Tfc* RURAL NEW.YORKER 
I (53 
Tak i ng, a Ch ance on a Potato c rop 
Part II. 
MAKING A START.—Jim and I were taught to 
fear debt, but now we began to consider mortgaging 
our little home. However, the bank would not grant 
us a loan of more than $2,000. By this time we had 
in mind a farm with the loose, sandy soil adapted 
to potato culture. We were eager to buy, and the 
owner was wise in holding to his price of $4,000, for 
eventually he got it. But he promised to stay and 
help plant the crop, which Jim considered worth a 
great deal. The big motor van gathered our house¬ 
hold goods up in one load, and we bid goodby to 
the smart little house in town, already mortgaged 
and rented. The moving van helpers pitied us, 
and felt obliged to offer us their sympathy when 
The Sprayer Was Kept Uoing. Fig. 3'fi. 
they turned in at the gate out at the farm. It was 
such a shabby old place. The house had not known 
paint in 50 years. The clapboards were loose* and 
when the wind blew from the south, as it often did. 
they gave forth a sound like a motor racing in high. 
There were two sickly porches, and we were in 
dread of a fat man coming to visit us receiving 
grounds for damages. The living-room was ex¬ 
tremely susceptible to the north wind; the carpet 
filled out like a sail, and the room was as airy as 
the corn-crib. 
A POOR REPUTATION.—When a man makes a 
mistake the news travels fast. We became notori¬ 
ous as a pair of fools, and seusible people were 
ashamed to be caught in our company. It was 
thought a stupendous joke, and thanks to the nar¬ 
rators it reached the ear of the city fertilizer sales¬ 
man on his trip through town. He drove out through 
the mud in a hired rig. and undaunted by our sur¬ 
roundings sold us 10 tons of high-grade fertilizer. 
He must have been a very brave man: he gave us 
his best price, and the only encouragement we had 
heard for days. 
ADVICE FROM THE NEIGHBORS.—The neigh¬ 
bors would not accept our reasons for using Northern 
Maine grown seed. We were warned that they 
would not grow well the first year on account of the 
change in climate. We were told that our tractor 
was only a make-believe, and would only muss up 
the fields: this, by men who claimed to know. They 
told us of others who had not been able to dispose 
of the crop because potatoes were so plenty. They 
meant well, but thought it kindest to discourage 
us. for they really did not believe a good crop of 
potatoes could be raised on the land. We were ad¬ 
vised to use cheap fertilizer or none at all. and to 
buy up the culls of the old crop for our seed, which 
they thought more economical. They were afraid 
that we would never get our potatoes dug in the 
Fall and that we would be all the Winter drawing 
them. 
STARTING WORK.—Jim could not stop to argue 
on these questions. He was busy taking up cross 
fences to make the farm into a 30-acre lot. After 
that he dynamited an ancient apple orchard and 
cleared the land. In the middle of March he began 
to plow. The man from whom we had bought 
changed his mind about helping. We learned that 
be expected to get the farm back the following 
Spring; perhaps he j mimed to sell it every year, 
and did not wish to work against his own.interests. 
On the first of April, in business-like accord with the 
car of fertilizer due on that date, baby Jane arrived, 
and shortly after, her doting grandparents. There 
was an unseasonable snowstorm which put out-of- 
door work out of the question for a while, and a 
kind neighbor offered to help Jim draw his fertili¬ 
zer. Baby Jane and I were very thankful, for the 
bags iu which the fertilizer came weighed 200 lbs., 
almost twice as much as Daddy. 
ANXIOUS TIME.— Some fifteen days later 
the seed arrived simultaneously with the tractor 
and tools for demonstration. The big truck which 
brought the machinery went to the car for the seed, 
after they proved they could plow. Then they 
brought out the disk harrow, a heavy tool with two 
sets of keen plate-like disks. We knew that our 
success depended upon this tool. Could the little 
caterpillar wallow through the sand with this, we 
would be able to put three days’ work into one, 
and do better work in the bargain. We were more 
than satisfied with the way it snatched things along. 
The weather report for that Spring can be spelled 
in one word, RAIN. We cut seed and waited for 
fair weather, which came in allotments of two-day 
periods, followed by solid weeks of drizzle. With 
the tractor and harrow, we did cut the time of 
preparation one-third, for when the weather 
changed in that brief respite, Jim was ready and 
waiting for the right moment to cut in. Every 
hour of the day* was accounted for. The team was 
hitched to the planter with the first light, and every 
time they completed a journey across the field a 
bushel of seed potatoes was placed in position and 
fertilized. Molly and Dan may have the Percheron 
build and coloring, but only Coach ancestry can 
account for the spirit which they displayed on plant¬ 
ing day. Grandfather held 1 on for dear life, and 
even that was barely enough. Jim was in a hurry, 
and only stopped at the end to take on the measure 
of fertilizer and a bushel of cut seed, and they 
were off again. At dusk we had four acres planted. 
ROUGH WEATHER.—The next day it rained; 
in the afternoon it began to snow. In the evening 
it began to freeze; avc remembered that it was the 
twenty-sixth of April, and went to bed. About 1 
a. m. Baby woke us, and I glanced at the thermom¬ 
eter outside the windowpane by her bed. It was 
12 degrees below freezing, and storming as it had not 
stormed all Winter. Our precious stock of seed lay 
in an open outhouse. We carried them down cellar 
before dawn: Molly and Dan were almost smothered 
by the clouds of snow, but I managed to drive them, 
while Jim lifted the big bags on and off the low 
sled. Below, he piled them high in rows, another 
feat of strength. The sweat poured down his face 
and over his collar. For the last hour he carried 
through by sheer nerve, and finally took the lines 
from me with shaking hands. We found the next 
day that only a few bushels out of the 300 were 
touched. For a few days we thought the seed 
already in the ground would be destroyed, but it 
was not to be, though a week elapsed before the sun 
shone again, and the ground was soaked with exces¬ 
sive moisture. 
THE LONG FIGHT.—When, in early June, the 
weather cleared away for the long drought, we found 
that the hollows were drowned out. Our dream of 
a perfect stand would have to be revised. Yet the 
The Farm Woman in tier Working Clothes. Fig. J'/S. 
• 
shoots were wonderfully sturdy where they did 
break ground, and iu all the countryside we knew 
that no other field was even planted. Then quack 
grass and the Colorado potato beetle arrived on the 
scene, and we hastened to the struggle. When we 
were not cultivating we were spraying, although 
there were times when we indulged in eating and 
sleeping. Followed across the fields by an irate 
husband. I learned „o operate the riding cultivator, 
taking out plants at every slip. It seemed prone to 
do opposite from what I expected, and the horsea 
walked so fast. You are to put your feet in two 
little pedals, and steer the teeth into the weeds 
instead of the rows. 
BEETLES AND BLIGHT.—There never was such 
a time for beetles; the hot weather was ideal for 
them. They flew through the air buzzing like bees, 
and they sheared the leaves of the young plants to 
a mere stalk. The mist-like spray only gave them 
indigestion, but it killed the young slugs, and as the 
plants grew the parents flew to fresh fields. Jim 
made an addition to the sprayer that covered the 
under sides of the leaves, as a further precaution 
The Tractor Proved Useful. Fig. 3.'/9. 
against blight. No one knows why copper sulphate 
makes the vines thrive so. Our field became a vivid 
splotch of green. That they avc re an unusual sight 
we knew from the remarks that drifted up from 
the road as the person on the back seat called the 
driver's attention to our side of the road. 
MRS. F. II. UXGER. 
(Concluded next iccek.) 
Seeding Buckwheat and Rye Together 
If I remember correctly, a few years ago I read in 
Tiif. R. N.-Y. that you had planted iu your orchard 
buckwheat ami rye. the buckwheat for a crop and the 
rye for a cover crop. I would like to know whether 
that turned out successfully, as I would like to try the 
same thing in my orchard this year. it. B. 
Cazenovia, N. Y. 
I T is true that for several years we have seeded 
buckwheat and rye together. Last year we cut 
a crop of oats and peas about the Fourth of July * 
The land where this crop grew was chopped up with 
a heavy disk and smoothed with an Acme harrow. 
We then seeded at the rate of 1U bushels of buck¬ 
wheat aud a little less than oue bushel of rye to the 
acre. This was worked iu with a light tooth harrow. 
Probably the buckwheat and rye could he well mixed 
and put in with a drill. The buckwheat, of course, 
came up first, making a very quick start. It made 
a rank growth, completely hiding the rye. Most 
farmers who saw the field felt sure that the rye had 
been killed, but a careful examination showed that 
it had sprouted and was making a slow growth down 
under the buckwheat. ■ The buckwheat crop was cut 
about the middle of September. We wanted to put 
organic matter into that soil, and so the buckwheat 
crop was left on top of the ground, as a mulch. The 
rye slowly grew through it and made a fair growth 
before Winter set in. This Spring there was a heavy 
growth of rye. The stand was not as thick and even, 
as it is where the rye is seeded alone, but it made a 
good growth, and produced a large crop to be plowed 
under. 
The success of this plan will depend on several 
conditions. The land must be naturally strong aud 
in good heart. The plan would not succeed on light, 
sandy land which is lacking in plant food. In time 
of severe drought the buckwheat will make a fair 
crop, but most of the rye will be killed out. In that 
ease it becomes a question of moisture. The buck¬ 
wheat. being larger and more vigorous, will take 
most of the water out of the dry soil and not leave 
enough for the rye. In a wet season the plan will 
usually prove satisfactory. We find it better to use 
a fair quantity of fertilizer when seeding the crop, 
and an application of lime at this time is good prac¬ 
tice. One trouble with a plan of this sort is that 
the buckwheat left on the ground attracts great 
colonies of mice, and trees must be fully protected 
in order to prevent girdling. As a plan for adding 
large quantities of organic matter during a short 
space of time this plan of double seeding is a good 
oue. 
