184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



That drouth came, the tops died, and consequently I had a 

 very slim yield of potatoes. 



I have heard some gentlemen speak ahout putting ashes in 

 the hill. My experience has been, in the cultivation of pota- 

 toes, that ashes on top of the hill do much better than in the 

 hill. When tliey are put in the hill the potatoes are often 

 rough and present an uneven surface, whereas, when put on 

 top of the hill, they are much smoother, and my impression 

 is that ashes or even plaster is as beneficial on top of the hill, 

 and perhaps more so, than in the hill. In a number of very 

 scientific experiments made by the Massachusetts State Soci- 

 ety, the result was almost invariably in favor of the applica- 

 tion on top of the hill, of ashes, plaster of Paris, and other 

 fertilizers that are not volatile. Some ten or twelve vears 

 ago, Mr. Dyer, the former secretary of our State Society, sug- 

 gested to me the propriety of using a mixture of ashes, salt, 

 and plaster, at the rate of ten bushels of ashes, a bushel of 

 plaster and a bushel of salt, mixing them together some 

 few days before I wanted to use them. By the by, I might 

 say, that when I make that application I do it immediately 

 after planting, before the tender shoots come up. I had had 

 very poor luck in raising good-sized Dover potatoes, and I 

 took about one-quarter of my ground that season and made 

 this application of ashes, salt, and plaster, as suggested by 

 Mr. Dyer, and 1 never saw finer or more sizable Dover pota- 

 toes than I got from that field. That, I believe, was a wet 

 season. I tried the same experiment afterwards, without any 

 visible result. 



Considerable has been said in praise of the Peerless potato. 



I thought a great deal of the Climax from its great produc- 

 tiveness the first season I planted it. That was two years 

 ago when the potato crop was very good with us. I gave 

 some of them to a friend of mine in the town of Pomfret, 

 who planted them by the side of the Peerless. I called upon 

 him sometime, I think, in the month of September, and he 

 asked me to look at his potatoes. He dug a hill of the Peer- 

 less and a hill of the Climax, and I must confess that I never 

 saw more beautiful looking potatoes, or a more abundant 







