186 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



between the rows ; compost manure scattered continuous the 

 whole length of the rows ; and the potatoes cut with about 

 three eyes in a piece, and planted fourteen inches apart. The 

 varieties were Jenny Linds, Davis Seedlings, Lyman Seedlings, 

 and St. Helenas. I designed to treat the varieties precisely 

 alike ; they were hoed twice, kept clean from weeds, and har- 

 vested the second week in October, yielding one hundred and 

 forty-eight bushels and one-fifth, at sixty pounds to the bushel. 

 The order of productiveness is as follows : — Lyman Seedlings, 

 about three hundred and ten bushels to the acre ; Jenny Linds, 

 at the rate of three hundred bushels ; St. Helenas, at the rate 

 of two hundred and ninety bushels ; Davis Seedlings, at the 

 rate of two hundred bushels. 



Net Profit, 

 IIolyoke, October 17, 1859. 



157 75 



Statement of H. M. Sessions. 

 Potatoes. — The field of potatoes which I offer for premium 

 contains one and one-fourth acres. The lot had been used for 

 a pasture for about thirty years ; a part of it was underdrained 

 in the spring, but most of it consists of a dry, mellow loam. 

 The stones were cleared off and laid into a wall. Twenty 

 loads of manure, consisting of the scrapings of yards, old 

 plastering, leached ashes, chip dirt, &c, were ploughed in the 

 first week in June. Planted the same week in rows three feet 

 apart ; hills eighteen inches apart ; potatoes cut in small 

 pieces ; ashes and plaster applied in the hill ; hoed twice. 

 Harvested two hundred and twenty-four bushels in all. The 

 Early Carters and Peach Blows rotted a very little ; Jenny 

 Linds none at all. 



