Norwich bulletin., 1920-10-01
Cwrttten speclsIly Fer rhs nulletin.


 I have received tive answers ts my sp- peals for an explanation of 1928 potato scab in Cold Spring Gardens.
 One is from a large potsto srewsr in New Hampshire who seams ts feel sure that his tip Is the certain road to sue cess. He writes: e.
 aThe cause of seab is barnvara maanrs. In spite of your unwiliingness to admit this as the answer to your puzzle. 1t is the answer Barnyard manure Is the incubator and nursery cf the seAb mi crobe or bacillus CT snofe, Or whatever it may be. Some years it may net rfe- duce scab on the potato but. sure as yeu keep on using 1t, the epidemic will break loose. sooner Of later. It isn't old ground which causes the trouble; nor either the wetness Or the dryne@ ef the season ; nor infection from your neigh bors fields; it's just barnyard manure In proof let me ten you of an old neigh bor of mine who once raised potatoes-- good. clean. A No. i potatoes, for tven- ty-seven years running, on the same ground. without a break. But he never put a forISful of manure on the land. He used chemical fertilizers only, and never had a scabby potato in the twen- ty-seven years."
 That seems aat-fested snsuxh. asesn't it1 With potatoes at their present price and chemical fsrtiEizer ct it's present cost, [ wonder just how much profit the aver age potato-erower would have obtainsd this year, if he had followed this, plan
 seem to have read once before, in ths advertisement of fertilizer company, q reference to this twenty-seyea eensecr- tive years cropping of potato field up In New HamDshire. The advertisement referred to thegrower as Mfr. Blank Of New Hampshire and Boston" From which inferred that Mr. Blank vas one of those baeis-to-the-la flanders who, hay. ing made much ncney ia the city. wAs spending it on farm. Such psepie. wto farm fer fun and don't care hoS mach the fun costs them. sometimes have re- markable experiences As raie, how ever. these experiences are not Of great practical value to real farmers. They do not point the way to more profitable farming. but simply show whas will sometimes happen If you have money tt burn and like to see the smoke
 M second eorrespenaent, fYsm East. ern Connecticut, is less asseFtive He submits suppositions of which he says ?" Although mere guess work, 1t seems tc me they may, possibly. be correct" Fol. lONlnk lS HE nFpotHS8lb.
 At the time the early potatoes were the size of marbles, thousands. perhap: millions of scab-seed Cor spores) were floating in the air over the potato ground A shower of rain brought them to tht ground. Other showers washed them in to the soil. Those that came in contac with the potatoes stayed there and start ed to grow. Tnoee that did not wer, washed deeper and deeper into the soil D, frequent rains. When the Russets eern menced to set, no mere sseab-sesdf-wa. available having been washed down below the potato hills. If it keeps its vitality water, by capillary attraction. may brint 1t to the surface again next summer possibly this fan"
 You will notice that the validity of n, first correspondents assertion rests O. the assumption that the seed or spore of seab are found in barnyard manure The validity of my second cerrespend ents guess depends on the assurnptiu that the scao spores are air-borne, an washed into the soil by showers.
 Not being myself informed sa to tn first source of the acab infection I can possibly tell which. If either, of thes assumptions is correct One thing i fairly clear-tlrey c&nt's both be right SDOT experts to tell us, if they happeu f know. where scab comes from, how it nursed. and how it is prcpaEated an distributed. The custom of soaking pota to seed in formalin or corrosive sublI mate, before planting, 4a an insuranc against scab, would seem te indicate tha the scab-spores were on the seed befor it was taken from the bins or had com into contact with either manure sr all borne and rain-vashed spores at th field.
 Anyway, neither of these centraAset~x suggestions answers my call for a va, ranted explanation. Both arc, aa tn last frankly admits itself to be, iu, guessers. And I. as a YankAs of tn eighth New England generation, fro, original Yorkshire stock, have the inheri ca and fairly developed capacity to d any reasonable amount of guessing. m, self You know that T guess" is thA d most universal Yankee phrase
 Please understand that I a. mat r,,, lmise the value of guessing. Neither | value as a mental stinaulant, nor i, worth as practical stepping stone in swamp of doubt. Out west they tell
 story of Rudyard kipling, the EnsIis author He was travelling on a min, western railroad when the train stcDn, longer than usual at a small station f, one reason or another. Kipling got 6, and sauntered up forward towards ii engine. Directly ahead of 1t was d de, gorge. spanned by very riekety locl ing bridge. The more Kipling looked that structure, the more panfel<y he gre, T say, look here" he exclaimed to fl engineer, who was on the ground be si, his engine. swabbing away at its bea ings, My rood fellah, you don't real