110 BOARD OF AGIIICULTURE. 



Mr. Barnes. Our people use fertilizers for two reasons : The first 

 is the agents want to sell them, and in the second place we find that 

 our best money- making men buy them and use them, and are satisfied 

 with Iheni. I use them and would not do without them, but could 

 not show with figures and arguments why I do, or whether I get 

 enough to make up the cost or not. 



Question. Do }Ou apply in the drill, or broadcast? 



Mr. Barnes. My bo}' was bossing m}- farm this year, and I told 

 him to broadcast it, and he put it in the drill. 



Question. I would ask whether or not our friends in Aroostook 

 are not sending off the fertility of their soil with their potatoes? 

 Would not some other method of farming keep up their fertile soil 

 better than the production of potatoes? 



Mr. Barnes. I stated, sir, that it was the money we were after ; 

 I calculate if we are using fertilizers freely that we are not exhaust- 

 ing the soil. 



Question. Our fathers raised a great many potatoes and sent 

 them off to market, and we are suffering the results. Would not 

 some other crop have been better? 



Mr. Barnes. I presume that the man who raises the largest crop 

 of potatoes, raises the largest crops of ha}' and grain. Tiie potato 

 crop in Southern Aroostook is largely grown now as a rotation crop. 

 For b}' growing in rotation, the manuring in connection with the 

 potato crop affords the opportunity' of obtaining the best grain crops. 



RAISING EARLY POTATOES. 

 By A. I. Brown, Market Gardener, Belfast. 



There are at least four good reasons why it is desirable to produce 

 choice, well-grown potatoes early in the season. 



First, that the family may have a suppl}'. Second, that the re- 

 munerative prices of July may be obtained. Third, that the early 

 crop will escape the ravages of the Colorado beetle, at least partially. 

 Fourth, that chances of the crop being injured, and often cut off by 

 severe drought is lessened and sometimes obviated. 



To raise early potatoes successfully and with reasonable certainty 

 it is necessary to attend to details ; the first and most important of 

 which is the provision of suitable seed. I cannot state what is the 

 earliest of the many varieties of earl}' potatoes. To settle this 

 point would require years of extensive and careful experiments, 



