secretaky's budget. 341 



at the left, and so on to the right, where the hitest varieties were placed. 

 Of every variety, three hills were planted with one fair whole potato, 

 about the size of a hen's egg; three others had in each hi)l one good- 

 sized piece of a good-sized potato, the piece having three or four eyes 

 on it; and the three remaining hills were planted each with one eye 

 upon a rather small piece cut Irom a good sized potato. It is needless 

 to add that throughout the growin,"^ season the hills of the whole lot 

 were treated exactly alike ; no operation was performed which would 

 affect the produce of one hill that was not applied to all the hills, the 

 same day. The nsual culture of field potatoes was followed, but very 

 little hilling was done. 



The season was extremely unfavorable for the crop. During the 

 months of June and July the rainfall was less than tour inches, instead 

 of from ten to twelve inches for the same months in several previous 

 years. At the time, therefore, when the young plants most needed 

 water to make their growth, they got none, but were, instead, subjected 

 to most intense dry heat. It soon became apparent that this would 

 tell disastrously upon the productiveness of the crop, but as all vari- 

 eties and the different ways of seeding fared alike, it was felt that the 

 experiment might be profitably completed. The early varieties nat- 

 urally suffered most, and this was apparent to every one who saw the 

 exhibit. Abundant rains in August were of great benefit to the late 

 varieties, and these were mostly in vigorous growth when it became 

 necessary to dig them for the fairs. All were dug between the first 

 and the twelfth of September. At this time one of the early kinds 

 (the Bermuda Pink Blossom, an imported potato), was still green and 

 growing, and of the 88 late kinds, 50 were ripe, while 38 were more 

 or less immature. 



The harvesting was carefully supervised by Mr. Emery, one hill at 

 a time, and everything half an inch in diameter was saved. The total 

 product of every hill, when dry and clean, (but not washed), was 

 weighed, all the tubers counted, the number merchantable counted, 

 and then the whole put away in a stout paper bag plainly marked, all 

 the facts being carefully recorded. 



Exhibits of the products from these plantings were made during 

 the autumn at the New York State fair, Albany, the Orange county 

 fair, Newburgh, N. Y., the Deerfield Valley fair, Charlemont, Massa- 

 chusetts, the Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties fair, North- 

 ampton, Massachusetts, and at the Virginia State fair, Richmond. 

 The method of display at all these places was substantially the same. 

 On the exhibit table the potatoes were arranged in three rows accord- 

 ing to the different methods of cutting and planting the seed. One 



