1884.] QUESTIONS. Ill 



Mr. Chamberlain. No, sir. I have simply instanced that 

 as one case. I have seen instances of higher production 

 reported since that time. I have seen as high as 700 bushels 

 reported. There is one point which I would like to bring 

 before you in regard to this trial, and it bears directly upon 

 this question of labor. In conversation with this gentleman, 

 who lives in a town adjoining the city of Worcester, I asked 

 him his method of cultivation, and in describing it he said : 

 "Those potatoes were hoed only once;" and he gave me a 

 little advice upon that point. He says : " It is not only a 

 saving of labor to hoe but once, but it is by all means the 

 best method to secure a large crop of marketable potatoes." 

 He says the ground needs constant stirring and cultivation 

 with horse-power ; that you need not expend any more hand- 

 labor than is required to simply hoe the potatoes once. He 

 says, if you hoe more than once, you are causing every plant 

 to form a new set of roots every time you hoe it, and the 

 result is, you get a large quantity of small potatoes at harvest- 

 time. 



Mr. Jennings. "What was the method of cultivation of the 

 corn that yielded 117 bushels per acre ? 



Mr. Chamberlain. I am very sorry that I cannot state the 

 method of cultivation in detail. I have it at home and 

 intended to bring it with me, thinking it might be of service 

 here. I will state it as near as I can. The variety of corn 

 was the White Vermont, as it is known with us in Meriden. 

 It is a kind of corn that has been recently re-introduced here, 

 having been originally produced in Connecticut. The method 

 of cultivation was about this : The autumn previous, the land, 

 which was turf, was turned over and sown with buckwheat. 

 In the spring, there was put upon this acre of ground twenty 

 horse-loads of stable-manure. The ground was then cross- 

 plowed, and ten loads of composted night-soil spread upon the 

 surface, which was all the manure that was used upon the acre. 

 I would say here that the same treatment was given three 

 acres in the field. At the time of the award, the committee 

 were asked by the grower to measure oif from one end of the 



