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American Agriculturist, January 20,1923 
47 
The Pace Is Getting Faster 
Good Seed Gets More Potatoes With Less Cost 
it 
P OP’' SCALES used to Ijke a fast 
horse. Indeed when anybody around 
Malone got a faster horse than his, Pop 
had a horse* for sale. Once he sold a 
little brown mare that had lost his favor 
in this way and he told her new owner 
ists from the College of Agriculture at 
Cornell visit seed growers crops three 
times during the season and in which 
the growers organization certifies to 
the buyer that the seed stock he buys 
is actually from one of these crops 
Potato Growers Studying their Business 
During the past season the Farm Bureaus in over half of the New York 
Counties organized inspection tours or field meetings to enable potato 
growers to get together and study the new problems confronting them 
in the cultivation of this crop. The group snapped above are seen inspect¬ 
ing a Suffolk County Farm Bureau Demonstration 
that she could “go” in about 2.10. The 
new owner trained her faithfully for a 
month but brought her back and said 
she couldn’t do the mile in less than 2.40. 
Pop said, “Well, what of it? You must 
be in quite a hurry if you can’t wait 
half a minute.” 
We suppose when the world’s record 
was held by Maud S, a trotter that 
The Best by Test 
The three baskets on the right 
contain the product of one 
square rod planted with certi¬ 
fied seed. The picking basket 
on the left holds all the potatoes 
that grew on a square rod in the 
same test planted with diseased 
seed. Last year the Suffolk 
County Farm Bureau tested in 
this manner 54 strains of Green 
Mountains and found the New 
York certified seed to give the 
highest yields 
could make the mile in 2.10 was just as 
valuable a racer as Peter Manning is 
to-day. But race horses go fa.ster now 
than they did forty years ago. Simi- 
larily potato yields have increased 
rapidly in recent years. Here in New 
York for 50 years the average yield for 
an acre of potatoes was on'y 85 bushels. 
But in spite of a record breaking drouth 
in 1921 and a sea on of floods and 
blight this year, the average yield for 
each of the past four years in New 
York has exceeded 100 bushels per acre. 
We think this increase is largely due to 
the use of better seed. 
The Evil of Trading Seed 
Potato growers have always tried to 
get the best seed obtainable. Up to five 
or six years ago, a grower wanting new 
seed could either send to some com¬ 
mercial seed man for it or change seed 
with his neighbor. The first mentioned 
practice accounts for the rapidity with 
which all new potato diseased spread 
to every part of this country. The 
practice of changing seed between 
neighbors has proven an intensive 
means of spreading potato diseases 
locally. 
_ But recently with a system of inspec¬ 
tion and certification in which special- 
which has been found to be suitable 
for seed, real improvement has taken 
place. 
“The chair” recognizes the gentleman 
who now takes the floor to remark that 
we don’t want any more potatoes. “We 
are already producing too many pota¬ 
toes,” he says. That seems to be true 
this year. But why not look at potato 
improvement as we do at trotting re¬ 
cords and say like clipping ten seconds 
off the trotting record, we have clipped 
two acres off the land labor and ferti¬ 
lizer—the cost, in other words, needed 
to produce a thousand bushels of pota¬ 
toes. Has the gentleman, who is touchy 
about this “two blades of grass” talk, 
any objection to getting the same 
quantity with from one-half to two- 
thirds the investment of capital and 
labor. 
A Matter of Economical Production 
But whether they wish to grow more 
or fewer potatoes next year, they will 
likely find it more economical using 
good seed and adjusting their acreage 
in accordance with what is sound farm 
management for them. What no potato 
g'rower can afford is to continue to plant 
poor or mediocre seed and then hope 
to compete successfully in a branch of 
farming, the efficiency of which has 
advanced 20 per cent in five years by 
the general adoption of improved meth¬ 
ods and practices. We have clipped 
two acres off the land needed to make 
a thousand bushel, crop. Let the man 
who is not in a hurry drive his slower 
horse and cultivate his lower yielding 
strain of potatoes. But just as frac¬ 
tional parts of a second decide the 
As necessary 
as stable manure 
A good farmer would be astonished if you ques¬ 
tioned his wisdom in using manure. 
Manure is all right as far as it goes, but it fails to 
give the phosphoric acid your land needs, and does 
not usually give nitrogen or potash in the propor¬ 
tions required by crops whose needs for food differ. 
Learn the truth about feeding your crops. 
Experiment stations have proven beyond question 
the common sense and profit in the use of commer¬ 
cial fertilizers. Properly used, they will profit you 
by increasing your yield per acre; improving the 
grade of your grain, hay and truck; maturing crops 
sooner; saving labor cost, and building up your soil. 
For advice or help, write Farm Service Dept. 
F. S. Royster Guano Company, Baltimore, Md. 
ROYSTER 
r^/cf "^sted T^tUizers 
“Before and After Using” 
The Warren County, N. Y. grow¬ 
ers who planted certified seed in 
1922, found that it takes more 
than a favorable climate and 
soil to make a good crop. The 
average increase in yield of cer¬ 
tified seed over home grown seed 
was 6414 bu. per acre 
mPROVED AND 
PEDIGREED OATS treated to prevent amut. 
Cornellian—Development—Single plant selec¬ 
tion by Plant Breeding Department New York 
Agricultural College. A tree oat slightly gray 
in color, good stiff straw. In five years trial on 
Agricultural E.xperiment grounds at Ithaca, has 
yielded about five bushels more than nearest 
competitor. Of all varieties under test there in 
1920, it was the thinnest hulled variety and 
had the largest percentage of meat. 
Svalof Varieties, Stocks second crop from 
Sweden. 
Victory is the leading white variety in New 
York State. In four year tests by Department 
of Plant Breeding shows this second to Cornel¬ 
lian. Good stiff straw. Should be sowed thin. 
Crown newer sort than Victory, longer ker¬ 
nel. In Sweden outyields Victory on particu¬ 
larly good soil. Lodging resistance good. Should 
be sowed thin. 
Golden Rain, yellow oat, remarkably stiff 
straw. In Sweden is unexacting as regards soil. 
Grain medium and heavy with thin hull. 
Pried on all above sorts $1.50 per bushel; 
PEDIGREED BARLEY, Cornell’s two favor¬ 
ites, Featherston No. 7, a six row barley orig¬ 
inated at Minnesota Agricultural Experiment 
Station. Medium, tall stiff-strawed sort, high 
yield heavy grain. Recommended for separate 
grain crop. Most consistent high yielder of all 
six row sorts at Cornell Agricultural Experi¬ 
ment Station. None of this variety available 
but what shows trace of two row. 
Alpha two row. a hybrid. A tall stiff straw 
PEDIGREED SEED 
sort maturing later than standard six row. Dux' 
ing five years has excelled all other sorts in 
yield at Cornell Experiment Station. Especially 
desirable for sowing with oats. We recommend 
the Victory or Crown in combination with Alpha. 
Price-Featherston $2.00 per bushel. Alpha 
$2.24 per bushel. 
SEED CORN, New York State grown from se¬ 
lected ears in special fields. 
Cornell Eleven, (Pedigreed), Developed by 
Plant Breeding Department, New York State 
College of J^riculture through individual ear- 
to-ear selection. A yellow dent corn success¬ 
fully used for ensilage and for husking as well 
in the more favorable sections of New York 
State. Average requirements 120 days for ma¬ 
turity. For grain use 4 to 5 quarts per acre. 
For ensilage use 6 to 8 quarts. 
Oil Dent. (Improved), for husking an en¬ 
silage. Somewhat earlier than Cornell Eleven. 
Adapted when elevation too high or season too 
short for Cornell Eleven. Same rate planting. 
A trial of this seed properly put in will wean 
buyers of cheap seed. Prices both varieties— 
Screened $3.00 per bushel. Tipped and butted 
for accurate planting in check rows $5.00 per 
bushel. 
SOY BEANS, Black Eyebrow, an early sort. 
Bids fair to be most popular sort in New York 
and Pennsylvania. Price $4.50 per bushel. 
HUBAM SWEET CLOVER, Scarified, high 
germination and purity. Grown in New York. 
Price small lots 50 cents per pound postpaid. 
Bushel lots or over, 40 cents per pound. 
All prices are freight paid, bags free. All orders to be accompanied by 25% cash or 3% may 
be deducted if making payment in full. 
Investigation tlirouah Farm Bureaus or Agricultural Colleges invited. 
HICKOX-RUMSEY CO.. INC.. - BATAVIA. N. Y 
If you wish to invest safely 
Buy Federal Farm Loan Bonds 
If you have any surplus funds, invest them in Federal Farm Loan 
Bonds. They will earn you 4Vi% interest, payable twice yearly. You 
j ^ can sell them at any time if desired, or your banker will gladly accept 
4470 them as collateral for a loan. There is no safer investment. Your 
Safe 
Tax- 
free 
money is secured by the pledge of first mortgages on Eastern farms 
double the amount of the loans. Prompt payment of principal and 
interest is guaranteed by art twelve Federal Land Banks. You can buy 
a Federal Farm Loan Bond for as little as $40.00. Write for particulars. 
FEDERAL LAND BANK o/SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 
Serving New England, New York and New Jersey 
winner in a horse race, so do a few 
more bushels of potatoes to the acre in 
a season like the one just past deter¬ 
mine whether the grower breaks even 
or goes in the hole.— J. M. Hurley. 
Write foe 
lsbeU*s 
1923 
Catalog 
BELL 
BRAND 
Isbell’s Michigan-grown Garden Seeds assure a big-yielding, profit¬ 
able garden, for they are thoroughbred stock —the result of 44 
years of development and selection. Send today, for Isbell’s 1923 
Seed Annual, giving valuable information on quality teeds and quoting direct- 
from-grower prices. 
S. IM. ISBELL & COMPANY 807 Mechanic St. (41) lackeon. Midi. 
