Morning journal and courier., 1888-11-07
sweet Corn, Tomatoes and Tubers.


 Correspondence of the Country Gentleman.l
 Of all canned goods, no two articles are surer of a larger and sustained demand and sale than sweet corn and tomatoes, and no two crops can be counted on with more cer- tainty for making heavy annual returns in central Illinois. Of sweet corn, by selecting early varieties, planting on dry upland, with proper use of the phosphate fertilizers, q crop can be got into the milk stage by the Fourth of July, and the work of putting up corn begun. Thereafter, varieties and times of seeding having been judiciously managed, the work of canning could go on without in- terruption to the first of October. If toma- toes are planted on thin land without ma nuring, and the fertilizers are restricted to the potash and phosphstes, there is almost no limit to the yield. As to the quality, while they are not equal to the best grown on the sandy soils of Maryland and New Jer- sey, they are far superior to the sour pro- ducts produced north of forty-two degrees. And, by the way, there is to be new de- parture in sweet corn canning, if it has not already been taken-in this, that the hull of the corn is rejected, and nothing but the contents within the hull are preserved. Only the most robust stomschs are capable of disposing of an unlimited measure of canned sweet corn with the hulls on; but the hull left out, sweet corn becomes as whole some and nearly as easy of digestion as ost- meal. If there are canning establishments East or South, the proprietors of which are not satisfied with the soil, situation and cli- mate for the production of corn and toma~ toes, they nay find those which will meet
 both in or near the small and large towns in forty counties of central Illinois.
 Do certain roots and tubers grow and en- fu-rr int he nd of fho lRa
 or only partly so, or are cut of st the sur face of the earthl know as much has been claimed for the Irish potato, but have nev CT been able to satisfy myself of its truth. As for artichokes, the testimony is more con- elusive, for having dug one-half of small patch late in the autumn, on finishing the F job the following spring I found large in- crease in the size of the tubers if not in their numbers. But this might have been owing to the greater fertility of the soil on one side of the patch than the other. Still one of my neighbors, who in times gone by dealt with them largely in Iowa, assured ne that growers there in almost every case postpone harvesting till spring, confident that in do- ing so they got largely increased yield. But now comes @ southern truck patch man, who says in & late issue of the Demo- crat of New Orleans that if sweet potatoe vines are cut off even with the ground when they have attained their growth, just before che first frost, and the tubers are left in the ground over winter Cue is writing of Louisi- ana), the outpost wilt be double in yield to what It would be if the tubers were harvest ed as soon as the vines were cut. It will be | interesting to hear the facts in the osss of Irish and sweet potatoes, as well as of arti- | chokes. by those who have had experience and know what they are talking about. Re-
 gently in looking over catalogue of dealer
 in agricultural and horticultural hooks and
 reports, remember seeing, as the title of a 1 brief paper, "Do roots and tubers increase 1 in the ground after the vines are 'deadsn