836 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
DEC 2i 
London-purple applied once with a water¬ 
ing pot was used to kill the Colorado bee¬ 
tles. The crop was harvested September 4. 
Total yield 34 bushels and 16 pounds; or at 
the rate of 970.66 bushels to the acre. Four 
bushels and six pounds were unmarketa¬ 
ble. The tubers on the average were 
smooth and shapely with rather deep eyes. 
If I were to engage in another contest I 
would proceed in the same way. 
I do hereby affirm that the report here¬ 
with sent the R. N.-Y., is true in every par¬ 
ticular. MART RUSK. 
Madison County, Ill. 
[The above report, as well as those which 
follow, are all properly certified to.—E ds. R. 
N.-Y.] 
EMMA HISSAM’S REPORT (THIRD PRIZE). 
The size of the plot was 33x66 feet. The 
land was flat, clayey and dry and drained 
naturally. Wheat had been raised on it 
for the previous three years and yielded 15 
bushels to the acre. No fertilizer or 
manure was used. It was plowed in Au¬ 
gust, 1888, six inches deep ; three loads of 
manure were applied. Two loads of horse 
manure each cost 50 cents, and one load of 
chip manure, 50 cents. The potatoes were 
planted on April 28,1889. The “seeds” 
averaged about seven ounces each and 
averaged 16 eyes apiece. The total weight 
of the seed was 90 pounds. They were 
planted in trenches six inches deep, and 
three feet 10 inches apart, and were 
dropped eight inches apart in the trenches. 
The trenches were made with a two-horse 
sulky plow. The seed potatoes were cut 
into four to eight pieces each and the pieces 
were covered three inches deep with soil. 
The variety was the Late Rose. The vines 
were up on May 25, and were frozen to the 
ground on May 30, but they were up again 
on June 6. The ground was plowed out 
with a No. 4 shovel sulky plow on June 
11, and the crop was hand-hoed on June 15. 
We had a very, very dry season and the 
weather was hot through July and August. 
The potatoes were plowed again on June 
25. The vines were 2)4 feet high and the 
stems half an inch thick. They were in 
bloom on July 15. The crop got level cul¬ 
tivation, and the ground was plowed shal¬ 
low. The vines began to die on September 
1, and the frost killed them on September 
16. No potato beetles troubled them. The 
crop was harvested on September 24, and 
the yield was 46 bushels, one peck or at the 
rate of 925 bushels per acre. Of this quan¬ 
tity 42)^ bushels were marketable and four 
bushels were unmarketable. The tubers 
are large, smooth and shapely, with deep 
eyes. If I were engaged in another contest 
I would use for a fertilizer chip manure, 
and leached ashes half and half. I would 
also plant the potatoes in trenches 8x30 
inches apart. Mine were too far apart one 
way. The following shows the cost of the 
crop. 
Cost of labor, first plowing five cents ; 
plowing the trenches two cents: dropping 
the potatoes 10 cents; covering them with 
soil 10 ; cultivating twice 10; hoeing them 
once 50 cents ; harvesting 75 cents; cost of 
seed 35 ; total: §1.97. 
I do hereby affirm that the report here¬ 
with sent to the R. N.-Y. is true in every 
particular.* EMMA HISSAM. 
Steele County, Minn. 
MRS. M. J. COVELL’S REPORT (FOURTH 
PRIZE). 
The soil was sandy. It was an old straw¬ 
berry bed, and had been plowed after the 
strawberries were picked, and planted to 
pickles. A load of hen manure was put on 
it and it was again plowed the past spring, 
harrowed and furrowed out with a small 
shovel plow. The ground planted was 16)4 
feet wide, and 66 feet long. The “seeds” were 
planted one foot apart and the ground was 
cultivated three times and hoed twice, I 
pulled all the weeds by hand, letting none 
grow. I worked at them until the vines cov¬ 
ered the ground. I hand-picked the vines, 
destroying every egg and bug that I could 
find. The crop was dug on October 10 and 
the yield was 1,380 pounds. Rural Blush 
and the Green Mountain were the kinds 
planted, and the tubers were mostly cut one 
eye to a piece. 
Erie County, Ohio. 
AGNES C. CAMERON’S REPORT. (FIFTH PRIZE.) 
The size of the plot was 33 feet square. 
It was a flat, clayey, dry piece of land, 
drained naturally. It had been a calf ftas- 
ture and was plowed six inches deep. Four 
wagon-loads of barn-yard manure were 
put on it. On April 16, 40 pounds two 
ounces of the Beauty of Hebron and Rural 
Blush Potatoes were planted six inches 
deep, in drills. After the vines had ap¬ 
peared a heavy frost, in May, killed them 
all down to the ground. The spring 
was very wet and cold. We had more or 
less rain nearly every day up to wheat har¬ 
vest. Since then the weather has been 
warm and there has been very little rain. 
The crop was hoed twice. The seed-pit ces 
were planted four to five feet apart, and we 
all thought there would be no potatoes as 
the vines were so large. They began to die 
about the first week in August and were 
dead at the end of the same month. There 
were no beetles. The crop was harvested 
on September 18, and the yield was 1,282 
pounds, of which 1,260 pounds were mar¬ 
ketable and 22 pounds unmarketable. The 
tubers were very fine and the largest we 
ever raised. They were smooth and of good 
shape, with shallow eyes and no scabs. If 
I had to engage in another contest, I would 
make no change in my method of raising 
the crop. The work was all done by my¬ 
self. 
I do hereby affirm that the report here¬ 
with sent to the R. N.-Y. is true in every 
particular. 
Texas County, Mo. 
MARY E. WARREN’S REPORT (SIXTH PRIZE). 
My little plot was just one-fortieth of an 
acre. There were 11 rows 33 feet long. The 
land gently inclined to the southwest and 
was a gravelly loam, naturally drained. 
It was formerly planted to tomatoes, beans, 
corn, onions, beets, etc. About 150 pounds 
of Chittenden’s complete fertilizer were 
used, costing at the rate of §45 per ton. The 
plot was planted April 10 and 11, with 
White Flower Potatoes of medium size 
n trenches, strictly a la R. N.-Y. The 
weather from planting time until harvest 
was rather wet and warm. The plot was 
cultivated first with a spading fork as deep 
as the tines would permit, and half a dozen 
IT ' F 
times with a steel rake. The average 
hight of the vines was 2)4 feet and the size 
of the stems about that of the index finger. 
They began to die about July 10, and were 
quite dead on the 20th of the same month, 
when they were dug and weighed, there be¬ 
ing 1,215 pounds or 20 bushels and one peck, 
which is at the rate of 810 bushels per acre. 
The tubers were very shapely and the eyes 
were not deep. I think the potatoes were 
all marketable except two bushels. Paris- 
green was used once in solution. The 
flea-beetle invaded the plot once; but a 
good dressing of unleached wood-ashes was 
used with good effect in driving the pests 
off. If engaged in another “contest,” I 
hardly know wherein I would proceed dif¬ 
ferently. 
I do hereby affirm that the report here¬ 
with sent the R. N.-Y. is true in every par¬ 
ticular. MARY E. WARREN. 
Fairfield County, Conn. 
MRS. MARY A. PRESLEY’S REPORT (SEVENTH 
PRIZE). 
The plot was 33 feet square or exactly 
one-fortieth of an acre. The land was a 
rich, black, sandy loam, rather flat but 
thoroughly underdrained with tile drains. 
For the previous six years celery had been 
grown on it and it was always of the very 
best quality. The plot has been fertilized 
every year for the past 13 years, receiving 
a very heavy coat of stable manure each 
year, besides ashes, bone dust, nitrate of 
soda, hen manure, etc. It was plowed 
April 16, about 12 inches deep. The year 
before it had received a very heavy appli¬ 
cation of stable manure—as much as it 
was possible to plow under—and last 
spring it got another coat of fine, well-rot¬ 
ted manure and a dressing of 20 pounds of 
Mapes’s Potato Manure was Dut in the 
trenches, over the seed-pieces The cost of 
the manure was 25 cents, that of the fertili¬ 
zer about 42 cents. Over 66 seed-pieces of 
the Rural New-Yorker No. 2 Potato were 
planted May 4, in two rows. There were 
also two rows of Rose’s Beauty of Beauties, 
and seven of New Queen, making a total of 
363 pieces, or hills. The seed was cut so as 
to average three eyes to a piece, and 
weighed about 33 pounds, when first cut. 
The pieces were cut 10 days before plant¬ 
ing time and were planted after the R. N.- 
Y’s. trench system, the trenches being 
four inches deep and exactly three feet 
apart. The seed-pieces were dropped ex¬ 
actly one foot apart. The weather was 
very unfavorable at the time of planting 
and down to May 29 it was very dry. Then 
there was a very severe rainfall, lasting 
three days, during which time about five 
inches of rain fell. It was followed by 
cold, frosty weather. During June and 
up to the first week in July the weather 
was quite favorable; but from that time 
down to the date of digging it was very 
dry. In fact we had the worst drought 
that has visited this section in 18 years. 
The crop was cultivated deeply with a 
Planet Jr. horse hoe just as the vines were 
nicely up. Afterwards a Matthews hand- 
cultivator was used once a week until the 
vines had become too large to allow us to 
get through. The plot was hoed three 
times—once when the vines were ail nicely 
up, again when they were about six inches 
high, and the last time when about a foot 
high, and a very little earth was drawn 
towards them. The vines were very vigor¬ 
ous, especially those of the Rural No. 2, 
which grew fully 3)4 feet high ; those of 
the Queen were about 36 inches, and those 
of the Beauties 30 inches. The Queens 
blossomed about July 1; the others did not 
blossom. The vines of the Queen and 
Beauty of Beauties died down about Au¬ 
gust 12; those of the Beauties were con¬ 
siderably injured by flea-beetles. The 
Rural No. 2 did not commence to ripen 
until the latter part of August, and the 
vines were dead September 9, when the 
tubers were dug. The crop was not, to 
any great extent, injured by the flea-bee¬ 
tle, although I found the pests on the 
vines; but the latter grew so strong that 
the beetles did not injure them much. 
The old beetles were picked off in the 
spring as soon as they appeared and hand¬ 
picking was practiced until the vines were 
so large as to prevent it. There were not 
many young bugs, and two light applica¬ 
tions of Paris-green and plaster were dust¬ 
ed on the vines, after which no trouble was 
experienced. The crop was all dug on Sep¬ 
tember 9. Altogether thgre were 19 bush¬ 
els and nine pounds, 17 bushels of which 
were marketable while two bushels and 
nine pounds were unmarketable. The Ru¬ 
ral No.2 yielded best as follows : 66 pieces 
gave four bushels of marketable and only 
nine pounds of unmarketable tubers, or at 
the rate of 960 bushels of marketable pota¬ 
toes per acre; 66 pieces of Rose’s Beauties 
gave 2)4 bushels, one half bushel of which 
were unmarketable, or at the rate of 440 
bushels of marketable tubers per acre ; 231 
pieces of the New Queen gave 12)4 bushels, 
1)4 bushel of which were unmarketable; or 
about 690 marketable bushels per acre. The 
Rural No. 2 were the handsomest, being very 
large and smooth. The Beauties were in¬ 
clined to be rough and somewhat unshapely. 
The Queens were larger and smooth. If en¬ 
gaged in another “ contest,” I would plant 
my plot entirely with the Rural No. 2 and 
would use at least 1,500 pounds of the 
Mapes fertilizer per acre; but I would 
make no other change. All the work was 
done by myself with the exception of plow¬ 
ing, cultivating with the horse and apply¬ 
ing the Paris-green. 
I do hereby affirm that the foregoing re¬ 
port is true in every particular. 
St. Clair County, Mich. 
MRS. DANIEL DUNN’S REPORT. (EIGHTH 
PRIZE.) 
The plot was 33x33 feet. The land was 
in potatoes last year. A good coat of 
mixed stable manure was spread in 
the fall and plowed under in the spring. 
The plot was planted on May 28, ac¬ 
cording to the R. N.-Y.’s trench system in 
trenches six inches deep and two feet apart, 
the pieces being 16 inches apart. The 
latter weighed about four ounces apiece 
and not more than two eyes were left in 
each. The variety was the White Ele¬ 
phant with a few White Stars. The 
trenches were half filled, then a barrel of 
fresh, hard-wood ashes was spread broad¬ 
cast in them ; then all were leveled. When 
the vines were in bloom I put about a 
bushel of hen droppings amongst them. 
The crop was dug on September 25. The 
Elephant was the more productive. There 
were 17 bushels of large tubers and 59)4 
pounds of small ones, from the size of a 
hen’s egg down, making in all very nearly 
18 bushels. 
Algoma, Ontario, Canada. 
SARAH A. SMITH’S REPORT (NINTH PRIZE.) 
The plot was 33x33 feet. It was a clay 
loam, flat, rather moist and naturally 
drained. In 18S6 it was manured with one 
ton of barn-yard manure and planted with 
garden peas. The yield was fair, but was 
not measured. In 1887 it was planted with 
sweet corn and two handfuls of pure hen 
manure were put in each hill. The yield 
was very poor, the ears being small and 
not well filled. The manure was supposed 
to have been too strong. In 1888 the plot 
was planted with garden peas, but was not 
manured. Owing to wet weather the peas 
did not germinate. It was cultivated twice 
during the summer to keep down the 
weeds. On May 4, 1889 it was measured 
and 44 bushels of well rotted manure were 
spread upon it. It was plowed eight inches 
deep. The manure was valued at §2, and a 
dressing of ashes at 50 cents, making the 
total value §2.50. On May 11 trenches were 
dug seven inches deep, one foot wide and 
three feet apart from center to center. The 
bottom was loosened up about an inch 
deeper with a forked hoe. Thirty pounds 
of the Empire State were planted about six 
inches deep, the pieces being of the size of a 
hen’s egg, and averaging three eyes each. 
There were in all 363 pieces. The weather 
was wet and cold, August being the wettest 
month known for years. On June 11 the 
potatoes were hoed, and on June 17, 95 
pounds of unleached ashes were scattered 
(Continued on Page 841.) 
Cucn)U)l)crc. 
A SUMMER OUTING IN THE NORTH 
CAROLINA MOUNTAINS. 
IV. 
MARY WAGER-FISHER. 
A Methodist preacher and his wife; Jim, 
the driver; “Charlie;” Dillsboro; a 
chalybeate spring; Franklin; a moun¬ 
tain hotel. 
We were five hours in traveling the 52 
miles that lay between Asheville and Dills¬ 
boro, on the Western N. C. R. R. It was 
a heavy grade for the engine to climb, but 
the speed was great enough for so novel a 
route. A very gentlemanly and intelligent 
man who, on the sly, whisked a quid of 
tobacco out of his mouth to talk with us, 
gave us considerable information about the 
region with which all his life ho had been 
familiar. He proved to be a Methodist 
preacher, and at one of the stations his wife 
and four boys joined him. His wife had a 
