REPORT OF MR. W. 8. BLAIR 391 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



Specimens from all of the varieties ripened. The crop was not heavy and the 

 melons did not grow large, but were of excellent quality. The varieties Peerless, 

 Stoke's Early, Cole's Early, and Vick's Early were grown. Eor earliness they come in 

 the order named. The Peerless was the finest of the sorts tested. 



CUCUMBERS, SQUASH AND PUMPKINS. 



Thirty-two varieties of cucumbers. Twenty-four varieties of squash and five va- 

 rieties of pumpkins were grown on land of similar character to that on which the 

 water melons were grown. Owing to the dry weather the crop was LJaall, but the qua- 

 lity of the squash was above the average. 



The White Spine and Boston Pickling cucumbers were the best varieties for gen- 

 eral market and pickling purposes. The Bay State and Early Marblehead are two 

 squashes worthy of special mention. The quality of these was exceptionally fine, espe- 

 cially the Bay State. The Hubbard and Essex Hybrid were the two best winter sorts 

 tested. 



SPINACH. 



Several varieties of spinach were tested. The ground was prepared in a similar 

 manner to that on which the parsnips were grown. The seed was sown in rows 23 

 inches apart on May 16. The Victoria was the best of the sorts tested, and was fit to 

 use June 22. This plant makes excellent ' greens,' and is of the easiest culture. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH EARLY POTATOES. 



Eight varieties of early potatoes were planted to test their relative earliness when 

 fertilized in different ways. One-half of a plot of ground was manured in the spring 

 with 20 tons of stable manure per acre. The other half had no manure. The land 

 was ploughed and worked up, and run into rows 28 inches apart. Two rows of a va- 

 riety were planted through this strip thus making one-half of them manured and one- 

 half not manured. Every other row was fertilized at the rate of 500 pounds of potato 

 fertilizer per acre, which was scattered along the rows and covered with the potatoes. 

 The land was a heavy clay loam, and suffered greatly from the dry season, the crop 

 being very poor. 



The first digging was made August 19, to find out what varieties would give the 

 best results at that date. Strips 33 feet long were dug across each set of plots, and 

 the potatoes gathered from each row. The yield given in the following table is from 

 1 row 33 feet long : — 



