B»c R U RAL N EW-YO R K E R 
143 
General Farm Topics 
War Crop in the Fair Grounds 
Tlio picture, Fig. 01, shows a crop of 800 
barrels of early Irish potatoes being har¬ 
vested from a field within the one-mile 
race course of the Peninsula Fair (Jrounds 
at Tasley, Va. This is in the heart of the 
great potato-growing section of the East¬ 
ern Shore of Virginia. Last Spring the 
demand for land to plant war crops of 
Irish potatoes was so great in this section 
that even the space enclosed by the rac*e 
track was leased to a farmer, who planteil* 
it to early potatoes, using home-grown 
Cobbler seed. A top-dressing of pine- 
needles was plowed in. and 1.200 pounds 
per acre of fertilizer ai)plied at planting 
time. During July the crop was harvest¬ 
ed, and over 800 barrels or 2,400 bushels 
were produced having a market value of 
that time of over $3,000. A crop of corn 
and of all cultural practices involved in 
the production of the potato crop on 1.300 
farms in si.\ potato counties Of New York 
for the years 1012 and 1013 are now on 
tile. The average number of horse and 
man labor hours per acre recpiired by the 
crop h.ave been computed. In a similar 
way the average amounts of seed, fer¬ 
tilizer, spray materials, etc., have been 
figured. Inasmuch as such items of cost 
as fertilizer, spray materials and interest 
on investment in potato land are nuudi 
greater on I.ong Island than in up-State 
New Y"ork, the cost of [)roduction for 
each is computed separately. Further¬ 
more, cultural practices are considerably 
more inten.sive on Long Island than else- 
where in New York. In arriving at the 
cost per acre as given in the table, con¬ 
servative cost estimates for present con- 
War Crop of Potatoes on Virginia Race Course. Fig. 61 
was grown on the same land after the po¬ 
tatoes were removed. The seed for the 
corn crop was planted in drills, down al¬ 
ternate middles between the potato i-ows. 
two weeks before the potatoes were dug. 
At digging time this corn was several 
inches high. j. t. k. 
What is a Fair Potato Price ? 
I have recently read several articles in 
both daily and weekly New York State 
publications written in caustic criticism 
of farmers who were said to be holding 
all or a portion of their potato crop for 
higher prices. The criticism is, in most 
cases, ha.sed upon tlui assunn)tion that 
the prevailing price of $1.25 per bu.shel 
is all that any potato grower should ask 
ar expect in order to make hi.s business 
attractive. We are all consumer.s. We 
shovild all be i)roduc(‘rs of something, es¬ 
pecially in war times. Many of our city 
farmers, through patriotism, through the 
desire to “do their bit" or in an.swer to 
the call of our Federal Food Adminis¬ 
tration for increased production, last year 
attemi)ted to grow potatoes in a small way. 
A few were successful while many failed, 
partly on acwunt of the adverse sea.sonal 
conditions. Those who failed realize now 
as never before the several items that 
enter into the cost of production. 
If the grower is to be encouraged to 
increase production, he must have a price 
for his product commensurate with the 
increased cost of production. lie will 
not get this encourager.. nt through criti¬ 
cism of his resi)onse to the law.s of supply 
and demand. Probably to an extent 
never before known, labor is not only ex¬ 
cessively high but difficult to obtain at 
any price. We havt* be(‘n wisely advised 
not to hoard. What is hoarding AVhat 
is a fair price, and how shall the degree 
of fairne.ss be determined? Obviously a 
fair i)rice of 50 cents per bu.shel 10 years 
ago does not mean that one dollar per 
bushel is fair today. Furthermore, on 
account of the lesser necessity of com¬ 
mercial O'rtilizers in the Central AVe.st. 
the cost of producing potatoes in Wis¬ 
consin may be 00 cents while it is nearer 
.$1.2,5 in New Y^'ork. Emergency demands 
upon our labor supply, the capacity util¬ 
ization of our transportation facilitie.s 
preventing the carriage of our normal 
fertilizer needs and the strong demand 
for seed bust Si)ring all contributed to the 
increa.sed cost of production. 
Detailed records of the items of cost 
ditions are simply applied to the average 
practices of peace times. 
Long 
New 
Island 
York 
Gommercinl fertilizer... . 
$25 
$15 
Labor (man). 
.30 
30 
Labor (horse). 
12 
12 
Seed. 
42 
30 
.Spray material. 
1 
Machinery labor, depre¬ 
ciation and interest... 
5 
4 
Land rental . 
5 
5 
$121 
$97 
Incidental.s. rental of 
building.s, crates, bags, 
etc. 
4 
3 
$125 
$100 
It will be noted from the figures that 
the cost per acre for Long Island cannot 
be far from $125 ; that for up-State New 
Y'ork .$100. Assuming an av<‘rage yield 
of 90 bushels per acr<* in New Y'ork for 
1017, which is undoubtedly a little high 
©wing to the unfavorable seasonal con- ^ 
ditions which prevailed both at planting. 
and harvest time, the co.st per bushel for 
T.ong Island was not far from ,$L.30, and 
that for up-State New Y'ork about $1.11. 
Averaging, the per acre co.st is about 
$112..50, or just $1.25 per hmshel. These 
costs are conservative in .that they repre¬ 
sent the average. They are considerably 
under that actually incurred by the more 
up-to-date growei's who indulge in more 
of the approved and costly practices re¬ 
commended for the potato crop. The 
immediate pro.spects are for a continua¬ 
tion of high-priced machinery, spray ma¬ 
terials, fertilizer, labor and .seed. All 
this will be reflected in the ultimate cost 
of production, and should be given due 
consideration in the determination of 
what is a fair price for the grower. 
b:. V. H. 
Frozen Potatoes in Safe Cellars 
Hundreds of bushels of potatoes were 
froz<‘n by the I’ecent cold wave which 
pinched New Haven County, Conn., as 
it seldom has been nipped by snow and 
winds and extremes of cold in combina¬ 
tion. Cellars that for 50 years have been 
frc'e of frost were invaded and havoc 
wrought in stored vegetables. There were 
conditions attending this frost invasion 
which are worth recital in detail. In one 
night an estimated 1(5 inches of snow had 
fallen and had blanket(‘d evei-ything, with 
sufficient cold to prevent melting. Sud¬ 
denly the C(d<l w.ave c.-iine. with an ap- 
pi’oximate 10 degrees below zero. This 
low temperature held for two or three 
days, when a high north wind invaded 
the valley country, cutting into the frozen 
levels of the snow and drifting it under 
the glare of a dazzling sun. For three or 
four days we had tin* anomaly of winds at 
25 miles or more playing fast and loose 
with temperatures of 10 to 20 degrees 
below zero. 
Among those cellars that never were 
known to freeze is that of the writer. It 
lies just off the dining-room and under an 
upstairs bedroom, walled in against a hill- 
slope on three sides and with cement 
floor. In one corner of t’nis floor-level cel¬ 
lar room is an open spring basin, with 
sii)hon outlet and through which spring 
wat('r flows year after year. With a 
dining-room heater which holds fire all 
Winter the writer did no more than look 
in on his .stored potatoes in that first 
l)inch of cold. He felt secure. He failed 
to consider the day after day of extreme 
cold and the searching winds. One morn¬ 
ing a wholly uiu'xpected frosted potato 
was discovert'd close to an outside wall. 
An oil heater was set inside, but that 
night the extreme of 20 degrees was regis¬ 
tered. and in spite of the heater one wall 
next morning was scintillating with fro.st 
diamonds. Examination showed that next 
that wall two or three vertical layers of 
potatoes next the board bin were ruined. 
That night a larger oil heater was lighted 
and turned higher than ever. After whicli 
the writer took assurance from the fact 
that the wind was dying out and the mer¬ 
cury rising—and waited. Which was his 
worst mistake! .lust now. feeding bushel 
after bushel of softened potatoes to his 
.Tersey cows, the writer knows exactly 
what he will do if such a condition ever 
again comes about. 
When frost first was found in those 
outer layers of potatoes, the whole bin 
should have been empti(‘d of its untouched 
potatoes, and as quickly as possible. For, 
leaving them there, the frost crept from 
potato to ))otato until si big crescent seg¬ 
ment was bitten into the i)ile. those first 
l)otatoes having been frozen until the 
skins cracked I 
The bottom of the bin is about one foot 
above the ccunent floor. The top layers 
of the pile are almost waist high. And 
at waist heights not a i)otato was even 
pinched! The cold crept from one potato 
to another in and under those lying above 
a frost line; and clear across the eight- 
foot floor of the bin, one layer of potatoes 
froze. .Tust here is a pointer, too: The 
tendency of cold is downward and with 
these bottom i)otatoes frozen to the crack¬ 
ing point they did not infect a single layer 
above them ! In one corner of the bin the 
tubei*s were exceptionally hard frozen. In 
taking them out the cause was found. A 
bottom board having a knothole through it 
had b('en patched with a piece of tin ! 
Two big pails of softened Green Moun¬ 
tain potatoes fed to three .Jersey cows 
every day has brought up the milk 
measures in most surpri.slng degree. Rut 
while the writer is most fortunate in com- 
I)arison with other sufferers, he doesn’t 
like to increase hi.s milk supi)ly in that 
way. no matter if tho.se cows are so rav¬ 
enously fond of those tubers that he has 
to guard against their running him down 
in the barn lot. 
In thawing, those frozen potatoes are 
oozing water and wetting others which 
have no touch of frost. There are three 
kinds of spoiled tubers which have to be 
marked in the sorting: Those that 
cracked in freezing are plain enough; 
those that an* even dry, but rubbery to 
the grasp, are identified at a touch. With 
wetted ones, however, neither sight nor 
Jeel will determine the injury or the ab¬ 
sence of injury, but with a thumb-nail of 
scratchy length, a quick pressure of the 
nail upon the wet potato which is unin¬ 
jured will giv out a crisp “click” which 
is unmistakable to the ear as the nail bites 
through. .lust in proportion as frost has 
injured thenv this “click” is off key and 
down scale, until in the worst ca.ses no 
audible sound results. u. m. i.'iKr,n. 
Gonnecticut. 
MtJSKRAT Farming.— Who would 
have- thought 25 years ago that the IT. 
S. Government would ever get back of 
such a proposition as musknit farming? 
Yet the biologists of the Department of 
Agriculture have just issued a bulletin 
on “The Mu.skrat as a Fur Rearer.” It 
seems that muskrat farming is really tak¬ 
ing place among the legitimate indus¬ 
tries. The increa.sed demand for fur. and 
the decrease of many fur-bearing animals 
has given the muskrat his chance. These 
biologists figure that if the •muskrat is 
protected during _tlm bi'eeding season, from 
ten to twelve million .skins can be taken 
in this countr.v without depleting the 
supply. They tell of one place in Mary¬ 
land where marsh land, formerly consid¬ 
ered useless, is now worth more by actual 
income than cultivated lands in the same 
vicinity. One owner of a big tract of 
this marsh land took in two seasons more 
than $9,000 worth of skins. Thus the 
mu.skrat seems to be coming forward as 
a farm crop. He requires no feeding, 
cultivates himself, provides his own 
hou.se, and does everything except com¬ 
mit suicide and take off his hide. It 
seem.s that even this industry of muskrat 
farming is becoming organized and studied 
so as to become a scientific operation. 
This bulletin from the Department of 
Agriculture tells all about it. 
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