144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



own experience coincides with that of one gentleman who 

 has spoken. I have invariably found that when potatoes 

 have been hoed after the tubers had started, a new set makes 

 its appearance, and the result is a whole bill full of small, 

 worthless potatoes. 



Col. JMead, of Greenwich. I merely rise to express an idea 



that was fully concurred in, I believe, by the potato-raisers in 



my section, and that is, that the cultivation of the crop ought 



to be closed about the time the blossom buds make their 



appearance. 



Mr. Yeamans. Is it not a fact that these small potatoes wiU 

 set after each hoeing, if there are three ? 



Mr. Gould. I have found it so. 



Mr. Lyman. That is my experience exactly. Every year 

 we have a lot of these little potatoes that never come to ma- 

 turity. My practice has always been to close tlie cultivation 

 as soon as I see the blossoms come, because I think it injures 

 the crop to disturb them afterwards. 



Mr. Gould. Will you allow me to make an inquiry for my 

 own satisfaction ? I wish to inquire what is found to be the 

 most economical mode of digging potatoes in Connecticut ? 



Col. Mead, of Greenwich. I would say a word in relation 

 to my method of planting potatoes. In the first place, I usu- 

 ally plant them in drills and cover them with the plow, using 

 two horses so that one shall be on one side of the row and 

 the otb.cr on the other — covering them perhaps six inches 

 deep. About ten days after they are planted, I take a light 

 inch and a half plank, ten inches wide, the lower edges 

 champered off, with a couple of handles on it, and go over 

 the field. This takes off about two and a half inches from 

 the top of the ridges, cleans them off, and the potatoes come 

 up without any weeds whatever. As soon as the potato 

 makes its appearance I start the plow, which destroys the 

 weeds between the rows, and my potatoes are nearly clean. 

 By this method but little or no hilling is required. 



As to digging ; I run the plow each side, and it facilitates 

 digging fully one-third. A man can go over a large piece in 

 a day with a couple of horses, so as to carry the plow steady 

 — no dodging. 



