuls 
leaning in one aud half in the opposite direc¬ 
tion. (Jood corn is commonly cut up from 1-1 
to 10 hills square, and when the work is well 
done the shocks stand without support and 
without tying, through the stormiest Winters. 
In reply to an inquiring subscriber another 
editor of a paper of great political reputation 
in the same city, says barbs on fence wire are 
barbarous and unnecessary, adding that a 
fence of smooth wire answers an equally good 
purpose. Now the facts are that, some time 
about I860, Messrs. Miller & Toll, then broom 
corn growers on a considerable scale, put up 
a considerable length of smooth wire fence to 
protect a young hedge in the first place, anti 
their crops in the second. But their example 
was not followed, since a smooth wire fence 
was found unequal to turning swine, and cattle 
quickly learned to reach through and strain 
the wires so they were displaced or gave way. 
But better testimony of the worthlessness of 
smooth wire is furnished by tho experience of 
the Illinois Central Railroad Co., which has 
built several hundred miles in Illinois along 
its line. In the beginning, live wires were 
used, three barbed and two, tho second and 
the fourth, smooth; but tho fence was soon 
found insufficient and the smooth wires have 
been taken out and barbed ones substituted. 
Bakbed wire having come so suddenly into 
fashion as a part of the material for the best 
aud cheapest fence, the substitution of iron 
for wooden posts was necessarily not far off. 
And now a fence consisting wholly of iron is 
made and sold for 50 cents a rod for short dis¬ 
tances and something less for long ones. This 
fence consists < >f three doubled and twisted 
barbed wires and a post of inch iron gas pipe 
five-and-u-half feet long, furnished with a 
flange and that with triangular wings, which, 
set a rod apart, keep it in place. A mile of 
three wire fence complete ;so the inventors 
say) weighs less than a ton and may be put 
into a common wagon and set up by two men 
and a pair of horses in a comparatively short 
time. That the objections to barbed wire 
on the score of barbarity, is one wholly of ig¬ 
norance and a false sentiment, is proved by 
the rarity of accidents on tho Illinois Central 
Railroad, which was the first to adopt and in¬ 
ti oiluce it iuto 80.1 thorn Illinois, where the 
contour of the surface and the character of tho 
SI) 
WINTERING BEES. 
l’KOFESSOR A. J. COOK. 
Surely, after tho experience of last Winter, 
when the loss of bees was so great and wide¬ 
spread, uo subject is more worthy of intelli¬ 
gent discussion and more sure to gain an 
appreciative hearing among bee-keepers than 
that of wintering. After close observation 
and varied experiments for a series of years, 
I believe 1 may say that certain practical 
points are well settled, and so most worthy of 
the attention of bee-keepers. 
1 st. It is certain that bees should have in 
the hive at the commencement of Winter at 
least 80 pounds of good, wholesome food. 
This does not mean glucose or thin uncapped 
liquids obtained from cider mills, etc. It 
means good, capped honey, or else sirup made 
of coffee “A” sugar, or from granulated 
sugar’, which, if the latter is used, must be fed 
in time to be all capped over before cold 
weather comas. It is often suggested that the 
beautiful white honey of early plants, like 
linden and white clover, is safer than the 
later grades which come from buckwheat 
and the various Fall flowers. 1 think there 
is no ground for this opinion. I have tried 
each kind repeatedly and see no difference. 
The late honey may be more apt to bo mixed 
with unwholesome liquids and so not so good. 
This is more likely, as after the Autumn har¬ 
vest is over tho bees are very stroug in num¬ 
bers, and being always eager to store, they 
make free to collect the oozing juices of 
wounded fruits aud the liquids about sorghum 
and cider mills. Except, from such impurities, • 
I should feel that Autumn honey was equal 
to any other. 1 do not know from experience 
that it is not anyway; but many apiarists 
think that it is not, and there seems reason for 
the opinion. 
If the SO pounds of honey are not in the 
hive, and cannot be supplied, then the bees 
must be fed either extracted honey or good 
sirup, as suggested above. From reason and 
experience alike, I believe that the honey 
should bo concentrated on to a few frames, 
and the bees by use of the division-board be 
confined to a small portion of the hive. This 
conserves the heat, insures better wintering, 
and is even more necessary to prevent Spring 
dwindling. 
Again, the bees should remain quiet in the 
confinement of Winter, so that breeding is 
not desirable. In the absence of pollen or 
bee-bread they cannot breed. So I would 
have little or no pollen in the Winter stores. 
This is not a mere opinion, but a fact wrought 
out from experience. 
2 dly. No fact is bettor sustained than that 
bees must have a nearly uniform temperature 
to be able to surely survive in long confinement, 
with no chance to fly out. This is found to be 
from 85 to 45 degrees Falir. about the hive. 
This temperature keeps the bees quiet. If the 
temperature rises above or falls below these 
limits the bees become uneasy, over-eat, be¬ 
come diseased and often die. If the weather 
permits frequent flights, then extremes of 
temperature seldom do mischief. 
To secure tins oven temperature four 
methods are in use: The surest, as 1 have de¬ 
monstrated by several years of experience, is 
a good cellar. This, though not superior for 
most of our seasons, is most to be recom¬ 
mended, as it is always wife. By a good cel¬ 
lar 1 mean one that preserves the uniform 
temperature between 85 end 45 degrees Falir. 
from December 1st to April 1st; that is well 
ventilated, so as always to be sweet; ono that 
is dark and quiet, and, perhaps, I should add 
one that is dry, though this seems not to be 
necessary. To secure the desirable tempera¬ 
ture and good ventilation at the same time, 
nothing serves so well as sub-i aVth ventila¬ 
tion. Connect the bottom of the cellar by 
means of a four-inch iron or tin pipe with the 
stove pipe in the room above. ibis room 
should be one in which there is lire each day. 
The pipe from the cellar should join the 
pipe in the room above so high as not 
to interfere with the draft of the stove. Also 
from near the bottom of the cellar run an 
eight-inch tile live or six feet beneath the sur- 
faee of the ground for a distance of 50 or t >0 
feet, when it is to rise to the surface. The 
end should be protected by a screen. This 
arrangement not only keeps the air sweet, but 
tempers tho current as it comes through the 
earth, so that it is warm in cold weather and 
cool in the warm days of Spring. Vi e have 
tried it in this region with the most, gratify¬ 
ing success. An open cistern in the cellax is 
also excellent to temper the air. This has 
also proved very successful, A sweet running 
stream, if it could Vie secured so as not to ex¬ 
pose tho cellar, would be admirable. 
