Gunnison news-champion., 1905-11-24
ABOUT GRAINS AND SPUDS
Snme fosnts Brought O~A Ds.sine
Dsousssons at the Farmers' Insti-
tote, Vhsch the NevsChAm-
pson Gle Anxd For Its Re- AAers

Al TIE drners lnstiOiie MI. =.
r. Bliss Of Greeley one If the most
successful potato raisers of the state,
gave talk on the care and culture
Of tho tuhers aud following are
some of the points brought out:
To raise POTATOES successfully, you
must give them great deal Of care,
much more cultlyatIng and hand
work TO the acre than is necessary
for grain crops, but on the ether
hand, you get proportIonately larger
returns Ordinarily if we klll weeds
anti the first Of July ,around
Greeley) there is little trouble
| he could raise 100 sacks to the
aud sell them at 40 cents hundred.
1t was commercial success. 4
great factor is intelligent mark citing
Ten years ago Greeley farmers
could not have disposed Of one third
their present crop, but carefai work
ing up of distant as well as home
markets, had made the difference
Potato land must be fertile We
cannot have too rich ground
Good seed is half the crop. This is
proven by the size of crops raised
side by side under identical cundi-
tions. In consequence great deal
Of attention is paid 10 selection of
seed Greeley people are willing to
i,,g.s T. s.e.l
when it reproduces itself we'll.
Seed potatoes grown without irriga-
tion are the best.
Red potatoes are not so popular
as white ones. They do not sell so
well except for early potatoes. In
an early potato, cut or bruise turns
black, but the mark does not show
SO much on red tubers The Ohio
is their principal early potato.
Discussing size of potatoes, Mr.
Bliss stated that they were cultlvat-
ing medium sized spud tor the
restaurant trade one that would 90
through a wire screen with meshes
not smaller than one and three
fourths nor larger than four inches
They were deliberatel V reducing the
size. as too large potatoes do not
produce as many sacks to the acre
and do not sell as we'll
In planting they used an Aspen
wall machine, covering two and
half inches under the level or four
inches under the ridge, very thor
oughlv tearing up the soil with a
four horse team. The fields are
then narrowed to keep weeds down,
and again cultivated after the
potatoes appear The last irriga-
ton is about the Goth Of July.
They never wet surface around the
hill. Where rows are SO inches
apart the ditch should be eight
inches deep and hills - inches
apart in the row.
Both blight and scab bother
Greeley farmers. His fathers farm
land was much troubled with scab,
but by rotation of crops and enrich
ing the soil it had disappeared. A
small worm often attacks the tubers,
burrowing around them and raising
ridges, but this is not the scab.
Dipping the seed does no good. In
deed he had tried five different
dips and found they damaged the
seed The crop to follow potatoes
is alfalfa or peas. If you cannot
raise them try wheat.
Considerable discussion arose
over the question whether potatoes
could cross in the field. Mr.. Bliss
said they could not The stalk
seeds would be crossed when grown
side by side, but the tubers them
selves would reproduce true to
variety.
At the produce show on Main
Continued on Second Page.