New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-04-01
Uncle Hezekiah's Experiments.

One night after all the chores wus
done, last spring, thot, tho'ts I, ez
how wud try sum experiments on po-
tatere, ez I'd been readin' bout other
farmers dom. Sum of my agricultural
papers had been tellin' as how they had
RACED 1000. 1000, and even 1900
bushels taters to the acre, or should
say at that rate, so why couldn't /?
So I went to work. I found one O
Sally AIMS old flower boxes out in the
shed that had five separate boxes or
apartments into it. and took it out into
the garden. Sally Ann spied me,
"What yer dom with my posy box out
there, Hezekiah !" seq she.
"Experimentin'," sez I. "I'm jest
goin' to see how many taters I kin raze
on an acre and prove it. What's the
everlastin use of alters scratchin, and
diggin, for twenty five bushels to the
acre and small ones to boot, when sum
of our hardfsted laborers who edit ager-
cultural papers, and who kin do no
more nor I kin, raze 1900 bushels :?
That's what want to know" At that
Sally Ann went into the house and
went to work.
AS l sed, the box was five feet long
inside measure, and exactly one foot
wide. I NUMBERED the plots l, 2, 3, 4, s,
got some good soil and put in all just
alike, then mixed in, or else put on arter
wards, several kinds of these yer later
fertilizers they tell so much about q
don't give no names, as that might adj
vertise 'em little, you know, only on
one plot didn't put none.
Well then come the question of how
many eyes to the hill, so I put 'em in
No. L, one eye; No. 2, two eye; No. g.,
three eye, and SO on through the five.
You should hev seen them later tops
grow though during the summer.
Looked like young hedge, they was
SO rank! 1t bein' out of the question to
do much with horse and plough, I
give 'em level culture with an old trow-
ell. But now fur the result. Plot 1
had 10 taters, measured 9 quarts; plot
2, 6 taters measured Z quarts; plot 3,
IL taters or 10 quarts; plot 4, 8 and 8,
and plot 5, 80 and IL quarts. "There
you be-" seq I, "all easy fgurin', and
fgurs don't ie."
Let's see, now! Altogether I raised
As quarts in box containin' 5 square
feet. Accordin' to old Daboll, in an
acre there is jest 43 $50 square feet, and
in 46 quarts there's jest 1.4375 bushel,
that is, one bushel and so much over.
Now if divide 1850 by 5, that'n tell
how many, 5-foot boxes I'd hev in an
acre, which gives SIP boxes. But in
every box thar would of course be
1.4375 bushel. SO multiply 8,712 by
1875 and it gives l2,5234 bushels.
That's cleer. "Tharyou hev it," sew l.,
Give beet the world. Tell everybody
Uncle Hezekiah has raised 12,5234
bushels of taters to the acre, and there's
your fgurs. It's as plain as the nose
on your face" seq I to myself. But
speekin' leetle too loud Sally Ann
overheard me, and she seq, whats so
awful plain, Hezekiah?"
"Why, these yer taters and these yer
figures" SEE I.
"Them is whoppers, SEE she, "both
taters and igurs; and now you've done
so we'll, Hezekiah, 'spose you'll plant
that big side-hill lot next spring and
show folks how to raise 10000 bushels
on every acre, but you'll hev to Civ
your individual attenshun. to- each in
dividual hill. Now fore you write out
your experiment, Hezekiah, for the pa
per, you'd better make it plain that you
didn't hev 5000 and more boxes like
mine all over your acre patch, and that
it was at the rate of $4,000 bushels, not
actually that, for you'd hev all your
neighbors lafin' at you, Hezekiah, jest
as they do at these big yields Of corn
and potaters they read about in some
of our agricultural papers" And so
thought HEzEK1AH.
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