i89o 
THE RURAL NFW-YORKEK 
2l5 
that their ends can be covered with the 
horse hoe, the vine-turner is put on. This 
is made of small iron rods fastened to a 
standard and tooth, at the extreme front of 
the horse hoe, and running back on each side, 
and up to the top of the side-plow stand¬ 
ards. The point runs under the vines, and 
they slide up the rods, and are held above 
„ the furrows, thrown by the side-plows. 
While these will not clear every end, they 
are a great help, and, besides, the rods run 
against the sides of the hills, and break 
the old crust almost to the plant. For 
this purpose they are used by some, even at 
the first tending. It is very important to 
keep a good-sized, sharp hill during the 
tending of the crop. 
The amount of hand work put on the 
crop is considerable; it will take two ex¬ 
perienced men from March 1 till the crop 
is laid by, to prepare for, and properly at¬ 
tend to 25 acres of sweet potatoes. 
Many potatoes are dug and sold early in 
the season, but the most of the crop, on 
many farms is stored for winter shipment. 
A majority of the farms on which over 15 
acres are yearly devoted to the crop have 
potato houses. These have stone basements 
partly underground, the upper part being 
of wood two stories high. Many potatoes 
are also kept in ordinary dry houses, or 
in the cellars of outbuildings. The only 
essential points for such a store-house are 
dryness and a uniform temperature of 65 
to 70 degrees. The houses, or cellars are 
usually divided into bins capable of hold¬ 
ing about 150 bushels each. Potatoes will 
shrink considerably, in the best regulated 
houses, but they are often kept so free 
from rot that in a bin of 150 bushels not 
over a bushel of rotten ones will be found. 
If sweet potatoes are grown on the same 
piece of ground for many years—even if 
they are not consecutive years—they will be 
specked with what we call “ground rot.” 
This is rendering sweet potato growing un¬ 
profitable on much of our best soil. Sweet 
potato growing is far from being a “ bo¬ 
nanza,” and we are usually content if we 
get a return of from $50 to $60 per acre, and 
when the labor and manure bills are paid, 
the grower has little left. 
After a good soil the most important 
thing is good seed: a potato may look nice, 
but if it is of diseased parentage it 
may breed bed rot, black rot, and the 
dreaded yellow rot. Those who cannot or 
do not care to keep their own seed, should 
know the man from vhom they are buying, 
and what they are buying. In spring the 
dealers here ship for seed, sweet potatoes 
that are not only common seconds in size, 
but of such poor quality that the farmer 
would throw away, rather than put them 
in his own bed. 
|3om0iu0kixl. 
A TREE LABEL. 
The “ Everlasting Label” (see Figures 63 
and 64), is a simple device; but I have used 
it for some years and think it almost per¬ 
fect. When, after years of exposure to the 
weather, the outside name is entirely oblit¬ 
erated, on unwrapping the first twist of the 
wire and opening the label one will find the 
name inside as legible as it was the day it 
was written. Write the name again on the 
outside and shut the label up again for an¬ 
other 20 years. Why will not the nursery¬ 
men who desire to be useful and honest, 
use these labels? Purchasers could then 
hold them responsible for misrepresenting 
their trees. The fastening also seems as 
nearly perfect as it can be made and as 
simple as the label. Every observant 
nurseryman knows that no fastening 
around the body of a growing tree 
can be tolerated. It must either break 
asunder or kill the tree; but this little 
tack thrust into the stem does no 
harm, and if the head of the tack 
be pressed home through the bark, the 
wood will very soon grow over it and the 
copper wire will become a permanent at¬ 
tachment. To use the label, open it by 
pressing the two sides horizontally in op¬ 
posite directions, write the name on the 
inside aud outside, then close it; clinch the 
tack through the label with a small ham¬ 
mer; twist the attaching wire tightly 
around the label iu the grooves at the upper 
end, and it is ready for use. F. s. 
Hydetown, Pa. 
Figures 63 and 64 show the exact size of 
these labels. In Figure 63 the tack should 
be driven into the tree instead of into the 
label itself. 
FRUITS FOR THE HOME. 
CHAS. A. GREEN. 
What is a home ? Suppose I purchase 
a beautiful wheat field or meadow and 
build upon it an elegant house ; at its com¬ 
pletion I ask you to visit it, and inquire of 
you if it is a home. You will say :“No ;more 
must be done before it is a home.” Suppose 
I then hang upon the walls beautiful 
papers and paintings, carpet the floors, and 
furnish it with elegant furniture, marble 
mantels, grates, etc., and §sk you if this is 
now a home. “No,” you would reply, 
“more must be done.” Then I invite 
you to dinner, and my wife and children 
are present and again I ask you if this is a 
home. You look about and admire the 
beautiful things which you see, compliment 
me upon my happy family, but happening 
to glance out of the window at the naked 
landscape before you, exclaim: “ No, this 
is not a home; there is something to be 
done outside 1” 
This is the point which I desire to fix 
upon your mind: that no matter how beauti¬ 
ful or expensive the building or the furni¬ 
ture or the location, the home is not com¬ 
plete without the planting of trees and 
flowers, the fruit garden, the orchard, the 
vines. The size of the fruit garden need not 
be over one acre; it need not be located 
very near the house, but within a reason¬ 
able distance. It is surprising what can be 
done with one acre wisely devoted to fruit 
culture. Suppose we have the beautiful 
location, the house, and everything com¬ 
plete, lay out an acre from 10 to 40 rods 
distant, as nearly square as possible, plant¬ 
ing upon one side a row of 15 plum trees, 
two rows comprising 16 cherry trees, one 
row comprising eight apple trees, three 
rows comprising 16 standard pear trees 
with 29 dwarf pear trees between, three 
rows comprising 48 peach trees, one row 
comprising 45 raspberry plants, one row of 
45 gooseberry plants, one row of 45 currant 
bushes, one row of 10 grape vines ; in all we 
have 132 trees, besides berries, currants, 
gooseberries, etc., and the strawberries 
which can be grown between. All of 
these can be successfully grown upon one 
acre. If the soil had been sod it should 
have been plowed the year before planting 
the fruits, in order that the sod might be¬ 
come rotted and the soil subdued. The 
best time to plant them would be in the 
spring as early as the soil is dry enough to 
plant, but if all is ready in the fall I should 
plant then. 
Is it not cheaper to buy fresh fruits than 
to grow them ? I can Imagine the farmer 
husband answering the solicitation of his 
wife for a better supply of home fruit, by 
asking this question. At one time I did 
think that people who asked such questions 
were frauds, simply intending to evade the 
issue, but later 1 concluded they were 
serious, perhaps, simply lacking informa¬ 
tion on the subject. If the farmer were 
living in the city where there was a fruit 
grocery uear by, there might be some 
slight reason for supposing that he could 
buy as cheaply as he could grow fruit ; but 
situated as he is, distant from ail markets, 
with perhaps no grower of fruits ^within 
many miles of his place, it is impossible for 
him to get a supply daily at any price. The 
idea the farmer has of buying fruits, is to 
go to a fruit farm once or twice during the 
berry season, and purchase from 10 to 20 
quarts of fresh berries, most of which are 
to be canned and laid aside, instead of being 
eaten fresh. 
This raises the question: How much 
fruit can a family consume ? Those who 
have not tried the experiment would be as¬ 
tonished at the amount that a family can 
be educated to eat. My own family, not 
a very large one, consumed strawberries for 
a month, and we have estimated the amount 
even in that time, to be over 20 bushels. Of 
grapes, I should estimate that a good-sized 
family might consume from one to two tons 
and other fruits in proportion. Strawber¬ 
ries are the first of all fruits to bloom and 
ripen in the spring. These are followed by 
the raspberry, blackberry, currant, goose¬ 
berry and grape ; then the early apples and 
pears, which in connection with the long- 
keeping fruits, will holdout until strawber¬ 
ries come again. No one should be without 
some kind of fruit on his place from June to 
January. 
Are fruits wholesome ? Physicians have 
said there was not much chance for them to 
make money where fruit-growing was gen¬ 
erally popular. The consumption of fruit 
tends to lower the bodily temperature, 
allaying feverishness; it is cooling and 
grateful. The best thing we can say of 
fruit is that it tastes good; and everything 
that tastes good tends to improve the con¬ 
dition of the health. We eat not only to 
live but for pleasure, and those things 
which please us are apt to produce the most 
good. Fruit should not be eaten continu¬ 
ally during the day, but at meal time or for 
lunch. But when I speak of fruits being 
wholesome, I have reference to fresh, ripe 
fruit, and not to green fruit, which is un¬ 
wholesome, yet most of the marketed fruit 
is picked before fully matured. Stale or 
wilted fruit is also unwholesome. By this, 
I refer to the raspberries and strawberries, 
etc., that have been standing on the fruit 
stand for several days. These, while ap¬ 
parently moderately fresh, are often in the 
first stages of decomposition and are in¬ 
jurious to health. It would seem that each 
particular fruit is adapted to its season and 
therefore should be eaten in its season ; 
hence, the folly of canning the strawberry 
to be eaten during the winter, depriving 
oneself of the fresh berries when the proper 
season of the fruit is June when it contains 
just the amount of acidity that is appetiz¬ 
ing. 
Do fruits add to the salable value of the 
farm ? Supposing you are thinking of buy¬ 
ing a farm, and you are offered one which 
is barren of all kinds of fruit; there are no 
vines, no berries, no orchard. What a for¬ 
saken, desolate-looking place ! Another has 
an orchard of apples, pears.cherries,peaches; 
Fig. 64. 
a fruit garden of grapes, strawberries, rasp¬ 
berries and blackberries. How much more 
would you pay for one farm than the other ? 
Undoubtedly, if there were only a difference 
of one or two thousand dollars between 
these farms, and they were alike in all re¬ 
spects except the fruit, you would take the 
one on which the fruit had been planted and 
consider you had made a good bargain ; and 
you would ; and yet those fruits may not 
have cost over $25, originally. Therefore, 
there is no better investment one can make 
than to plant fruits. 
(To be Continued.) 
farm (Topics. 
A POTATO EXPERIMENT RE¬ 
VIEWED. 
T. B. TERRY. 
A faulty experiment; views of a practical 
faimer who works for profit; exchang¬ 
ing large potatoes for small; cuttings 
planted too widely apart; two-eyepieces 
best for ordinary tillage; one-eye pieces 
best with greater care; the desire for 
personal profit the best incentive to cor¬ 
rect experimentation. 
The following table is from the last bul¬ 
letin of the Wisconsin Experiment Station 
and is intended to show “what amount of 
Kind of seeding 
Whole potatoes 
Halt potatoes 
Two-eye cuttings 
One-eye cuttings 
; ” in our potato 
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139.1 
91.6 
230.7 
124.9 
98.4 
193.3 
141.fi 
30.6 
172.2 
114.6 
18.7 
133.3 
3 I 
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24 
12 
4 
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The last two columns of figures were 
added by me. The bushels of seed requir¬ 
ed per acre are as near as I can estimate 
them in round numbers,using tubers of the 
same size as those I use for planting. We 
are told that in the above experiment “ the 
seed was planted one tuber or cutting in a 
place, in hills, 38 inches apart both ways.” 
Now a little study of the figures shows that 
“the total yield was directly in proportion 
to the bulk of seed planted,” as is claimed. 
Whole potatoes yielded, small and large, 
together, at the rate of 230 bushels per 
acre, half potatoes 193 bushels, two-eye cut¬ 
tings less yet, and single eyes least of all. 
But let us study carefully over what this 
total yield was composed of. Assuming 
this experiment to be accurate, the practi¬ 
cal farmer from these figures would ask 
himself: “Had I better plant whole tubers 
or two-eye cuttings? The former will give 
me two bushels less of large potatoes, and 
61 bushels more of small ones, in exchange 
for 20 bushels more of merchantable pota¬ 
toes planted.” It wouldn’t take the writer 
long to answer this for himself. He grows 
potatoes to sell and the fewer little ones the 
better. Some might like to exchange large 
potatoes for small, and wait a few months 
for them at that; but I think that not many 
that make a business of potato growing 
would do so. 
Now this experiment, as far it goes, is 
well enough; but what farmer who gets 
his living by growing potatoes would ever 
think of planting one or two-eye cuttings 
of the Beauty of Hebron “ 38 inches apart 
both ways?” He would know that he was not 
putting in seed enough for the best results. 
Why cannot an experiment station give us 
practical experiments ? Why not plant the 
whole potatoes in a proper manner and the 
cuttings in the way that practical farmers 
have planted for many years—the way in 
which they would be likely to give the best 
results ? It seems as though this point had 
been brought up often enough in our lead¬ 
ing papers. Possibly the whole tubers were 
planted at the best distance apart; few 
growers, however, plant that variety with 
more than 32 to 36 inches between hills. 
Had the one-eye and two-eye cuttings been 
dropped 12 or 14 inches apart in the drills, 
then they might have had a chance to show 
up. Under proper treatment I should 
have expected about 200 bushels of mer¬ 
chantable tubers per acre in either case. 
The two-eye pieces would be the safest for 
ordinary tillage and fertility; but with 
just the right treatment the one-eye can be 
made to yield as well. (I am speaking now 
of the Beauty of Hebron, with which this 
experiment was made.) Several times I 
have tried the experiment for my own use 
on rows through the field, and invari¬ 
ably under my management the one-eye 
cuttings have yielded as many bushels of 
merchantable potatoes as the two-eye, but 
not as many small ones. For this I care 
not. As I want to grow salable potatoes in 
the cheapest way, I seldom pick up any lit¬ 
tle ones. If we can safely save six or seven 
bushels of large potatoes to start with, by 
using less seed and a little more care, why 
that is just what we were put here for. I re¬ 
member an apt remark of Prof. I. P. Rob¬ 
erts in the R. N.-Y. last year to the effect 
that we farmers were put here to regulate 
such matters—“given dominion.” 
I have planted one-eye cuttings for 20 
years, and for doing so was the laugh of 
the neighborhood at first; but all the rest 
do it now, and potatoes are grown pretty 
largely all around. I do not care to urge 
