64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF 



POTATOES. 



The following is the statement made by Jesse L. Delano 

 of Sunderland concerning the acre of potatoes he entered 

 for the special premium offered by the Franklin-county 

 Agricultural Society for the best conducted experiment in 

 potato-culture. This was the acre that received the pre- 

 mium ; and the statement is worthy the attention of every 

 farmer. 



Having been engaged in the raising of potatoes in a small 

 way for several years, and observing various phenomena in 

 their growth, I became somewhat anxious to learn the best 

 manner of performing the various operations of preparing 

 the seed and cultivating the plants. On the latter point, I 

 found that the general custom of farmers and reports coin- 

 cided with my experience and practice, and that early plant- 

 ing, clean culture, moderate hilling, and keeping off the 

 potato-bugs, was universally deemed to be important and 

 essential. But on preparing the seed — which to me seemed 

 to be a most important subject — hardly any two farmers 

 agreed. Some said that whole potatoes should be used ; 

 some, that they should be cut in two pieces ; some advocated 

 one eye ; some, two eyes ; and some insisted that too much 

 seed was being used, and that one eye to a hill was entirely 

 sufficient. 



Again, I found that some farmers considered the seed-end 

 only as fit for planting, and I also found one farmer of our 

 county who cuts off the seed-end and feeds it to his cows, 

 reserving only the stem-end for i)lantiug. Amid all this 

 disparity of opinion, I could hardly find any one who could 

 substantiate his belief by any personal trials of his own ; but 

 he said he had " heard it said " so and so. 



On only one single point was there any general agreement 

 among potato-raisers as to seed ; viz., that the tuber selected 

 should be of medium size, — not small, nor very large. 

 Finding that there was no established theory in regard to 



