No. 112.] 851 



speaking of this crop, remarks, " it makes excellent pork, and at 

 a cheaper rate than it could be made with any other grain culti- 

 vated here." In that district tlie avt-rage crop of these grains is 

 about twenty-live bushels, which is a higher product than gener- 

 ally occurs in the county. The idea formerly prevalent, of the 

 necessity of sowing Euckwheatat an advanced period of the sea- 

 son, is repudiated in this county. The crop is found to succeed 

 equally well, when sowed simultaneously with the usual spring 

 crops. 



Potatoes. — This crop has for several years gradually advanced 

 in importance and in the extent of its cultivation, until in the 

 language of an intelligent correspondent* '' it has become, in 

 1852, the crop of the county." During a series of years the "dis- 

 ease" prevailed to a disastrous extent, impairing and in numerous 

 instances causing a total failure of the crop. This circumstance 

 produced an entire change in its tillage. Heavy, damp an.l highly 

 manured laud, which was formerly deemed indi>pensab!e to its 

 successful culture, has been abandoned in the cultivation of the 

 potato. It is now almost uniformly, planted upon light gravelly 

 and sandy soils. Green and unfermented manures are rejected. 

 Charcoal, ashes, lime and plaster are now the only fertilizers ap- 

 propriated to the crop. These substances are either applied in 

 the hill or to the growing crop. Experience seems to have con- 

 firmed the theory, that they are not only eminently efficacious as 

 manures, but equally so as preventives of the rot. The pota- 

 toes of this region have not recently been atfected by the disease, 

 and although the change in the husbandry may have decreased 

 the productiveness of the crop, it has immensely enhanced its 

 quality. For several years previous to 1852, the potato ciop of 

 Maine, from which the eastern markets are chiclly supplied, had 

 been generally allected. The exemption ff the crop in the 

 Chaniplaiu Valley from the disease, and its great excellence, 

 created an active and extended demand in the Boston market. 

 The railroads, then junI completed, opened an easy and available 

 medium of transportation. A similar demand soon existed in 

 New-York. Stimulated by these causes, the prices of potatoes 



• A. B. .MacIc. 



