170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the best way of applying it. " Yes, an admirable way." In the 

 fall, I received a letter from the firm, requesting a statement of 

 the results of my experiment with their " ammoniated Pacific 

 guano " upon the turnip crop. I wrote them, in reply, that I 

 had had a most admirable crop, — that the turnips were large 

 and smooth, — a beautiful crop : but that I had never been able 

 to discover the slightest difference between the crop from the 

 land where the ammoniated guano was put, and that from where 

 it was not put. I looked in vain for my certificate in their book 

 of recommendations ! It didn't appear there and I felt 

 slighted ! 



Mr. Oliver. Did you ever buy any " true, unadulterated " 

 fertilizer or seed, that answered the description of the seller ? 



Mr. Ware. I have bought seed sometimes that was good and 

 sometimes that was not good. I avoid buying seed as much as 

 possible. I have spent a great deal of money in fertilizers. I 

 have got a good many barrels of flour of bone, Chicago bone, of 

 Gould's muriate of lime, (the biggest humbug of the whole,) in 

 my barn now. I bought them in good faith, I tried them in 

 good faith, and the balance remains there. I hope some day I 

 may find a use for it. 



A Member. I would like to inquire your method of growing 

 early potatoes ? 



Mr. Ware. We plant our early potatoes in drills. We have 

 got a hoeing machine, working with double revolving hoes, 

 which, with the rows just three and a half feet apart, will do 

 the work of hoeing better than it can be done by hand. First 

 going through the rows with another implement, a horse hoe or 

 cultivator, and then with this, it makes the labor of cultivating 

 the potatoes very small indeed. If I were to plant potatoes just 

 as I think the best way, I should furrow out the rows three and 

 a half feet apart, not very deeply — say four or five inches — drop 

 the potatoes about ten inches apart, (we cut the potatoes into 

 pieces, having certainly two eyes on each piece, and if there are 

 three it doesn't matter,) and then cover them with manure ; 

 after that the manure, potatoes and all may be covered with the 

 plough, saving a great deal of labor. After that, wait some ten 

 days, until the weeds have just started, little tender, dclicato 

 things, and then go lengthwise of your rows with a brush har- 

 row, which will level down the furrows slightly, and just wipe 



