132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Question. How deep do you plant potatoes? 



Mr. Hersey. I plant on my high land at home quite deep. I 

 plant them down, I should say, five inches certainly, but I do not 

 cover them quite level the first time. 



Question. Do you cover by machinery or by hand? 



Mr. Hersey. A good deal of my work is done by hand because 

 my land is all experiments. I do not allow a man I hire to go on 

 m^' experimental land ; that has to be done by hand work. 



Question. How much commercial fertilizer would you appl}' in 

 the hills? 



Mr. Hersey. I put into mine as I make it so that it costs about 

 twent}' dollars an acre, equal to one-half a ton or thereabouts. 



Question. How do 3'ou apply it? 



Mr. Hersey. I put it in the hill reduced so that it don't hurt the 

 plant. 



Question. Should you take the fertilizer and strew it along and 

 let it mix, or mix it first with earth ? 



Mr. Hersey. If I used Bradlev's I should mix it first with either 



ft/ 



drj' earth or dry muck. I should rather have muck. When you mix 

 this material beforehand there is an operation which changes the 

 character of the material it is mixed with, and part of the substance 

 which is in the superphosphate enters into the earth so that it is 

 alike. If 3'ou put a little in the earth there is not power e/iough to 

 it to mingle with the soil as readily as it would if \o\i put it in 

 already mixed. 



Question. The main question to all of us who are living in a com- 

 paratively old section and a countr}' where the potash has been well 

 used up is, whether it is profitable for us to raise potatoes? I think 

 it is not and would suggest that Mr. Hersey tell us in what form we 

 could add to our land of the material which is lacking, potash, to 

 help us produce our potatoes. What form shall we put it? 



Mr. Hersey. There are a good man^' hard questions propounded 

 in this world and the questions which have now been propounded are 

 questions which I cannot answer, and the question as to whether the 

 people in this section of the country can afford to raise potatoes is 

 one for them to settle rather than me. I should not know the sur- 

 roundings. I could not tell them because I do not know the condi- 

 tion of their soil, but I could give suggestions in a general way. If 

 I had old land that had been run out in potash I suppose that if 1 

 wanted to raise potatoes I should first raise some other crops on it, 



