206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



shall the laud be ploughed? 12. Shall the niauure applied be 

 ploughed iu, or spread on after ploughiug. and harrowed in, 

 or left on the surface? 13. Is it better to put the manure in 

 the hill or drill than to spread it on the land? if so, is it 

 better to put the seed under or over the manure? 14. Is 

 early or late planting most likely to secure the largest crops? 

 15. Is it best to use coarse green manure, or fine and well- 

 fermented manure, or guano, or chemical fertilizer, or a part 

 of two or more of these, or no fertilizer at all ? 16. Is 

 newly broken or old land best for potatoes ? 



After the cultivator has settled these points to his satis- 

 faction, it may be well for him to consider how he will cul- 

 tivate liis crop : 1. Whether he will cultivate entirely with 

 horse implements, or with hand-hoes and potato-diggers, or 

 what proportion of each. 2. Is level culture, or hilling-up, 

 the better way ? 3. Is it better to protect the crop from the 

 Colorado potato-bug by hand-picking, by brushing them 

 into a pan, by using Paris-green mixcnl diy with plaster or 

 in water, and in what proportion ? or is the less expensive 

 London-purple equally effective ? 4. Is the potato-rot caused 

 by an insect, or fungus, or climatic influences? and how is 

 the crop best protected from its effects ? 



These are some of the many questions regarding the cul- 

 tivation of the potato, that, notwithstanding experiments 

 covering these points that have been tried during the past 

 half-century with more or less exactness, and in a wa}^ that 

 satisfied the minds of the individual experimenters, are as 

 yet unsettled among the best cultivators. On either one of 

 these points there may be found advocates for the adoption 

 of each way as the better method, as demonstrated by actual 

 experiments of their own. 



The following arc a few samples of these experiments that 

 have been tried: Mr. Caleb Childs of Marblehead — once 

 with the Jackson White, and once with the Early Rose — 

 tried planting seed from a distance, under the same condi- 

 tions, and side by side witli seed of his own raising. In both 

 cases the new seed yielded double the crop of the home- 

 raised seed. Another farmer in Worcester County has raised 

 the Early Rose potatoes, without changing seed, since they 

 were first introduced, and he thinks they have continued to 

 improve in quality and production up to this time. He has 



