The Greeley tribune., 1911-09-14
POTATO BLIGHT NOT RECURRING EVIL

Mr.. Editor:-The question is ask
ed on the street every day, rs this
potato blight a thing that will re-
main here and seriously interfere
with our best crop from year to year
and will it do to plant this seed on
other years?" We had similar ex
perience in 1850. That year l
farmed the place where Steve Brad
field now lives. | had 10 acres of
potatoes and sold only 35 sacks and
those were so small A. Y. Soloman,
who was the only man shipping then
would not buy them and l hauled
them to Pierce and sold them to the
section men and there We're only
three cars shipped from Greeley
that year and Denver bought her po-
tatoes in Utah and some were sold
in Greeley. We planted that seed
next spring and had as line a crop
as ever was raised. At that time
our crop was used in Colorado only
and did not exceed 200 cars as we
had not begun shipping outside.
The climatic conditions then were
similar to this year. We had no
rain from August lst, 1879 up to
July 4, 1850 and no snow all winter.
I
that winter of 1879 and 1880 ex-
cept one, on the grounds in rear OF
what is now Condon's store. Then
| it was Doctor Hawes office and that
| day it was a cold wind.
July Z ourth we had our first rain
and all through July and August We
had little light showers and then a
very hot sun and the potato crop
acted the same as this year and
! very few had any sized potatoes on
them. We tnen planted the Early
Rose and a few Morton Whites.
That year much of the grain was
| irrigated up and was an uneven
crop. | ran reaper all around
that neighborhood and cut ESQ
acres by the acre and in the latter
part of July and in August had to
quit many days on account of a
/ light shower along the middle of the
afternoon as grain was too wet, and
we had extremely hot weather be-
fore these showers and often after,
and old farmers said they had seen
potatoes blight same way in the East
under such conditions. So We have
no reason to fear for our next crop
being affected by this blight, nor to
use this seed We are fortunate at
this time that beets are good crop
and may help us some. This goes
to show the soundness of the old
adage THAT it is not best to carry
your eggs all in one basket. In
4 other words it shows the wisdom oil
having more than one money crop.
The opinion is gaining ground
slowly that we need more hay ana
have more stock. | read Mr.
Clark's communication regarding
the dairy business with considerable
interest and while some OF MS
statements are true. In some he IS
a liti,e off That old dairyman the
Agricultural College had lecturing
here two years ago was sure we hau
all tie requirements of a great dairy
country here Riding from kirk-
land III. into Chicago two years ago
with an old dairy man who was
milking cows on $3.50 land ana
making money at that caused me 10
question if this man from Wisconsin
might not be nearer right than SOME
of us old timers thought and | have
taken more interest in the subject
since. If Greeley had the income
from 5000 to 5000 cows for the
next twelve months it might bright
|
did have to get up and milk at 4:3O
a. IN. We used to sell hay at s2.5V
per ton until the sheep feeding came
here and put up hay at cost OF
double the present cost and II we
had few good springs and no
grasshoppers it might come to that
again. unless some kind of feeding
was carried on. With hay arounu
$500 it is a question worth looking
into carefully to see if n reasonable
number of cows could not be Kept
on farm and less acres cultivated
land larger crops with more net lh-
come. SO far as my Observation
goes dairy community always mas
nice buildings and is prosperous anu
men seem to live to good ola aso'
Notwithstanding Mr.. Clark's asser-
ton. ! visited large dairy in Nel-
mont when east, "a relative by mar
riage" who was In perfect health at
65 and had about 100000, maze
on 30 COW dairy since he was 20
and he put three boys through COZ