Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/442

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��Popular Science Monthly

���Viewing them in comparison with a thimble, empha- sizes the diminutiveness of the seedHng potato plants

��tive. The first year's crop of tubers is limited. These pota- toes, about the size of peas or even smaller, are planted the second year. The tubers thus obtained are a little larger. Usually in the third year some will be found that are really worth while, and perhaps a new variety that is worth cultivating. Extensive correspondence on the subject has been carried on by Edward F. Bigelow, of Arcadia, Sound Beach, Connecticut, with potato growers in all parts of the country and has brought forth a great variety of claims, and ex- periences.

��The Wise Potato. It Refuses to Produce Unnecessary Seeds

POTATO seeds are so extremely rare that it is almost impossible to obtain them. Yet seeds of potatoes are plenti- ful. These facts seem diverse and antag- onistic; they are easily reconciled. About twenty-five years ago potato balls were abundant wherever potatoes were grown, but in our modern intense cultivation the plants seem to have learned in many sections that it is not necessary to bring to fruition the tomato-like balls that should be the result of the bloom.

Potato seeds can be obtained from cer- tain places, mostly outside of the United States. The potato propagator values these seeds highly, because from them, and prefer- ably from the modern well- cultivated plant rather than from the primitive wild potato, the seed should be obtained for propa- gating new varieties. For the first year the plants The tread of the stairway is

are diminu- to prevent the man and his

���Saving Man Power in Loading Freight Cars

THE tread-mill of the farmer boy's youthful days is now being employed in principle to lessen the number of men required to load freight cars. The device consists of nothing more than an endless belt-conveyor or stairway from the ground to a platform level with the freight car door.

This makes it unnecessary for the men to rush the incline as they must on the ordinary runway, and this in turn prevents them from becoming exhausted before the day's work is over. It also reduces the number of men required to load any given amount of goods, and the laborers so released can be employed for more vital war work.

The same kind of a tread- mill can be used for loading motor trucks. It is operated by a small elec- tric motor un- derneath the platform. The motor can be shut off to save current when no loading is being (lone.

As the men must work quick- ly because the incline moves provided with small cleats f'^'^^t' more is ac-

hand-truck from slipping COmplished.

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