Potato Crop Insurance 
A SOMEWHAT unusual branch of the insurance 
business is that, of protection against loss in 
the production of market crops. The amount of 
capital and risk involved in raising a large acreage 
of truck crops under present conditions seems to 
have led to a considerable demand for a kind of 
insurance that will guarantee the planter at least 
enough return from his crops to allow him to con¬ 
tinue in business. An insurance policy of this kind 
probably also helps him to borrow money, if neces¬ 
sary. as it guarantees a definite return up to the 
amount of the insurance. One of the companies 
seems to be doing quite a business in New England. 
New York State and New Jersey, insuring potato 
crops. The insurance is claimed to be based upon 
the cost of production, as obtained from various 
growers and agricultural officials. This cost is placed 
at $200 per acre, both in Maine and in New Jersey, 
although the various items are proportioned some¬ 
what differently in the two sections. In the New 
Jersey section the items are as follows: 
Plowing . $ 4.00 per acre 
Harrowing . 3.00 “ “ 
Planting . 5.00 “ “ 
Seed . 40.00 “ 
Fertilizer . 78.00 “ “ 
Cultivation .. 8.00 “ “ 
Spraying . 8.00 “ “ 
Harvesting . 34.00 “ “ 
Rent of land. 20.00 “ “ 
‘Pie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
VARIETIES GROWN.—The chief varieties grown 
in the Genesee Valley are Savoy and Round Thick 
Leaf. Savoy seldom produces over five tons to the 
acre. Round Thick Leaf lias in years past produced 
as high as is tons per acre, but the maximum this 
year was 16 tons. This muck is equipped with a 
Skinner system of irrigation, but this was not neces¬ 
sary to bring the crop to this yield this year. 
TIIE GAMBLE OF SPINACH.—The yield men¬ 
tioned above carries with it many pitfalls. The two 
chief ones are the development of the seed stalk and 
an insect—the leaf miner. If. during the days about 
the time the spinach is ready to cut, there is an 
abundance of hot weather, it hastens maturity, and 
causes throwing out of the short seed stalk, which 
lowers the quality. The leaf miner often appears 
without much warning between the tissues of the 
leaf, and causes the leaf to crack at that point, thus 
liberating the insect when the spinach is cooked in 
the can. This gives anything but a savory appear¬ 
ance to the spinach when the can is opened. Often¬ 
times the sudden appearance of the miner may cause 
the ruination of an entire crop. The area on which 
the spinach was grown in South Lima is being fol¬ 
lowed by potatoes, celery and lettuce. 
E. A. FLAXSBURGH. 
Total. $200.00 per acre 
While some of these charges may appear high, 
others are no doubt below actual cost in many sec¬ 
tions. Plowing, for instance, can seldom be done for 
$4 per acre if the team work is hired by the day. 
What such a policy 
actually guarantees is 
equivalent to an aver¬ 
age yield for the whole 
country, which is close 
to 100 bushels per acre 
to sell at $2 per bushel. 
Evidently the insur¬ 
ance company is fairly 
safe in making this 
guarantee in sections 
where no special dis¬ 
aster happens to the 
crop, and assuming 
that the markets are 
to continue somewhat 
along the lines of the 
past few seasons. 
o. n.)’. 
Trapping Cotton Worms With' Com 
A BULLETIN from the Arizona Agricultural Col¬ 
lege tells of the use of corn as a trap crop for the 
cotton boll-worm. This plan of trapping insects by 
planting crops which they prefer, and then destroy¬ 
ing them, has long been advocated, and is quite use¬ 
ful with many insects. Professor Morrill, who 
writes this bulletin, says that the cotton boll-worm 
! 287 
when the cotton is most in need of protection. 
Studies are made to know through a series of years 
when the worms are most likely to appear, and the 
corn is planted so that it will come into silk as 
nearly as possible during that period. For example, 
in Southern Arizona the moths are most numerous 
between July 15 and July 30. and the corn came 
into silk during that period, and thus trapped large 
numbers of worms. In actual practice this method 
has proved very helpful. Rows of corn were planted 
at intervals of about 300 ft. through the cotton field, 
and when planted so as to produce their silks 
through July, the Cotton was thoroughly protected. 
Another plan recommended is to leave strips or belts 
from 10 to 40 ft. wide across the field at the time 
the cotton^ is planted. About June 1 these belts are 
planted with Mexican June corn in rows 5 ft. to 6 ft. 
apart. About 10 days later a row of cow peas is 
planted between the corn rows. This leaves room 
for cultivation, and as the moths appear they hide 
among the cow peas and lay their eggs upon the corn 
silks, leaving the cotton alone. This trap-crop sys¬ 
tem. in connection with poisoning the worms, by 
dusting the poison while the dew is on the plant, is 
proving helpful to cotton growers and many of them 
believe that they will be able to fight off the worms 
and avoid the great loss which has fallen upon them 
during the past 10 years. 
Growing Spinach 
on Muck Land 
A muck crop. • 
A short time ago 
an article appeared in 
The R. N.-Y. on drain¬ 
ing with dynamite. This story deals with one of 
the muck crops on the muck lands mentioned in that 
article, viz., spinach. The following is an actual 
piactice of Henry Greff rath of South Lima, one of 
the leading vegetable growers of that area. The 
wuietj of spinach shown in pictures on preceding 
page is the Round Thick Leaf. The seed for this 
crop was grown in the neighborhood of South Lima, 
the growers had an opportunity to observe 
the character of the plant. The rows were made one 
!n"t apart, which required the use of approximately 
13 pounds of seed to the acre. Seed last Spring cost 
60 cents a pound. This year Mr. Greff rath was able 
to complete his plantings on April 24. On the 8-foot 
muck on which the spinach was grown one-lialf ton 
el 2 - 8-4 fertilizer was used per acre at the time of 
sowing. When the spinach was up nicely and the 
lows could be distinguished nitrate of soda was 
spread close to the plants at the rate of 360 pounds 
per acre. 
IIAR\ ESTING.—Fig. 396 shows the spinach- 
< ntter which is used to cut halves of two rows at a 
time, leaving the spinach free for raking and pack- 
Ul "' ^ *£• '^68 shows a gardener raking the spinach 
bito w indrows to facilitate packing in crates. As the 
er °P is used for canning, no care is taken in packing 
the Clate s, but the spinach is piled loosely, and ca 
bien be freighted to the canning factory. The (ii. 
cutting was made Juno 7. and five men were able t 
cut and pack one acre in four hours. The yield on 
June 7 was nine tons to the acre, and at the time of 
rutting the spinach was “making” one ton per acre 
KT (la -V. The car was filled in the late afternoon, 
■'ml was at the cannery in the morning, being packed 
and sealed ih tin cans before night. Fig. 397 show 
t,u ‘ tru ek on its way to load a cai 
.4 Florida Strawberry Field Fhotograyhed on New Year's Day, 1920. Fig. 399. 
in 
4 
to 
iVS 
is practically the same as the corn ear-worm, which 
insect is. of course, well known through the North 
The same insect also attacks green tomatoes, bean 
pods, and tobacco. It is also common in Alfalfa 
fields in some sections. The eggs are laid by a 
large moth, and can usually be found on the fresh 
corn silks. The worm hatches from the egg in warm 
weather. When first hatched the worm is very 
small, but it grows rapidly, so that at the end of about 
20 days it. is iy 2 inches long. When first hatched 
these worms feed on the surface, but in the course 
of a few days they bore down into some part of 
the plant upon which they are working. When full 
grown the worms drop to the soil, burrow in and 
go through their change of form. The female moths 
deposit their eggs singly, the total number ranging 
from a few hundred to nearly three thousand. They 
deposit eggs on corn in preference to cotton or other 
food crops, and this preference is taken advantage 
of in trapping them. The most attractive part 
the corn is the fresh silk, and it is necessary 
have the corn at just the right stage in order 
make this trap most effective. The general advice 
is to sow cow peas with the corn. The moths hide 
among the cow peas during the day and then come 
out to visit the corn. It is said that in some cases 
the silk of a single ear may carry 50 or more 
these eggs. An average of 25 eggs to the silk 
each ear is not uncommon. When the boll-worms 
are concentrated in this way they turn out to be 
their own worst enemies. They are cannibals and 
eat each other up as they work down into the ear. 
and those which finally mature may be destroyed 
on the corn. 
Of course, success with this method depends 
certainty as to kind when 
of 
to 
to 
of 
of 
on 
planting the corn crop so that the silks will appear 
Short Talks About Nursery Trees 
I HA\ E been asked, when trees 1 are put in storage 
for Winter, can an expert tell them apart without 
the label? Almost any experienced nurseryman can 
name varieties when they are standing in the nur¬ 
sery row with their leaves on, for each variety has 
its own distinctive 
color and its own 
peculiar cha racteris- 
tics. unmistakable to 
the trained eye. Once 
they are stripped of 
the leaves and dug up, 
the chance of distin¬ 
guishing them with 
accuracy is consider¬ 
ably reduced. Trees 
of the same variety 
raised in different sec¬ 
tions of the country 
often do not appear 
alike at all. and the 
expert can only make 
a good guess as to 
what they are when 
the label is missing. 
There are some varie¬ 
ties. however, like the 
Kieffer pear, that even 
the amateur would 
seldom fail to identify. 
As an instance, on the 
other hand, of the tin- 
nurserymen have to rely 
on the appearance of the trees, the following case 
may be cited: A grower delivered some trees to a 
retail nurseyman in a large nursery center. They 
were supposed to be Northern Spy. Now the Spy 
in its make-up as a tree is quite distinct from 
Baldwin. An expert of the storage plant was as¬ 
signed to grade these supposed Northern Spys. It 
occurred to him when he had half finished his job 
that they did not look like Spy. and he reported the 
matter. Another experienced man was called, and 
after looking the trees over for some time he con¬ 
cluded that they were Spy and that the grower had 
made no mistake. The thing was investigated fur¬ 
ther. and it developed that the grower had dug the 
wrong kind, and that the trees were Baldwin. Here 
is a question where the case was about the two most 
important varieties of apple, and yet one expert was 
in doubt and the other came to a wrong conclusion 
as to their true name. 
The same thing holds in regard to cherries. It is 
an easy matter to tell Large Montmorency from 
Early Richmond in the nursery row. but let some¬ 
body mix up these two varieties in the storage, and 
the chances of the keenest eye separating them in all 
cases so as to be sure about it are extremely small. 
English Morello is usually not as good a grower as 
either Large Montmorency or Early Richmond, but 
sometimes, when the soil is just right for them, the 
English Morello does as well as Montmorency. Here, 
then, are three kinds of sour cherry, the most ex¬ 
tensively planted, which oftentimes so nearly re¬ 
semble each other as to make their identification 
merely a guess unless they are correctly labeled. 
Flemish Beauty pear has a dark red appearance 
and closely resembles Clapp’s Favorite, being some- 
