642 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
April 27, 
making a very good living by handling their potatoes, 
and they believed the farmers ought to be their own 
middlemen and sell their own goods. During 1906 
this resulted only in talk, but the discussion kept the 
subject agitated, and in 1907 a few of them started 
in to put a plan they had formed into operation. 
HOW THEY STARTED.—This was to have one 
of their number keep in touch with the nearby mar¬ 
kets, and see if the buyers were paying the market 
price. As you may naturally suppose, this did not 
amount to much, and was soon abandoned. In the 
Winter of 1907-1908 12 or 15 of the Grange members 
made up a sum of money to investigate the methods 
of the Eastern Shore of Virginia Potato Exchange, 
which had been in successful operation at that time 
eight years, and was doing a business of $1,500,000. 
A committee was appointed to go to their head¬ 
quarters, and see what could be learned about their 
methods. This committee made a very optimistic re¬ 
port, and as a result a meeting of the farmers was 
called to meet in the Court House in January, 1908, 
which was largely attended. The manager of the Vir¬ 
ginia exchange was present and addressed the meet¬ 
ing, explaining its mode of operation, amount of busi¬ 
ness and the beneficial results to the farmers on the 
Eastern Shore. At the close of the address subscrip¬ 
tions to the stock were taken to the amount of $2,000 
and committees were appointed to see other farmers 
and receive their subscriptions. The matter was 
pushed forward vigorously and successfully, and 
culminated in the organization of the Monmouth 
County Farmers’ Exchange, which was duly incorpor¬ 
ated under the laws of New Jersey March 3, 1908, 
with an authorized capitalization of $100,000, 20,000 
shares with a par value of $5 each. The charter is 
very broad, and we are privileged to do any kind of 
business in any State in the country. 
W. H. INGLING. 
A NEW POTATO DISEASE. 
I would like to know whether potatoes imported from 
Scotland are advisable to use for seed. I had been in¬ 
formed that a disease infected the potatoes, and if planted 
would remain in the soil for years to come. w. a. h. 
No—such potatoes are not suitable for seed in this 
country. You do not know what varieties they are, 
whether early or late, or whether adapted to your soil 
or needs. During the long voyage the eyes or sprouts 
may have been badly weakened. The chief reason 
for not using them is that they may contain germs of 
new potato diseases which are doing great damage 
in Europe. 
A bulletin from the Canadian Experiment Station 
at Ottawa describes one of these diseases which has 
made its appearance in Newfoundland. This is po¬ 
tato canker (Chrysophlyctis endobriotica, Schilb). This 
disease has been known in England since 1901, and 
was not known on the American continent until found 
in Newfoundland. Should it find lodgment here it 
would cause great loss. Fig. 192 shows how this dis¬ 
ease affects the tubers. Most of them lose their 
shape and become a mass of rough warts. The disease 
spreads by means of germs like the scab disease, and 
once introduced into this country could not be stamped 
out. This shows the danger in using ordinary foreign 
potatoes for seed. 
FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS FOR FRUIT. 
You have asked fruit growers for an expression 
of opinion as to tile value of the results obtained at 
Geneva in testing fertilizers on apples. The writer 
has something over 3,000 fruit trees, including more 
than 200 varieties, and has made a hobby of fruit 
growing for many years, and has made many fertil¬ 
izer experiments. I have two Rhode Island Greening 
trees, 40 feet apart, that were planted at the same 
time, both came from the same nursery and both were 
treated exactly alike. One of these trees is now at 
least three times as large as the other. I have two 
adjacent Snow apple trees that were set in 1899. The 
fruit appears to have a different quality from that on 
four other Snow apple trees in another locality. These 
six trees were all obtained from the same nursery at 
the same time and are undoubtedly alike. I had a 
Spy tree that bore very inferior fruit. I partially 
regrafted it to a Spy of exceptional quality and fer¬ 
tilized the tree and in every way took the best care 
of it, and how the scions and original tree are all 
bearing fruit of the same kind. There are so many 
examples of variations between trees that we doubt if 
there is any fruit grower who has ever made fertilizer 
experiments that can be depended upon, and certainly 
no one has made tests that are as absolutely con¬ 
clusive as those made at Geneva, for the reason that 
in these tests every possible source of error was 
guarded against in the most scientific and exact man¬ 
ner. Every plot contained five trees and every plot 
was in duplicate, so that the results obtained are 
on an average of 10 trees, and all the trees in the 
test are of the same variety. The amount of work, 
time and expense involved in making this test was 
so great that no • fruit grower could afford to test 
fertilizers in this very exact and scientific manner. 
It is for the very purpose of making these elaborate 
and exact experiments that are too expensive for a 
private individual that the people are taxed to sup¬ 
port our experiment stations, and if we do not take 
advantage of this exact and exhaustive work we are 
missing an opportunity that belongs to us. 
Michigan. Herbert h. dow. 
POTATO PLANTING IN CANADA. 
Results of High Culture. 
What shall the harvest of potatoes be for the year 
1912? That depends on what the seed-time is, as 
much for potatoes as for any other crop. The ex¬ 
perience of the writer is, that for one to do his best 
for a good crop of potatoes, he should commence at 
least two seasons prior to growing the crop. There 
is nothing quite equal to a clover sod for growing an 
abundance of nice clean potatoes. I usually seed to 
clover, then take one crop of clover hay, then plow 
the clover under in the Spring for potatoes. This 
makes a good three-year rotation. If I wanted a 
four-year rotation, I would follow the clover with 
corn, and the corn with potatoes. I put a heavy coat 
of manure on the clover sod in the Fall, and plow all 
under in the Spring. My land has only a gentle slope 
and manure does not leach and run off. On land that 
AN IMPORTED POTATO DISEASE. Fio. 102. 
would be liable to wash, or there would be danger of 
the manure leaching and running away, I would plow 
m the Fall after manuring. Were I practicing a 
four-year rotation as mentioned above, I would put 
on manure in the Spring, and plow under, not too 
deep, for corn. Corn loves fresh manure and seems 
to thrive on it, while fresh manure makes a veritable 
seed bed for scab with potatoes. Manure put on 
clover in the Fall, and allowed to lie there till Spring 
before being turned under, seems to lose in a great 
measure the essentials necessary for producing scab; 
even more than it does when it is plowed under in 
the Fall. 
If one has not a manure spreader, I would spread 
the manure by hand as evenly as possible in the Fall, 
and then harrow it over in the Spring two or three 
times before plowing, so as to get the manure broken 
up as fine as possible. After plowing, break the land 
up deeply as fine as you can, with disk or Cutaway, 
and harrow and roller. Don’t be afraid of making 
the soil too fine; I would as soon sow wheat on 
lumpy land as I would to plant potatoes on it. I 
have no planter, so I use plow for making furrows 
for planting. I have tried making furrows and then 
covering with plow, and plowing around a piece 
and dropping in every third furrow', and really I could 
not see but that one method was about as good as 
the other. I always like to have the soil good and 
firm, made so with harrow and roller, before planting 
with plow; one can make much better work on soil 
that is fairly firm. 
I think a person should be guided by the nature 
of the soil as to size of sets used; if soil is rich 
sets cut to one eye may do, but on poorer soils they 
should be cut two eyes to a set. One should also be 
guided by the nature of the soil as to distance apart 
the sets are in the row; if land is rich I plant 12 
inches, but on poorer land say 14 or 15 inches apart. 
Now having our potatoes planted, a very large part 
of the success of the crop depends on the after cul¬ 
tivation. If the season is a dry one, then the more 
cultivation one gives them the more moisture is con¬ 
served for growing the crop, also if the season be a 
wet one, then the more cultivation given, the better 
the chance for the water to soak into the land and 
be carried off by the drains. But remember, never go 
on to the land until it is dry enough to work nicely. 
I go over the ground two or three times before the 
potatoes are up, with a weedcr, and twice, with the 
same implement, after they are up. This keeps the 
surface from becoming baked, as well a3 gives the 
crop a chance to come up, and also keeps down the 
w'eeds. As soon as one can see the rows plainly, I 
then use a one-horse cultivator between the rows. T 
try to cultivate as close to the rows as I can the first 
time; by going twice in a row I find I can make 
much better work and can get nearer the potatoes 
than I can by going only once. I run the cultivator 
close to one row and then on the return trip I run it 
close to the other row. After that I narrow the cul¬ 
tivator in a little each time, until the tops get so large 
it is difficult to get the horse between the rows. I 
then put on the moulding shares and go through 
them for the last time. This throws a little earth 
towards the tops, and also makes a shallow furrow 
between the rows to run off any surplus water that 
may come. I cultivate them once a week, and some¬ 
times twice a week during the growing season, cul¬ 
tivating only about two inches deep after the first two 
or-three times through. I like to keep a mulch of fine 
loose soil on them all Summer, or at least as long as 
I am able to get the cultivator through them. My 
neighbor’s son said to me one day last Summer, 
“Haven’t you got anything else to do but cultivate 
those potatoes? It seems to me that every time I 
look over at your place you are cultivating those po¬ 
tatoes.” You see last Summer was very dry, and I 
did do a little extra cultivating, but then I got 150 
bushels to the acre, when most of my neighbors, this 
one included, got only 50 bushels and less. Lots of 
times it seemed as if I was only stirring around dry 
dust, and I would wonder sometimes if it really did 
do any good, but when I would scrape to one side 
this dust I could see the soil was quite damp under¬ 
neath, and in spite of the drought my potatoes grew 
to be large-sized tubers, but of course there were not 
so many in a hill, which made the crop smaller than 
it was other years. I shall never forget the pleased 
smile of a grocer in our town when I took him a few 
bushels of potatoes. He had been getting plenty of 
new potatoes, but they were small scrubby things, 
and they were tired of handling them. I told him 
that I thought I could beat them in size. He told me 
to bring in a few bushels, with this remark: “Mind 
you, if they are not larger than these I have here I 
won’t take them,” When I brought them in the next 
day he fairly danced a jig, and saidr “Bring me all 
you like of such potatoes,” and he paid me a good 
big price for them, and took all the early ones I had. 
I could hardly keep him supplied, he sold them so 
fast, and yet he got a higher price than any other 
storekeeper in the city. Quality counts you see, and 
cultivation makes quality. 
May I put in a word of caution right here? Pota¬ 
toes are very high in price this season, and it is likely 
farmers will plant more of them than usual this year. 
I would say, don’t do it. The chances are that the 
next season wilt be an unusually good one for pota¬ 
toes, and with a good crop, and large areas planted, 
prices are likely to go so low that there will be no 
profit in them. I do not intend planting any more 
than my usual quantity. When there is a fairly good 
crop and prices go up, it shows an increasing demand 
for that article, but when prices go up because of a 
shortage in the crop they are not likely to stay so 
only till another average crop has been harvested. 
So I would say don’t plant any larger acreage this 
year, but try your level best to make the ones you do 
plant grow to the largest quantity of the best quality. 
Thus your profits will be larger, and it is profits that 
count. JOHN MYERS. 
Ontario, Canada. 
There has never been such a planting of nuts of all 
kinds as this season has witnessed. Pecans, walnuts and 
chestnuts have been put in by the thousand. The price 
of good nuts goes climbing and there seems no question 
about the future. Apple planting might be overdone, but 
with the steady demand for nuts the future of nut-grow¬ 
ing seems secure. Thousands of our people will use them 
more and more in place of meat. 
