The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1915-10-27
THE EVENING BANNER
BENNINGTON VERMONT
Wednesday, October 27, 1915.
POTATO CROP FAILURE
The Harvest in Windham County
Matured Well Otherwise.

With the exception of the potato
crop, which is practically failure in
! Windham county, crops in southern
Vermont have materialized very well
considering the large amount Of cold,
rainy weather in June, July, August
! and September The warm weather
in October has been somewhat of
redeeming feature, says the Brattle-
boro correspondent OF the Springfield
| Republican.
The hay crop was nearly a month
late in being harvested on account of
| the large amount of rainfall through
July and August but in some sect
! ions OF the county, where the farm
ers did not cut their crop until Au-
! gust, a very good sized crop was
realized and in some instances the
farmers have their barns full of hay.
| In some sections of the country,
where the farmers are accustomed TO
harvesting their crop during the last
of June and the early part of July,
| they only secured about one-half OF
their crop, but have secured a large
second crop, on account of the favor
able conditions for the second crop
| turing the latter part OF July ana
/ August. The crop this year was not
secured in very good condition on ac-
count OF the weather conditions.
! which made It exceedingly hard for
the curing of the crop and the result
is that many of the farmers may be
obliged to feed musty hay next wint-
er for this reason.
About an average crop of corn was
realized this year and the fodder was
not damaged by the early frosts.
Practically all of the farmers who put
corn into the silos weee able to fill
their silo5 before the first hard frost
! which came in the latter part of
September in some OF the more fros-
ty sections OF the county, while there
are some sections of the county that
have been practically free from frosts
and even now in the middle of Octob-
cr have only had one frost to do any
particular damage Practically all of
tire farmers who husked their corn
Nc e ar,e 10 Bet il ripe before the
frost came, 50 that the growers Of
com in Windham county have had .
very satisfactory year from all points
o. view.
The most serious, handicap in the
whole county comes with regard TO
the potato crop, which has proved an
entire failure in many instances
Many of the farmers have not dug
their crop at all this fall on account
OF its having rotted in the ground be-
fore the time came for digging. Some
! OF the farmers in an attempt to save
their small crop this year have dug
! their potatoes and tried to save them
/ in brans and sheds by spreading
over them a preparation OF Stacked
lime, but in many instances this has
not proved equal to the situation and
these farmers are obliged nov 70 bury
their entire crop which they dug and
tried TO save in this manner. Not
/ only has the crop rotted very badly
in the ground but in many instances
/. it has been extremely light so that
! potatoes have been very scarce in
this section and havebrought very
/ good prices There are few farm
! ers in the county who did a large
amount of spraying during the sum
mer months who claim that their
crop is not rotting and that they are
j going to raise half crop this year
Many of the farmers in Windham
county who planted good sized
crop find that they must buy all the
potatoes which they have for the com
ing year on account of the manner in
which theirs have rotted and when
the proposition of buying is consider
ed then they come face to face with
the scarcity OF the crop which has
served to drive the price up to Is
and So cents per bushel
Tobacco, which was raised only in
/ Vernon, Putney and Westminster in
! the county, was at least an average
| yield and seemed to be of good quail
ity. Onions, which are raised in
quite large quantities in Westminster,
did not do well this year and as
| consequence only about one.half
crop will be realized and these are
very small and not of the best quail
ity. Most of the other garden truck
has turned out very good considering
the season. and celery has been espec
tally good on account of the large
amount of rain which has been con
| ducive to n good crop.
Fruit has varied according TO the
/ different sections in the county. Sew
era orchardists in the section of
Ames hill are picking a good crop,
while in some sections of the county
| there are scarcely any apples, and
! the cause in some instances attribut-
! ed to the heavy forsts in the spring
! and also the care of trees. In those
sections where there is a very good
sized crop this year the quality Isl
very good and the orchardsts are re-
/ alizing very good price for their
| fruit.
Peaches are raised in only two or
three towns in the county to any
L.,