POTATOES. 33 



a little into the matter, and I incline to the opinion of Mr, 

 Gould. It seems to me that the potato is just as liable to be- 

 come diseased and to rot by planting the same seed year after 

 year, as the human race is to deteriorate by a constant inter- 

 mingling of the same blood. It seems to me that is the nat- 

 ural law of all grains and grasses. If any gentleman doubts 

 this, let him send to Mr. Breese, next spring, for a barrel of 

 his Early Rose potatoes, and plant them. I knew a gentle- 

 man who last year planted half a peck of the Early Rose, 

 that came direct from Vermont, side by side with his own, 

 and the potatoes from the Vermont seed were twice as good, 

 twice as large, and twice as smooth. It seems to me that 

 this shows that we have deteriorated our potatoes by neglect- 

 ing to change the seed. Is it unreasonable to suppose that 

 under these circumstances there will come, in the natural 

 course of things, a rot and deterioration of the tuber itself? 

 I doubt if our Secretary would find, in the whole State of 

 Connecticut, one of the old-fashioned potatoes that our fathers 

 planted. I have a neighbor close by me who used to plant 

 the Silver Lake, which has been referred to, and he found 

 they rotted badly. He got a few at Norwich last spring, and 

 he said to me, " I used to like the Silver Lake a little better 

 than any other potato, and I am going to plant these potatoes, 

 and see how they will do." He planted them side by side 

 with some Peerless potatoes that he had, and three-quarters 

 of them rotted, and there was not another potato in his gar- 

 den that rotted, so far as 1 know ; showing that the trouble 

 was in the potato and not in the soil. He had never planted 

 that variety in his garden before. 



Mr. Baldwin. I should like to inquire of the practical 

 farmers here whether they are afraid of harrowing their land 

 too much. If there is any danger in that direction, it will 

 save me a good deal of labor. 



Mr. Low. My father would never allow us to harrow. He 

 wanted to keep the grass out of sight. 



Mr. Gold. With regard to the Silver Lake, or Mercer, I 

 would state that Gov. Hyde, two years ago, had some thirty 

 different varieties planted side by side, and among them all, 

 3 



