342 
T MK RUKAU Nfci W-YOiNKHTN 
March fi. 
Fruit Trees and 
Small Fruits 
Amateurs may be lead astray by 
glowing descriptions of new of¬ 
ferings. We grow stock especially 
FOR FRUIT GROWERS 
who want nothing but the best, 
and that which will bring them 
good, sure returns. 
We aim to DRAW a few 
NEW customers each year, and 
HOLD every one of them—not 
by low prices or extravagant 
promises, but by high quality 
and reliability. 
ORNAMENTAL STOCK 
at reasonable prices. All stock 
is described and priced in our 
new catalogue, FREE. 
Jos. H. Black, Son & Co. 
HIGHTSTOWN, NEW JERSEY 
EVERGREEN 
r '1 WINDBREAKS 
Should surround every farm home. 
They make for comfort and increased 
profits and add real value to the farm 
in permanent improvement. 
Plant this season our inexpensive 
Seedlings 
Small Trees 
‘‘We Raise Our Own Trees.” 
Our specialized collection of these young 
conifers is all hardy field-grown stock. 
Varieties for every place and purpose. 
Keep your wood-lot svor productive by 
replacing with seedlings the large trees 
cut down. You’ll find it pays. 
Send for booklet giving description, sizes and 
prices. Planting instructions free. Write us today. 
THE NORTH EASTERN FORESTRY CO. 
Tree Seeds, Nursery Stock. Box L, Cheshire, Conn. 
Buy Pear Trees Now 
Fraser’s Pear Trees are i * direct . om the 
nursery to you. All stands irts,grown in the 
famous Genesee Valley fruit section, and sold 
at as low a price as any one can sell GOOD trees. 
ERASER S TREE BOOK is free to all interested in 
Apples, Plums. Pears,Cherries—write for a copy 
today. SAMUEL FRASER 
126 Main St. Geneseo, N.Y. 
FRUIT TREES 
First-class. True to N me, No Disease. We 
PAY FREIGHT OR EXPRESS to your Station 
and Guarantee Satisfaction. A full line of Nur¬ 
sery Stock, direct to planters, at much less than 
usual prices. WRITE AT ONCE for New Cat- 
alogue. 
NEW HAVEN NURSERIES, 
Box 25, New Haven, Missouri. 
APPLE TREES 
EACH 2c EACH 
o 
to 
foot 
Hi (th. 
. .. 2e 
each 
3 
to 
4 
foot 
I'l)th. 
.3c 
each 
4 
to 
<; 
feet 
Iilgli. 
.4c 
oaoli 
f, 
5 
to 
« 
foot 
hiirh. 
.tic 
each 
Nice, smooth, well grown, true to name. 
Full list of Commercial sorts.—Box M 
WESTERN NURSERY CO., LAWRENCE, KAN. 
ladioli 
Ho sure and send for catalogue of finest gladioli, 
dahlias, roses, shrubs, fruit trees and strawberries. 
Everything for the garden at lowest prices. 
>1. S. I’ERKINS, - DANVERS, MASS. 
MILLET 
SEED 
FORTUNES havo boon made growing Gor¬ 
man Millet. Change your crops and spe¬ 
cialize on something new. Always in de¬ 
mand. Grow it for seed, Lot us send you 
our samples and prices together with New, 
Different and Original Pure Seed book and 
wholesale list. The book is an eye-opener, 
work of art, 300pictures, the talk of thocountry, 
GALLOWAY BR0S.& CO., Box 279 WATERLOO, IOWA 
SASH 
Made of White Pine, 5-Glass Wide 
Price, Without Glass. Each 80 Cents 
HENRY W. BURT, East Northport. L. I. 
“Waterproof and Watertight” 
Waterproofing for silos, cellars, and all kinds 
of foundation work. Cellars and storehouses 
made dry. Inexpensive and simple. Let us 
help you with your problems. 
WAVERLY PRODUCTS CO., "i BS - 
SO 0C FOR THIS HIGH GRADE 
ZiZj orange VALLEY HAT^ 
Direct from factory to you—all delivery 
charges prepaid. Save from 25 to 33 per 
cent. Newest and smartest styles. 
Choicest colors, finest trimmings. Fro# 
on Roquost, Hat Catalog, showing 
latest and advance styles. 
ORANGE MAIL ORDER HOUSE. Orange, New Jersey 
Desirable territory opmn for live agents 
.................. 
5 Seed Potato 
■ 
Improvement j 
___ 
A 
State Inspection and Certification. 
FFICIAL CONTROL.—To control 
potato diseases at their source, that 
is. where the seed potatoes are grown, is 
the aim of :i plan recently proposed by 
the IT. S. Department of Agriculture. 
An official State certification is provided 
for growers who have stock of the re¬ 
quired standard, which covers not only 
diseases, but the identity of the variety 
and freedom from mixtures with other 
sorts. The problem of getting good seed 
potatoes, or seed of other farm crops for 
that matter, presents many uncertainties. 
It has been estimated that 10% might 
he added to the average yield per acre 
of potatoes by the use of better seed. We 
cannot overlook the evidence that it is 
to poor seed that we must attribute many 
missing hills and most of the weak, 
stunted unproductive, or diseased plants 
that occur in our fields. 
Mixed and Diseased Seeds. —Vari¬ 
etal mixtures are a source of much loss. 
One who visits our Eastern and South¬ 
ern potato districts can hardly fail to be 
impressed with the number of hills of 
late sorts mixed with the early. Green 
Mountain palmed off for Irish Cobbler, 
for example, to a man growing a crop 
for the early market, results in a loss 
of the outlay for seed, fertilizer, and la¬ 
bor proportionate to the admixture, 
which may reach 20 per cent. Potato dis¬ 
eases are carried far and wide by seed. 
The black-leg is a conspicuous example 
of this. Potato scab, the russet scab, the 
powdery scab, the wilt diseases, the new 
troubles (leaf-roll and curly-dwarf) are 
all carried in or on the seed and the con¬ 
trol of all these may be effected to bet¬ 
ter advantage by their elimination from 
the seed fields than by any other system 
of treatment. The advantage of North¬ 
ern-grown over Southern-grown seed has 
been so fully demonstrated that impor¬ 
tant districts depend wholly upon im¬ 
ported seed potatoes. The mistake has 
been made of thinking that Northern 
origin was sufficient to make any potato 
worth planting, and in point of fact, that 
is exactly what has happened, for most 
so-called “seed potatoes” are no different 
from ordinary table stock, and perhaps 
hardly as good. 
Lack of Standards. —Present prac¬ 
tices in the potato seed trade are full of 
defects There are no definite standards 
of quality for seed potatoes. There are 
progressive, honorable growers enough 
who would produce the highest type of 
seed if there were any profit in it; there 
are reliable dealers or middlemen, and 
there is a class of buyers, happily in¬ 
creasing in number, who are beginning 
to appreciate the worth of good seed, but 
these are mostly swamped and submerged 
by the competition of the grower who is 
satisfied to produce anything the market 
will take, the dealer who will buy and 
deliver any quality he can got away with, 
and the buyer who will always choose 
the stuff oflered at the lowest price, irre¬ 
spective of merit. Each link in this un¬ 
happy chain lays the blame on the others. 
The buyer professes to have no guaran¬ 
tee that the payment of a higher price 
will insure the delivery of stock differ¬ 
ent from that quoted the lowest. The 
Northern grower who gets for his seed 
potatoes no more than his neighbor re¬ 
ceives for table stock cannot ho expected 
to devote more expense to their produc¬ 
tion. The fault lies with the system, and 
there is a remedy, uniform standards and 
State certification of seed potatoes. 
Wiiat Is State Certification?— A 
movement has been in progress for over 
a year to create in each State an agency 
that may be called on to provide an ex¬ 
pert examination of potatoes being grown 
for seed, and to give a certificate of qual¬ 
ity if a prescribed standard is attained. 
There is no thought of passing laws to 
make this compulsory. It is voluntary 
and partly or wholly at the expense of 
the grower. The quality of the potatoes 
is judged principally by field examina¬ 
tions, one being made at the blooming 
period, when varietal mixture may best 
be detected, and one later, before the har¬ 
vest; a third inspection is usually made 
before the potatoes are shipped. If the 
crop is found not to be the variety 
claimed, or if mixed with other sorts, 
or if diseases are found in excess of a 
fixed limit, the certificate is not given. 
Field Inspection.— The field inspec¬ 
tion is a fundamental feature of the plan, 
as it permits the detection of varietal 
mixtures and diseases that would be over¬ 
looked in a cellar inspection. Particu¬ 
larly is it effective in the ease of a leaf- 
roll, Curly-dwarf, mosaic, and other de¬ 
terioration troubles that have aroused at¬ 
tention during the last few years. The 
vigor and uniformity of yield may also 
ho observed at the second visit. All seed 
potatoes should be bought on the basis of 
a field visit. In some cases the field in¬ 
spection will be supplemented by com¬ 
parative plot tests planted with small 
samples of the stock offered for certifica¬ 
tion and certification cannot be expected to 
tho South to get a line on the behavior 
of the strain in the locality where it will 
lie marketed. The certification of seed 
potatoes is to be done by the States in 
Pumpkin Full of Sprouted Seeds. 
some east's, as in Maine, by the State 
Department of Agriculture; in others* as 
in Wisconsin, by the State University. 
The National Department of Agriculture 
initiated the movement and is co-operat¬ 
ing in an advisory way to make it a 
success, but will not make inspections 
or issue certificates. 
A Stan hard of Quality is now be¬ 
ing - considered for adoption by the States 
Mammoth Sunflower. 
interested. This standard will he as high 
as experience shows to be reasonably 
practicable of accomplishment, and as the 
plan has been tried out the past Sum¬ 
mer on several hundred acres, belonging 
to many different growers in Maine, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, a 
working basis has already been reached. 
Those engaged in this preliminary ex¬ 
periment with seed certification have 
found a live interest among the farmers 
and that the inspections have been of all¬ 
round educational value. The real test 
as to whether seed certification has come 
to stay will come in the next years, when 
it is learned whether Southern buyers are 
willing to pay a small bonus for guar¬ 
anteed quality. 
Future Demand. —The production of 
pure seed by the Northern growers and 
the further development of State inspec¬ 
tion and certification cannot be expected 
go on unless a demand for such improved 
and certified seed is found to exist. The 
quantity of such seed available for pur¬ 
chase this Spring is naturally limited, 
and if more is wanted for next year, that 
fact should be brought out during the 
next few months by the expression on the 
part of potato growers, through their as¬ 
sociations and seed dealers, of their inten¬ 
tion to buy certified seed in the future, if 
offered at a reasonable price. The North¬ 
ern seed potato growers, if thus notified 
in advance, may be depended on to pro¬ 
duce what is wanted. Certified seed po¬ 
tatoes will he sold in sealed sacks and 
may be had through the same channels 
as other seed potatoes. Attention should 
he called to the difference between this 
pure seed certificate, which covers vari¬ 
etal purity and freedom from all diseases, 
and the powdery scab inspection the 
Government conducts in parts of Maine 
and New York. The latter insures 
against powdery scab only, not against 
other defects, and therefore does not 
fully meet the needs of the purchaser. 
W. A. ORTON. 
TJ. S. Dept, of Agriculture. 
Potato Scab and Lime. 
O NE of our main crops is potatoes. A 
few years ago we wore troubled with 
considerable scab, but we took steps 
to repress it. such sis formalin treatment, 
use of well-rotted manure, planting of 
potatoes on same ground every third year, 
etc., until at present we have controlled 
the scab. We have been much interested 
in the discussion on the use of lime, but 
have never used any on our farm, as we 
understand it favors scab. How can we 
raise potatoes and still use lime? What 
form of lime should lie used? We have 
always used a bone base fertilizer which 
does not contain any acid phosphate, and 
we have quite good catches of clover fol¬ 
lowing potatoes. Would we have better 
crops if we used lime? I see that sev¬ 
eral fertilizer manufacturers are using 
ground limestone on account of the short¬ 
age of potash. As we use the fertilizer in 
the hill, will not this limestone produce 
scab or injure the potato yield? 
The fertilizer agents claim that lime 
makes the potash in the soil available. 
I’lease state by what means that takes 
place, or state the various chemical reac¬ 
tions between the lime and the unavail¬ 
able potash. G. s. 
Yalesville. Conn. 
Potato scab is a germ disease. We 
might compare it with a skin disease in 
animals. It thrives best, in an alkaline 
soil. As lime “sweetens” or makes the 
soil alkaline, it gives a condition most fa¬ 
vorable to the scab disease. That is why 
it is bad practice to use time when plant¬ 
ing potatoes, or just before such plant¬ 
ing. The ground limestone would not be 
so likely to increase the scab as burned 
lime, as the former is more gentle in its 
action. If the clover gives a good catch 
after potatoes your soil may not need 
lime. In some cases we know that far¬ 
mers lime immediately after digging po¬ 
tatoes, and seed to grain and grass, or to 
some cover crop to h<- turned under in 
Filling. This is the practice in the 
“chemicals and clover” rotation which we 
have often referred to. As soon as the po¬ 
tatoes are dug the soil is well worked and 
seeded to wheat with Timothy, while 
Clover follows in the Spring. The lime 
may be used with this seeding, and be¬ 
fore the rotation swings around once more 
to potatoes the soil is in good condition, 
and the alkaline effect of the lime about 
removed. We have little faith that the 
small amount of ground limestone mixed 
into fertilizers will have any noticeable 
effect in making potash available. We 
doubt if there would be enough of it to in¬ 
jure the potatoes. 
One day a seedy-leoking individual in a 
railway carriage got into conversation 
with a fellow traveler. He had a good 
tale to tell. “Ah, sir,” he said, sadly, 
“I’ve seen changes. I was once a doctor 
with a large practice, but owing to one 
little slip, my patients began to leave me, 
;ind now I’m just living from hand to 
mouth.” “What was the slip?” was the 
natural question. “Well, sir,” replied the 
other, “in filling in a death certificate for 
a patient that had died, I absent-mindedly 
signed my name in the space headed, 
‘Cause of death’!”—Philadelphia Public 
Ledger. 
