The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-05-03
OUR RURAL TOPICS,
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
POTATO GROWING.

POTATO GROWING.
Successful growers of potatoes have learn
ed that TO insure good crop the seed must
be selected carefully the previous Fall The
best results come from making the selec-
tions from the hills as they are dug, choosing
well-formed tubers, free from scab or prongs,
| and with smooth surfaces. Neither the very
large nor very small potatoes should be
| taken. The first will be misshapen, and
the latter are apt to be poorly ripened.
Something depends on how the potatoes
have been grown. If the vines kept healthy
until the crop of tubers was fully ripsned,
the very smallest may make good seed. After
the selection the main point is to keep the
seed ut as low a temperature as possibla
without danger of frost These conditions
are best procured by keeping potatoes in dry
out-of-door pits. In our Northern climate
after the covering of the pit has frozen over
| it will not be apt to thaw out again all
Winter. If there is any danger of thawing
too early, covering of straw will maintain
an even degree of temperature before freez-
ing, while protecting the potatoes from too
| much cold. The tubers will come out with
eyes as dormant as when put in the pit The
potatoes will be harder by evaporation Of
their moisture, while those kept in cellars
will be made soft by the starting of the eyes,
which rapidly take out the substance needed
to give the potato set its first start after be-
ing planted. II you have not In the past
observed proper methods in selecting and
caring for the seed of this valuable crop we
suggest that you put this item in your scrap
book for reference this fall. 1t is fact that
potatoes with the eyes started and half
rubbed off have lost much of their value for
seed.-Nebraskd Farmer.
THREE DESTRUCTIVE PESTS.
Investigations made by the authorities OF
the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station
caused them to decide to publish full de-
scriptions of number of the destructive
insects of the State for the benefit of farmers,
fruit growers, and gardeners. Among the
Injurious species to which attention is being
directed at present is the bag or basket
worm, which occurs only in the southern part
Of the State. 1t belongs to the same order
of insects as the butterfly, but the male
alone possesses wings, and the eggs are not
deposited, but hatch within the body of the
female. The bags or baskets from which
these caterpillars take their name begin to
form as soon as the young emerge from the
bag occupied by the mother, and are enlarged
to conform to the growth of the occupant
as the season advances. There is but single
annual brood, the males emerging in the
Fall, and the young Matching from the eggs
the following June. The pest can be de-
stroyed either by collecting the bags or bas-
kets during the Fall, Winter or early Spring,
or by spraying the trees late in June with
Paris green or London purple, as for the
codling moth.
The cabbage aphis is an imported species
which has become nsturalized and affects
cabbage, turnips and others of this class Of
vegetables. The insect passes the most Of
the Winter, at least in this latitude, in the
egg state. In the Spring these eggs hatch
fertilized females which reproduce by giving
birth to their young after the manner Of
animals, the young themselves developing
and reproducing within a few days after
being born, all young produced being fe-
males. Late In the Fall there is a genera
ton produced in which both sexes are pres
ent. After pairing, the males die and the
females deposit eggs, after which they also
perish. The remedies for these are tobacco
dust and kerosene emulsion. The apple
plant louise belongs in the same group Of in
sects as the preceding, and reproduees in the
same manner. In this case, however, the
eggs are deposited in the Fall upon the
twigs and limbs of the apple, Matching in
Spring into the small green lice so notice
able on the young buds when they are first
putting forth. Later they desert the tree
and 90 to the weeds and grasses. After
wheat is well up in the Fall the lice congre-
gate on the young plants and reproduce, and
the young, descending to the lower part of
the stem, continue reproduction and when
abundant do some injury to the plants
The only place to fight these insects is on
apple trees, where they can be destroyed by
kerosene emulsion.-Oranqe Judd Farmer.