POTATOES. 135 



yield, in ray life than those Peerless. I think that they would 

 yield one-third more than the Climax, if not twice as many. 

 I think that he said they were a good quality of potato. 



Mr. Lyman. Just one word. I think the difficulty in re- 

 gard to potatoes manured with ashes not coming up, is owing 

 to the fact that a heavy rain comes immediately after plant- 

 ing, while the ashes are near the top of the ground, and there 

 is such a strong lye made that it destroys the growing tuber. 

 On wet ground I should certainly never put ashes in the hill, 

 but on dry ground I would put them there, for I think they 

 attract moisture and tend to keep the ground more moist, 

 and the plant will be more likely to grow. 



Question. Has it been decided whether it is better to hill 

 potatoes or not ? 



The President. I will say that it is pretty generally con- 

 ceded that a shallow covering is the most desirable. Last 

 spring I was desirous of reclaiming a piece of land that I had 

 which was quite bushy. The bushes that predominated were 

 thorns, to which I was compelled to hitch my cattle to ex- 

 tract them from the soil. This was quite early in April. In 

 reclaiming this land 1 thought I would try the experiment of 

 planting in a furrow, dropping in my manure and potatoes, 

 and then passing a plow along and covering the potatoes by 

 the plow. Being on a steep side-hill, I had the advantage of 

 a swivel plow. I think I covered those potatoes not less than 

 seven inches, and some of them probably nine. As you 

 would naturally suppose, they were a long time in coming up, 

 but the result was, the best potatoes that I gathered last fall 

 were the potatoes that were covered to this depth. I planted 

 three furrows of Silver Lake (the Mercer proper), the E;irly 

 Rose, and a seedling of my own, of which Mr. Gold has spoken. 

 The yield of Early ^Rpse was very light ; my seedling gave an 

 excellent crop, and I tliink that the Mercers were somewhere 

 about three-fourths that of my own seedling. I think the 

 yield of the best of them was not less than three hundred 

 and fifty bushels to the acre. Now. my principal object in 

 stating this, is, to know whether or not the turning of this 

 furrow over upon them to that depth, was best, and the cause 



