200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ered about tlirce inches deep ; they should be hoed as soon as they 

 are large enough, and never after they begin to blossom , as late 

 hoeing causes new sets of potatoes on the vines, -which prevent the 

 first from growing to a large size, and consequently we have a large 

 number of small, and but few large potatoes at the time of harvest- 

 ing. When harvested, they should be kept in a daik cellar, and as 

 much from the light as possible ; if kept in the light, the flavor 

 becomes impaired; much more so than when buried in tlie earth, or 

 kept in a dry, dark cellar. 



The rotj for the last fifteen years, has destroyed nearly one half 

 of the crop in this vicinity, and attempts have been made, here and 

 elsewhere, to discover the cause, and to find a remedy. The disease 

 has been investigated in almost qvqvj form and shape, but the labor 

 has been lost ; for we know no more about it to day, than we did ten 

 years ago. With all the theories respecting potato rot, we are yet 

 as much in the dark as ever. Potatoes deep in the ground do not 

 rot as much as those near the surface ; of different varieties planted 

 side by side, some will rot and others will not ; some kinds rot one 

 year and others the year after — no two fields of the same kind of 

 potatoes produce the same results. 



Corn and its Cultivation. 



By Hiram Russ, Farmington. 



As upon this subject there are various opinions — different soils re- 

 requiring different treatment — and as there are others who differ from 

 me on the subject, I will confine my remarks to the culture of corn on 

 the intervales bordering on the Sandy River. Until a few years since, 

 our farmers plowed their green manure in very deep ; of late we 

 find this mode of cultivation wrong ; by keeping the dressing near 

 the surface, wc find our crops to be much better, and our ground 

 holds out for grass equally as long. Our manner of cultivation now 

 is to plow six to seven inches deep, sow to oats the first year, plow 

 in the fall again, in order to kill the witch or twitch grass, so called ; 

 haul on the green dressing in the spring ; spread it broadcast — some 

 work it in shoal with a light plow, most of the farmers use the cul- 

 tivator or horse-hoe — then furrow out the rows three feet apart ; 



