1884.] QUESTIONS. 113 



inches high, he hoed them, which enabled him to make quite 

 a hill about the potato ; then they were left. There were 

 very few weeds to trouble him after the hoeing, and what few 

 there were" he said were easily eradicated by hand. 



Mr. Wetherell. What would be the difference whether 

 the soil was stirred with a hoe or a cultivator ? You say he 

 hoed but once, to prevent small potatoes, and yet kept on stir- 

 ring the soil with the cultivator. What would be the dif- 

 ference ? 



Mr. Chambeelain. In level culture, it would be about the 

 same. These potatoes were grown upon the system of hill 

 culture. 



Mr. Wheeler. I would like to ask Mr. Chamberlain if 

 hoeing once even was essential to the production of a good 

 crop, or if hilling up the ground around the plant at all was 

 necessary to produce a good yield of potatoes ? 



Mr. Chamberlain. I would not insist upon it. I am not 

 experienced in the plan of level culture of potatoes. I have 

 not any fault to find with it, or any criticism to make upon it. 

 I think very much depends upon the character of the soil 

 which you cultivate. I do not think, as a rule, that it will 

 answer for me to -adopt a practice simply because another 

 man has adopted it, but I must judge for myself what my soil 

 is and what it requires in fertilizing and in cultivation ; and 

 it seems to me that my soil is better adapted to hill culture ; 

 whereas, in some other soils, I have no doubt that level cul- 

 ture is the best. 



Mr. Sedgwick. In this connection I would like to say that 

 I saw this fall, in Monmouth county, N. J., a field of forty 

 acres of potatoes that never had a hoe put into it. A new 

 variety of potato was planted, and a square rod in the center 

 of the acre was measured off and the potatoes dug, and the 

 yield of that rod was at the rate of 720 bushels per acre. The 

 potatoes took the first premium at the New Jersey State 

 Agricultural Society's exhibition. 



