4888 
387 
fiettr Craps. 
POTATO CULTIVATION. 
Theory is of little importance in agricul¬ 
ture. Practical experience on the farm, join¬ 
ed with the habit of careful observation, is 
the first and greatest qualification for those 
who attempt to point the way to success iD 
farming. Experiment stations and trial plots 
have their place, and are useful, but the de¬ 
tailed methods of such successful farmers as 
W. I. Chamberlain, J. S. Woodward, T. B. 
Terry, and many other well-known contri¬ 
butors to the agricultural literature of the 
day, afford instruction of the greatest value to 
the practical farmer. I have read with inte¬ 
rest the writings of such men for many years, 
and have tried to improve my own methods 
through the information gained. 
Raising potatoes is a part of my farming, 
and I have studied the Rural’s experiments, 
and the practice of Mr. Terry, Mr. Minch, and 
others with care, and wish to adopt such 
methods of cultivation as will prove most pro¬ 
fitable. 
In some points these leading potato growers 
do not agree, and in others their teaching is 
contrary to the experience and practice of the 
best farmers in this vicinity. This article is 
written to elicit further information that may 
lead to a better understanding of the subject. 
If I have read correctly what Mr. Terry 
has written for the Rural and other agricul¬ 
tural papers, he would have the soil very 
thoroughly prepared and pulverized to the 
depth of seven or eight inches and would spare 
no labor or pains to secure this end. At the 
Hornellsville Institute, Mr. Woodward said: 
“Do not spend too much time in preparing 
the soil, but do that after they are up.” 
Which is the better practice? The most suc¬ 
cessful potato farmer in this vicinity, said 
to me that when his help and others thought 
the ground well fitted, he wanted it worked 
over about twice more, as he could fit it 
much cheaper then than after the potatoes 
were planted. My own practice has been to 
plow or cultivate or both in the fall, and plow 
again in spring, and then pulverize deeply 
with a weighted spring-tooth wheel-harrow, 
using the “Acme” if needed to reduce the 
lumps. Am I wrong in supposing that this 
thorough working of the soil helps in produc¬ 
ing a profitable crop? 
The trench system is not practiced by the 
Rural merely to form a place in which to 
deposit fertilizers, but also for the purpose of 
having fine, mellow soil in which the roots 
may grow and the tubers form. The Rural 
has taught a very thorough preparation for 
the crop, but has said but little about after 
cultivation, except that the ground should be 
left level or nearly so. Again, Mr. Terry has 
taught that frequent and continued cultiva¬ 
tion, especially in time of drought, was bene¬ 
ficial. Mr. Minch, on the contrary, says in 
the Rural, on page 286: “I cultivate well be¬ 
fore the plants appear and as little as possible 
afterwards. Too much after culture is a 
serious injury to the potato, and will largely 
reduce the product.” This, to me at least, is 
entirely new teaching; but the opinions of a 
man who has raised such crops as Mr. M. has, 
are of great weight, and I hope he will give 
readers of the Rural what facts and experi¬ 
ence he has to substantiate the assertion, and 
what the conditions are under which cultiva¬ 
tion does harm, that Mr. Terry, Mr. Wood¬ 
ward, and other successful farmers may 
reform their practices. Is it the large 
amount of fertilizer used that makes his ex¬ 
perience peculiar, or has he discovered a prin¬ 
ciple that is general in its application? Al¬ 
though the Rural has said but little about 
cultivation of the growing plants, still it has 
not, to my knowledge, taught that there was 
any harm done by level, shallow cultivation 
at least. In the season of 1881, when potatoes 
in this country were a failure on account of 
drought, I continued cultivation through the 
summer, and my field remained green long 
after most others were brown and dry. About 
the middle of August we had a shower that 
wet the ground to the depth of two or three 
inches, and as soon as the surface had dried a 
little, so that it was not in the condition of 
mud, the cultivator was used, and the damp 
soil was thrown up to the rows. The tops 
remained green until they were killed by the 
frost on October 4, and we harvested 225 
bushels to the acre, mostly large, fine tubers, 
grown almost entirely in the month of Sep¬ 
tember. A part of the crop was sold for 70 
and a larger part for 90 cents per bushel. I 
have always attributed the success and profit 
of that crop mainly to the continued cultiva¬ 
tion given. 
I hope we shall hear from Mr. Minch again 
on this subject. If by having a well-prepared, 
clean seed-bed, and making a large use of fer- 
THE BiJRAL NEW-YORKER. 
tilizers that are free from weed seeds, after 
cultivation can be avoided, and the yield and 
profit be increased, a new departure in potato 
raising may be expected. c. s. rice. 
Lowville, N. Y. 
[In reply to our valued correspondent, the 
E- N.-Y. would say that it has always prac¬ 
ticed shallow cultivation until the growth of 
the vines prevented it. It is true, as we be¬ 
lieve, that the trenches render cultivation less 
necessary, but it is nevertheless of the first 
importance if we would secure a maximum 
yield. Keep the surface soil mellow as long 
as possible. Plants can not do their best in a 
compact soil—it matters not what the plant is 
—a rose, a pansy, a corn, or potato plant. If 
the Rural has endeavored to impress one 
thing more than another upon its readers it 
is the importance of a mellow surface during 
plant growth. We began its advocacy years 
ago when, upon a measured acre of land, we 
raised over 130 bushels of shelled corn. At 
the same time we began our advocacy of 
shalloiv cultivation for corn—since extended 
to potatoes—and scores of carefully conducted 
experiments have convinced us of its efficacy. 
When we began to talk of shallow cultivation 
for corn, other journals were commending the 
“root pruning” absurdity. Now, there are 
few good farmers who care to sever the roots 
of the growing corn, and it is our opinion that 
shallow cultivation for potatoes is all the while 
gaining friends.— Eds.] 
DOES IT PAY TO SAVE SEED? 
W. W. TRACY. 
Great importance and value of superior 
seeds ; a difference of 10 bushels an acrein 
the products of choice and ordinary seed 
corn : large profits from an ounce of su¬ 
perior tomato seeds; farmers won't pay 
proper prices for prime seed ; seedsmen 
do; therefore, the stock seeds of the latter 
are, on an average, the best. 
Will it pay for the farmer to save his own 
seeds? is the question the Rural asks me to 
answer, and it would be difficult to ask one 
that it would be more impossible to answer by 
a simple yes or no. There are many things, 
some of them seemingly quite foreign to the 
subject, but which really do have a most im¬ 
portant bearing upon it, and instead of 
answering the Rural’s question, I will talk 
of some of them. 
First, few, very few appreciate the impor¬ 
tance and value of superior seed. They all 
want good seed, but it would be very difficult 
to induce a farmer to pay $10 per bushel for 
seed corn, no matter how superior he believed 
it to be. Now I have seen a difference of near¬ 
ly 10 bushels per acre in the yield of eight 
acres of corn planted with a bushel of selected 
seed over that of the remainder of the field 
or any portion of it planted with corn of the 
same variety taken from the crib. The whole 
field was planted and cared for alike except 
in the matter of the seed used. The eight acres 
from selected seed gave 16 bushels more than 
the best eight acres of the rest of the field. 
Allowing 10 cents per bushel for husking and 
marketing 76 bushels, and considering the corn 
worth 50 cents per bushel, we have a net gain 
of $30.40 for the use of the select seed, so the 
farmer could pay $20 per bushel for it and 
then gain 50 per cent, for the use of his money 
Again, with care an ounce of tomato seed 
will furnish plants enough for an acre What 
gardener would be willing to pay $5 per ounce 
for extra seed, be it ever so nice. It is certain¬ 
ly quite practicable to save select seed that 
will produce plants which will mature, on an 
average, one four-ounce fruit or its equiva¬ 
lent to the vine, one picking or about three 
days earlier than ordinary stock of that varie¬ 
ty. What is such seed worth? By its use we 
can harvest from an acre of 2,500 to 2,700 
plants four ounces each or 10,000 ounces, equal 
to over 10 bushels of fruit which, as the first 
will easily bring $lper bushel against 25 cents 
at the last of the season. Deduct $2.50 for 
what the tomatoes would be worth later, 
and we have $87.50 net gain, so the gardener 
could have paid $5 per ounce and then made 
50 per cent, on the investment. I could fill the 
pages of the Rural with such illustrations all 
drawn from experience, but these two I think 
will show that superior seed is actually worth 
far more then it is possible to get for it in the 
open market. To save such seed costs care, 
time, knowledge and money, and the seeds¬ 
men who should grow such stock and offer it 
at something like its real value would find no 
customers unless, perhaps, among seedsmen 
who often do pay such prices as have been 
suggested for stock seed, but there are thous¬ 
ands of farmers and gardeners among the read¬ 
ers of the Rural New-Yorker who, if they 
would make a careful study of the character¬ 
istics of certain valuable varieties, might se¬ 
lect such superior seed. But they don’t do it, 
though seedsmen often do and should always, 
and using such for stock seed (that they are 
to grow their seed crop from), they offer better 
seed than that grown by the ordinary farmer. 
This may be contrary to the opinion of some, 
but I speak from experience. During the 
past 10 years T have carefully tested at least 
1,000 samples of seeds received from farmers 
and gardeners who claimed that they were su¬ 
perior, and it has certainly been true that 
these 1,000 samples from the farmers received 
as extra have not averaged as good in quality 
either as to vitality or purity and quality of 
stock, as the samples received from seedsmen 
as representing their ordinary stock which they 
had to offer. This is only one phase of the 
subject;there are other considerations ofwhich 
I would like to write did space permit. But 
think of these things—I have not exaggerated 
them. 
Detroit, Mich. 
P-omoIogicaL 
THE SCHROEDER LIST OF APPLES. 
PROFESSOR J. L. BUDD. 
I have letters from Syracuse and Roches¬ 
ter, N. Y., asking questions in regard to the 
numbers of Russian apples, such as lm, 6m, 
15m, etc., and the sources of information in 
regard to the quality, season, etc., of the va¬ 
rieties they represent. I answer briefly in the 
R N.-Y., as it reaches many interested in 
these hardy fruits. 
Late in the spring of 1879 I received for the 
use of the Iowa Agricultural College about 
160 varieties of the apple from Professor R. 
Scbroeder, the veteran horticulturist of the 
agricultural college near Moscow, Russia. As 
only the Russian names were given, with¬ 
out a system of numbering, we numbered 
them in the order of grafting, consecutively, 
lm, 2m, 3m, 4m, 5m, etc. The collection in¬ 
cluded the best varieties grown near Moscow, 
to which were added very many of the best 
varieties of the Volga regiou, and of the black- 
soil region north of the Caspian. 
So far as we yet know the whole list is true 
to name; but in very many cases the tree and 
fruit are not identical with the variety bear¬ 
ing the same name in the Department of Ag¬ 
riculture’s list received in 1870. 
As instances: 15m (Skrischapel) is true to 
name when compared with our Skrischapel 
from Arel, Voronesh, and Dr. Regal, of St. 
Petersburg; but it does not resemble in tree 
or fruit the Skrischapel (No. 413) of the De¬ 
partment’s list. So Grandmother (6m) is true 
to name from all sources from which we have 
introduced it; but the Department’s 469 is 
wholly different, and far less hardy in tree. 
Again, our 31m is a true Good Peasant, but 
the Department’s Good Peasant (387) is Long- 
field. Still again, No. 327 of the De¬ 
partment’s list is named Yellow Arcadin, 
but it is a large green apple with 
red splashes and stripes which proves to be 
Silken (75m). To this we might add that this 
fine, early winter cooking apple for the “Cold 
North” seems to be unfortunate in identifica¬ 
tion. It got in the Department’s list under a 
wrong name, and by a blunder of Dr. Shroe- 
der’s secretary, or of the printer, the name 
Silken is followed by a wrong description in 
Dr. Shroeder’s descriptive list to which I wish 
to call attention. 
While at the Moscow College for the second 
time in the summer of 1885, the earnest and 
untiring Charles Gibb succeeded in securing 
a much needed descriptive list of the varieties 
sent us in 1879. This tabulated list giving a 
description of the fruit, the season, and the 
relative hardiness of the trees, was published 
in the report of the Montreal Horticultural 
Society for 1887. Prof. Shroeder estimates 
the quality of the fruits from the standpoint 
of the skilled German pomologist. His esti¬ 
mates of relative hardiness of tree are based 
on his Moscow experience on very unfavorable 
soil. When he says that a variety is hardy 
north, it means we find that it is hardier than 
Duchess, with few exceptions. Those he marks 
“medium” in hardiness we find, as a rule, as 
hardy as Duchess. On the other hand those 
he marks “tender,” such as Royal Tablet 
Blackwood, Kursk Reinette, Dansic Pippin, 
Longfield, and Good Peasant, we find at the 
West to be about as hardy as Wealthy during 
our recent test years. In our bulletin of 1885, 
and in the very valuable report of Dr. Shroe¬ 
der above named, will be found the present 
available information in regard to our varie¬ 
ties from Moscow. 
Ames, Iowa. 
The immense quantities of the Peen-to 
Peaches now in the market show how popular 
this odd variety has become in a few years. 
ANSWERS to correspondents. 
(Every query must be accompanied by the name 
and address of the writer to insure attention. Before 
asking a question please see if it is not answered in 
our advertising columns. Ask only a few questions at 
one time. Put questions on a separate piece of paper. 
THE GRAPE-VINE FLEA BEETLE. 
F. Q., Johnsonville, N. Y .— I send the Ru¬ 
ral specimens of several beetles that infest 
the Concord grape, which they puncture, 
destroying the vitality. What are they, and 
how can we fight them? 
ANSWERED BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 
The beetles are the old Haltica chalybea 
of Harris, or Grape-vine Flea Beetle. This 
beautiful insect, called Flea Beetle from its 
habit of springing when alarmed, comes upon 
the grape-vines early in spring—as soon as 
the buds have swollen—and commences to eat 
into them, thus doing serious mischief. Later 
it lays many eggs upon the foliage, and the 
grubs continue the evil by skeletonizing the 
leaves. I think the beetles, by destroying the 
buds usually do more harm than the grubs do 
by feeding upon the foliage. True, the grubs 
are very much more numerous; but as they 
have the abundant foliage to feed upon, they 
do far less mischief than the beetles, which 
have only the swelling buds. I have found 
the arsenites a sure specific against these bee¬ 
tles. A tablespoonful of London-purple in 
two gallons of water thrown onto the vines is 
certain death to the beetle, and sure protec¬ 
tion to the vines. Either the arsenites or 
kerosene and soap mixture is death to the 
grubs, which, later, attack the foliage. To 
make this mixture I take one quart of soft 
soap, or a quarter of a pound of whale-oil soap, 
mix with it one pint of kerosene oil and two 
quarts of water; then stir it violently till all 
is permanently mixed. Then reduce it with 
water, so that there shall be one part of kero¬ 
sene to 15 parts of all else. Thus one quart of 
kerosene will make 16 quarts of the mixture. 
This is also valuable in fighting many other 
insects, especially plant lice. 
GUERNSEY AND JERSEY GRADES FOR THE 
DAIRY. 
H. H. L., Bainbridge, N. Y .—For a butter 
dairy kept by an average farmer who has a 
good herd of cows of his own raising, which is 
the better, the Jersey or Guernsey, the object 
being to improve the herd by crossing the 
cows with a bull of one of the above breeds so 
that the quality of the butter will be im¬ 
proved and the quantity increased. I’ve al¬ 
ways been a trifle prejudiced against the Jer¬ 
sey; but I will use the bull most likely to ac¬ 
complish the object I have in view. Which 
breed makes the best-colored butter? Which 
the most solid? Which gives the largest yield 
with ordinary care? Which can stand neg 
lect best? 
Ans. —It will be impossible to answer this 
question entirely satisfactorily. What causes 
the prejudice against the Jersey? Does it 
come trom observing their performance in the 
hands of others or from actual experience 
with them? It is claimed for the Jersey 
grade that she is the most economical butter 
machine the farmer can produce, but in few in¬ 
stances have Jersey and Guernsey grades been 
tested side by side so as to determine any points 
of superiority. As to solidity and high color 
of butter there will probably be little choice 
between the two breeds. If anything the 
Guernsey butter would be highest colored. As 
to probable yield, the Guernsey grades would 
be likely to be deeper milkers and in all prob¬ 
ability equal the Jerseys in butter pro¬ 
duction. The Guernseys seem to be the 
most uniform in butter production. There 
are no great records from Guernseys 
such as some Jerseys have made, but the av¬ 
erage of the breed is very high and there are 
fewer poor ones. The Guernsey is the larger, 
coarser animal and would undoubtedly do 
best on poor fare, though it would be a crime 
to Deglect any graded stock. The Guernseys 
have never been boomed. It is always a great 
surprise to observing people at dairy shows 
that good business men should allow them¬ 
selves to be so modest in advertising their 
stock as Guernsey breeders seem to be. 
VALUE OF BUTTERMILK FOR HOG FEED. 
J. F. G., Mandan, D. T .—What is the val¬ 
ue of creamery buttermilk for hogs? Bran is 
worth about $15 per ton; corn about 35 cents 
per bushel and dressed pork about five cents per 
pound, on an average. 
Ans. —Buttermilk has about the same value 
as skimmed milk. In various experiments in 
feeding skimmed milk and buttermilk with 
