852 [Assembly 



rapidly advanced, until in the spring of 1852, tliey commanded 

 sixty two and a half cents per bushel at the wharves and stations 

 upon Lake Champlain.* 



By a most fortunate coincidence, this new and unexpected re- 

 source to the agricultural community, occurred at a period when 

 the declension of the iron interest had thrown a dark pall 

 over the industrial affairs of Essex county. The large amount of 

 funds diffused by these means into gceneral circulation, afforded 

 an immediate and essential relief to its pecuniary concerns. Ex- 

 cited by these circumstances, many hundreds of acres, beyond 

 the ordinary crop, were planted to potatoes the present season. 

 The foreign demand has ceased, and the article in the spring of 

 1853, finds no demand except that formed by the usual home con- 

 sumption, and at the starch factories. The market price afforded 

 by thes J mills, does not exceed twenty cents the bushel. It is 

 assumed, however, that this demand, even at such depreciation, 

 will render the potato culture an important and lucrative branch 

 of husbandry, when its proximity will enable the farmer to 

 transport his crop from the field directly to the factory. Various 

 .•modes of tillage have been adopted in the cultivation of this crop, 

 and different practices observed in the use of large and small 

 seed potatoes, the planting whole or in parts, and in the drill or 

 hills. An elaborate and very careful experiment made by a gen- 

 tleman of Westportj with the Carter variety, in which he planted 

 the smallest seed, and which resulted in a bountiful crop of large 

 and excellent potatoes, seems almost demonstrative of the expe- 

 diency of that system with this peculiar variety. f The experi- 

 ment has been useful in another respect. This very choice and de- 

 sirable potato, so often difficult in cultivation, produced equally, 

 or nearly so, with the coarser kinds, while in the proceeds of 

 several boat loads it was found to command in New-York, prices 

 exceeding by one-third those of the common varieties. These 



• In the year ending in the spring of 1852, Mr. Allen states, 10,000 bushels of potatoes 

 were shipped at Port Kent : and 10,060 bushels at Port Douglass (J. Walpole) . Vast quanti- 

 ties were exported from various other ports in the county, but I have not been able to procure 

 che statistics. 



t Mr. F. H. Jackson made a series of highly interesting and important experiments in tha 

 culture of this vegetable, on an extended scale, and -with intelligent observation^ I much r&« 

 gret that I have been unable to obtain a detail of the processes and results. 



