The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1896-02-14

variably the Early Ohlo, ana Is snip
ped in from Red river valley in OAK
ota the last of March or early in April
in close cars, to prevent freezing. Dip
ping for scab is quite common and
many ways are practiced. The most
common plan is to use trough and
shovel. Some use barrels, and pour
the liquid off, while others use sacks,
and suspend them over the tank to
drain. The best plan have tried is
TO make a trough that would hold ten
Slated crates; set crates and all in for
80 minutee, then set the crates out on
a drip board, and put more crates in.
In this way ten crates will keep a
planter running. AS the seed has
been picked up in the fall, in crates,
stored in crates and then dipped in
them, it will be seen that they are
only handled twice till put in the
planter. OF course this latter applies
to home grown seed only. The har-
rows used are very wide, and forty
acres is an average days work, al
though fifty can be done. The weed
rs:used are large ones, and take three
rows at time. A boy and one horse
can weed twenty to twenty-five acres
per day. One man and horse with
Planet Jr., cultivator can cultivate
from four to six acres per day, and
there are many fields which show 4
to cultiuators running at once.
Very shallow, level cultivation is
practiced, and the latest "fad" is to
sow German millet seed when the
potatoes are laid by. We have a ma
tive grass that starts to come up Aug.
LIST; that is called crab and foxtail
grass, and one might just as well
raise millet as to allow this grass to
take possession. On account of our
climate, the planting is done as near
April 1st as possible, and the lack of
proper storage makes it necessary to
leave the crop in the ground till No
vember LIST, and the wild grass and
millet ford protection against the
intense heat of August and Septem-
Der, and also prevent the summer
rains from rOtting the crop. The
grass is moved and raked off before
digging, and the millet pays all the
expense of growing the crop, thus
leaving the potatoes all profit. 1t is
impossible to use the Hoover or like
diggers, on account of the sod clog
ging them, and there are many of
them rusting down in the valley. A
two-horse pillow is used, made by a
local smith, called the "Kaw Valley
Eclipse" and is used by all the large
growers. The average crop for 1895
was about $50 bushels per acre, and
many growers had from 10000 to So
600 bushels. The little town of Lin
wood, of $50 population, has already
sent out 800 carloads, and has fifty
more to go. The price averages
about twenty cents per bushel.
The Arkansas valley is also great
potato country and the NeOsho valley
is fast becoming one. A new Seeding
from the old Red PeachblOw, called
the Early Kansas, is the favOrite in
this valley. 1t grows close to the
base of the stock, but has the peculia-
rity of being a multiplier, just the
same as the potato onion. 1t does not
put out knob or prong, but runs out
stem the size of pencil from the
side of the oldest tuber and new one
forms, and often four to SIX of them
are found all hung together. A slight
jar disconnects them and they are all
perfect specimens. One man raised
437 bushels of them on an acre this
year. The cost of producing an acre
of potatoes is from SIS to $40.