Pocahontas star herald., 1915-11-05
C. G. JOHNSTON TELLS
OF HIS EXPERIENCE
Mr. Editor

MI kdilor;
Here | am TO make my report as
per promise last spring that | would,
In my contest with the good women
IN gardening, well, you all remem.
bet that ! gave ii up months ago,
could offer number of excuses
why | did not surpass them in my
demonstration work, hut YOU lazy
men who never even struck a lick
with the hoe nor pulled a weed for
your good wives, just laugh aud
say | knew you would get beaten
aud so | did, but | did my best and
that's better than most OF my good
male brethren did. hut can truth.
fully say that l gave my garden
thorough cultivation and as / told
You in the outset you can carry ali
the weeds and grass that grew in
INV garden in one coat pocket. Even
now there's not n weed TO be found
along the fence, and some will say
that's pretty good. My garden is
here TO show for itself. | have
farmed all my life aud the more !
try to learn about It the more find
out that ] do not know. Investiga.
ton teaches us that there Is yet lots
to learn. ! will first tell how | did
the work, and the results etc, later.
First, ! fertilized highly in the
fall with barn yard manure and
broke l2 to 10 inches deep IN Jan
uary. Many will doubt the last
statement but ! did 1t just the same,
then rehroke IN early spring and
prepared my seed beds and begun
planting on Feb. 10th. All the
early planting such as onions, peas.
le ttuce, and mustard did exceeding.
Ily we'll, but early potatoes were
almost a total failure, got only
% bushels where | should have had
l2 or Is bushels, although they had
the best of attention possible and
the vines were as promising as
could be. The shoots or rootswould
start out as though TO set the pota.
toes, and run out quite distance
aud come up through the ground
again, sometimes IN the middle Of
the row or in the bed proper and
make another top but later set lit.
tie shapes all along the roots very
thick and all among the roots prop
er in great clusters from the size Of
peas to small bird eggs, some large
enough to use and occasionally a
hill mould as fire as could be. So
| sent specimens Of them to the
Bureau of Plant Industry at Wash.
ingt IN, d. c to have them inspect
ed aud received their findings which
| here give as reported, viz:
These specimens have been ex
amrned and 1oupd to be affected
with a root and crown girdlinp
caused by the fungus Rbizoctonia,
which INJURIES the potato crop by
causing russeting aud cracking
of the tubers," then goes on aud Ie
'ers to the Farmers Bulletin, page
544 aud furthermore says it is a
diseased seed aud lives ~ the soil
ETC., aud ! believe that, too, a. 9th
er crops that grow by the side Of
the potatoes were similarly affected. &.
My sweet potatoes right by the side
of them did not yield more than
half what they usually do on the
same soil; they, too, made a great
mass Of small roots lS or 20 inches
long. Tomatoes died entirely sew
eral weeks ago and always before
they were green till frost and full of
tomatoes till the last day. follow.
ed the potatoes with beans and cab.
bage but they would not grow
came up and died. So eviden .lY the
soil Is diseased in some way as this
season has been au exceptional one
for all vegetate crops but | sure got
IN bad on part of mine.
As have told you where l failed
and what ! didn't do, | will now
tell you what / did do. First, |
] 1 l