THE RURAL 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
ANatlonal Journal for Country and Suburban Homes. 
Conducted by 
ELBERT 8. CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. 84 Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1888. 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER seed¬ 
ling potato No, 2 will be sent to all 
of our subscribers who apply, without 
any charge whatever. We believe this 
to be the nearest to a perfect potato 
of any of the hundreds of varieties 
tried at the RURAL’S Experiment 
Grounds during the last 12 years 
Whether it will behave as well else¬ 
where remains to be seen. 
-- ■>. ♦ »»♦- 
Applications for the R. N.-Y. potato No. 2 
must be made upon a piece of paper sepa¬ 
rate from all other communications , and the 
name and full address of the applicant must 
be given. The offer is confined to yearly 
subscibers or those who may become yearly 
subscribers. 
The Rural New- Yorker Potato No. 2 will be 
sent to all of our yearly subscribers who 
apply , without any charge whatever. Jt will 
be sent , as the weather permits, from time to 
time , so that all shall receive a tuber before 
the planting season commences. Applica¬ 
tions are now IN order. There is no doubt 
but that this potato will fail in many parts of 
the country , but from the reports thus far 
received , it may be said to be the nearest ap¬ 
proach to a perfect potato at present known. 
It is hoped that we shall be able to 
send our subscribers a few grains each 
of the RURAL’ S cross-bred wheats, 
Nos. 50, 51, 53 and 55, and rye wheat 
hybrids, Nos. 2 and 3, next fall, in 
time for planting. These are the first 
of our 100 varieties, the work of 12 
years, which are being propagated for 
introduction. Additional varieties of 
these crosses will be introduced every 
year for many years as they become 
sufficiently fixed. It is thought by 
competent judges that they (some of 
them, at any rate), will supersede the 
popular wheats of the present day. 
One Hundred (at least) of the Rural’s 
hybrid rye-wheat and wheat cross-breeds 
are growing on a halt acre oi the Rural 
Experiment Grounds. To these as many 
more partly-fixed varieties might be 
added. They are looking splendid, hav¬ 
ing for the most part been planted (one 
grain 6x12 inches apart). As we have 
elsewhere stated, a few kernels of each of 
the six of the first to become fixed will be 
sent to our subscribers next fall in time 
for sowing. Premiums will be offered 
for the best heads, restricting each State 
to one premium. This is necessary since, 
if no such restriction were imposed, 
Colorado, California, etc., would draw 
ail. We shall introduce these new 
crosses and hybrids year after year as 
fast as possible. Other crosses are being 
made every year—the inferior rejected, 
the best saved for future selections and 
propagation. It is now thought by those 
who have seen the best of the rye-wlieat 
hybrids, that their introduction will be 
worth a great deal to the country. Over 
12 seasons of diligent work have been 
given to these new wheats and we may 
reasonably hope that all this patient care 
and labor have not been thrown away. 
OBSERVE. 
npHE RURAL NEW-YORKER will be 
sent from this time until January 
1st., 1890 for $2.00. Subscribe now. 
IMPORTANT. 
r I ''HE potatoes raised in the country 
A about the Rural Grounds are more 
or less injured by scab and this scab is 
evidently caused by the wire-worm. Wc 
do not mean to say that this centipede is 
the only cause of scab at all, but merely 
that, in so far as can be judged, it is the 
cause there. 
In the trenches of the “contest plot” 
sulphur was sown at the rate of 400 
pounds to the acre. There were very 
few scabby potatoes, while in other 
trenches without sulphur there were 
many. 
This is the third or fourth season 
sulphur has been used and we shall use 
it next year. 
Again, potatoes are rotting at a great 
rate as we find from inquiry and from 
seeing them dug. There was not one 
rotten potato taken from the trenches of the 
“ contest plot.' 1 ' 1 
---- 
NOW, LADIES, YOUR ATTENTION! 
TnE R. N.-Y. proposes that its lady 
readers enter into a potato contest of their 
own. In the way of suggestion merely at 
this time, let us propose that the plot be 
33 feet square, or just one-fortieth of an 
acre. This is a very convenient size and 
shape. Each contestant will choose her 
own method in every particular, the kind 
and quantity of fertilizer,for manure, the 
variety of potato, the distance apart to 
plant, etc., etc. It will not of course be 
required that the contestant do all or any 
of the actual work herself, but merely 
that it be done under her direction and 
supervision. The aim will he to produce 
the largest quantity of merchantable potatoes 
on this area at the least cost ; the standard 
of what constitutes a “merchantable” 
potato to be fixed hereafter. The reports 
(to be satisfactorily substantiated) will 
give the full particulars as to the kind of 
soil, fertilizer, manure, variety of potato 
and method of culture, and are to be 
handed in before the first of next October. 
THE REWARDS. 
The R. N.-Y.’s further suggestion is 
that from 100 to 500 rewards, or souvenirs , 
be settled upon to be given to a corres¬ 
ponding number of the most successful 
contestants. The Rural New-Yorker 
is ready to subscribe $100 for this purpose. 
We believe this to be a very laudable 
project and certain to do a deal of good 
in very many ways. 
The ft. N.-Y. begs to express the hope 
that those of its friends who may take the 
above view of the project, will encourage it 
by donating suitable articles or by contribut¬ 
ing such moderate sums of money as in the 
aggregate may enable the committee (to be 
appointed) to extend the number of souvenirs 
as far as possible, and in this way help to 
secure a general interest and enthusiasm 
throughout the entire potato growing 
country. 
The Committee to examine the re¬ 
ports and to award the prizes will 
be made up of persons (either men or 
women as preferred) whose names will be 
a sufficient guaranty of strict, impartial 
action. 
FINALLY. 
All of our female readers, whether young 
or old, who desire to enter the lists will 
kindly send in their names and addresses 
on postal cards, adding the words “For 
toe Potato Contest.” 
A Potato Trust is not included in our 
first-page cartoon. But we would as 
soon put our trust in potatoes as in any 
other farm crop. 
TnERE are about 700 potatoes of 
average marketable size to the barrel. 
If we plant one by three feet apart, and 
cut each tuber jn five pieces, it will re¬ 
quire about 4% barrels of seed to the 
acre. 
-♦- 
Large potato tops mean a large yield 
if the soil is supplied with a well pro¬ 
portioned manure and plenty of it, and 
seed-pieces are planted sufficiently early, 
and the soil is kept reasonably free of 
overshadowing weeds. 
We find by reference to our records 
that during the past eight years we have 
grown 525 different varieties of potatoes 
at the Rural Grounds, most of which 
have been described in these pages and 
many of them illustiated. 
LAWSON VALENTINE’S INDORSE¬ 
MENT. 
“TnE Woman’s Potato Contest will 
prove a good thing: push it, and I will 
back you. I only want to add to this 
that in reviewing my whole life work in 
connection with an earnest desire to help 
agricultural progress, I look upon this 
scheme as containing the elements of as 
much as, or more helpfulness, than any¬ 
thing else that I can think of. It is the 
A. B. C. of progress. 
It contains the germ of all that we can 
do for our readers in connection with the 
“Rural New-Yorker.” 
It is so easy to lay down the law, and 
point out the way to prosperity and hap¬ 
piness in agriculture that it is strange 
more are not benefited by it; but I have 
come to the conclusion that the germ of 
the whole matter lies in stimulating one * 
hundred or one thousand to action. All 
agricultural knowledge is barren and 
fruitless without the action which your 
prizes tend to produce. 
The scheme has my heartiest indorse¬ 
ment.” 
THE COST CONSERVATIVELY 
COMPARED. 
TnE R. N.-Y. has distributed among 
its subscribers the Beauty of Hebron, 
White Elephant and Rural Blush pota¬ 
toes. The No. 2, it is believed, w T ill be 
found superior to them, if not, indeed, 
to any potato in cultivation. 
In an experiment made four yeais ago 
the Rural found that potatoes planted 
one foot apart in trenches three feet apart, 
yielded twice as many bushels as potatoes 
one foot apart in trenches six feet apart. 
The trial was made in a field of only mod¬ 
erate fertility. 
A few days ago we dug a hill of potatoes 
started from seed in February last and 
found the yield to weigh VA pounds. 
There were 40 potatoes in all, 10 of which 
were of marketable size. This is the 
greatest yield from true seed that we have 
ever heard of. 
A,n objection to the trench method of 
raising potatoes has been made that many 
of the tubers grow out of the ground and 
become “sun-burnt” or green. 
In our experience there is no such ob¬ 
jection. If the trenches are deep enough 
fewer potatoes will be exposed than if 
they are raised in hills. 
TnE following is a part of a letter from 
Martha Schofield, of the Schofield 
Normal & Industrial School, Aiken, 
S. C., to Mr. Wilmer Atkinson: 
“We accept the $50 and are thankful. 
It was an honest effort in an honest pur¬ 
pose—quite different from a bet or a 
“raffling” (the favorite church way), and 
may stimulate others to good effort.” 
Listen, Readers: 'IheR. N. Y., is the 
pioneer in level cultivation for potatoes 
and in planting in drills three feet apart, 
the seed-pieces being placed one foot 
apart in the drills. Now, did you ever 
consider that this way of planting will 
give you 10,000 more plants to the acre 
than when the pieces are planted three 
feet apart each way? True, you can then 
cultivate both ways. But by the Rural’s 
Trench System little or no cultivation 
between the plants is needed. They 
shade the soil too soon. 
If you would raise a large field of pota¬ 
toes, by the trench method, use not less 
than 1,200 pounds of a high-grade fertili¬ 
zer to the acre. By this we mean a fertil¬ 
izer that shall analyze five per cent of 
ammonia, 10 per cent of phosphoric acid 
and eight per cent of potash or there¬ 
abouts. And it is our belief that the 
yield will be increased if the above food 
constituents are present in different forms. 
For example, we would have the nitro¬ 
genous constituents to consist of nitrate 
of soda, sulphate of ammonia and blood, 
which are soluble in the order named. 
For potash we would have sulphate, car¬ 
bonate, etc., using for the carbonate un¬ 
leached ashes. For phosphoric acid we 
would have bone superphosphate, raw. 
bone flour, Peruvian guano, as also the 
phosphate furnished by the ashes. To 
furnish just what the crop needs, as it 
needs it and an abundance of it is the first 
consideration in raising maximum yields. 
I T has many times been intimated and 
several times broadly asserted that the 
Rural’s method of raising potatoes will 
not pay; that is, that the value of the 
larger crops so raised will not pay for the 
extra cost of their production. Let us 
suppose that by ordinary methods we 
raise 150 bushels upon an acre, the cost of 
which may be itemized as follows: 
Plowing and harrowing .$6 50 
Fertilizer or manure.16.00 
Seed and planting.7.50 
Cultivating. 6 00 
Harvesting.6.00 
We have here an aggregate cost for 
this acre of potatoes of $42.00. 
The cost of raising an acre of potatoes, 
according to the R.N.-Y.’s trench method 
may be fairly estimated as follows: 
Plowing and harrowing.$6.50 
Trenching (with a shovel plow).5.00 
Filling in the trench by the use of a drag or 
cultivator. .5.00 
Seeding and planting.10.00 
Cultivating.6.00 
Harvesting.10.00 
Fertilizer (1,500 lbs. to the acre).30.00 
Here we have a total of $72.50. Now 
we will place the yield at only 300 bushels 
to the acre; what is the difference? Esti¬ 
mating the market price of potatoes at 50 
cents the bushel in the first instance, we 
have $75.00 worth of product which cost 
$42.00. In the second, we have $150 
dollars’worth of product which cost $72. 
50, a profit of $77.50 against $33.00. This 
seems to us a very just estimate, while 
the considerable amount of potash and 
phosphoric acid left in the soil for suc¬ 
ceeding crops is not taken into the 
account. 
brevities. 
Potash is found in all plants. 
Which of your fields is the best adapted 
to potato culture? 
In laying in our store of potatoes, how will 
it answer to allow one barrel for each mem¬ 
ber of the family? 
It is well to bear in mind that when one 
sprout isbrpken off in handling potatoes, the 
next will be weaker. 
“Mark where she stands /” Let us see 
how many of the wives and daughters of our 
readers will take part in the Women’s Potato 
Contest. 
T. B. Terry tells how he planted 24 acres 
one year and 18 acres the next by using a 
planter, without any help, at the rate of an 
acre in two hours. 
No one has the right to dogmatize in plant 
nutrition, which is still an inexact science in 
which nearly every fact is open to more than 
one interpretation. 
There are few better ways of storing po¬ 
tatoes than to place them in barrels as soon as 
they are quite dry—the barrels to be stored 
in a dry, dark, frost proof cellar; 
Mr. W. C. Rollo, of Oneida Co., N. Y., 
writes that his potatoes were the most scabby 
where he used sulphur as advised in the R. 
N.-Y. He favors, from a trial made the past 
season, the Trench Method. 
Rural readers, we are merely striving to 
increase your yield of potatoes without corre¬ 
spondingly adding to the cost. This is the 
fourth Potato Special we have issued during 
the past nine years. The first was dated Oct¬ 
ober 18, 1879; the second, January 16, 1886; 
the third, March 27, 1886. 
When we burn wood of any kind, we find 
potash in the ashes and the form is that 
known as carbonate. Now if we add cblor- 
bydric acid to this, a brisk bubbling ensues— 
caused by the escape of the carbonic acid— 
and we have chloride of potash. So, too, if 
we were to add salt, a change would occur re¬ 
sulting in the formation of muriate of potash. 
This it is thought is a form inferior to the 
ulplatecf polath^ for jotatces, tobacco, etc 
