34 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



there was scarcely one that was more healthy, or produced 

 more abundantly, than this same old Silver Lake or Mercer. 

 Its growth was just as fine as I remember it twenty years ago. 

 And I understand that the produce this year continued to be 

 liealthy. 



Mr. Reade. a year ago, I visited the farm of Dr. Hexa- 

 mer, in New Castle, N. Y., and examined very thoroughly his 

 mode of raising potatoes. I am quite sure that he plowed his 

 land thoroughly and harrowed it thoroughly, because it was as 

 mellow and as perfectly free from lumps as a beet bed, and I 

 saw tools about there that suggested the kind of work he did. 

 And certainly you who know Dr. Hexamer know that he is as 

 celebrated in that line as any gentleman in the United States. 



Mr. Gould. Does he not make use of the Nishwitz har- 

 row ? 



Mr. Reade. I don't know. 



Mr. Gould. If so my objection does not apply to that. 



Mr. Reade. Any way, he pulverizes the soil as much as 

 possible. 



Mr. Gould. Precisely. 



Mr. Reade. Well, we use the harrow in Eastern Connec- 

 ticut to pulverize the soil, not to pack it. 



Mr. Gould. There I think you miss your mark, by using 

 the common harrow. It packs the soil underneath. 



Mr. Low. It makes it look light on the surface. 



Mr. Reade. I hardly think I shall give up harrowing yet. ' 

 I have been practising it a great many years. I plow my po- 

 tato ground well, and harrow it over and over again ; and it 

 seems to me that the finer and more mellow you get the top 

 of your soil, the better. Have your harrow teeth sharpened 

 every spring, so that they will go down four or five inches 

 into the soil, and make it as fine as a beet bed. 



Mr. Low. The experiment has been tried within half a 

 mile of this very valley, with corn and potatoes, and the man 

 did not get half a crop. 



Mr. Reade. The soil might have been heavy, not light. 

 I know of an experiment of this kind. A gentleman living 

 near me had a field on which there was a large quantity of 



