REPORTS ON CROPS. 269 



We have thus gone over briefly some of the principal 

 points in the history, physiology, and cultivation of the po- 

 tato. The suhject deserves a more extended elucidation, but 

 we have feared taxing your patience too much. If anything 

 we have said commends itself to your good judgment, and 

 will advance the cause of potato culture in New England, our 

 labor has not been in vain. 



S. N. Beers, (Sandy Hook P. 0.), Newtown. 



This town being more generally devoted to raising and fat- 

 tening stock, and the production of milk, the growing of 

 farm crops is but a minor resource of profit. 



Wheat and barley are seldom raised, though but for the 

 want of the harvester and thresher I think with a liberal al- 

 lowance of manure they would succeed as well here as in many 

 western localities. This has been my experience with wheat. 

 Rye is grown to a very limited extent on our thinner soil. 

 Strong soils produce a poor quality. Nearly the same may 

 be said of buckwheat. 



Onions, tobacco, laroom corn, beans and roots are only 

 occasionally grown, more as a matter of experiment than as a 

 crop to be relied upon. Tobacco has occasionally paid the 

 producer well, but its consumption is much to be deprecated. 

 The root question is one which should demand the attention 

 of tlie best stock farmers. They give stock kept on dry feed, 

 a sleek and thrifty appearance, causing a good appetite and 

 a degree of health scarcely attained otherwise, but with the 

 large expense and inconvenience of storage and the high cost 

 of labor to grow them; will it pay to produce largely ? An- 

 other question is, shall we raise or buy our corn ? Much less 

 is raised here than 15 years ago, most of the milk producers 

 now buying their entire supply. A cornfield where the culti- 

 vation is done largely with tl»e horse hoe is generally if well 

 manured and tilled a profitable crop, producing usually about 

 50 bushels per acre. About $20 per acre judiciously ex- 

 pended gets this crop ready for harvesting and the fodder 

 from the stalks if properly saved pays this last expense. But 

 with the present high price of labor I am inclined to think 



