74. 



There are also brief descriptive notes on each variety, a record of their 

 keeping qualities taken February 14, and notes on the development of 

 the x^lauts during the season of growth. " While in each class of plant- 

 ings the yield is variable, often to a cousiderable extent, an average of 

 all the hills in each class of seed planted of seventy-four varieties, shows 

 a continual decrease in yield and number of tubers per hill, from the 

 whole potato down to the single eye. In brief, the experiments at this 

 station on the relation of size of seed tubers to crop yield, demonstrate 

 that the larger the piece of seed potato planted, the greater will be the yield. 

 This, it may be said, is also, the result, very generally arrived at at other 

 stations that have done similar work." 



Early vs. late culture for sweet-potatoes. — Six plats of light clay loam, 

 each one twentieth of an acre in size, were planted to sweet-potatoes at 

 weekly intervals from April 27 to June 1. The variety used was South- 

 ern Queen. The yields from each planting are given in a table. 



"(1) The largest yield was produced from the planting of May 4. 



"(2) Mauy more unmerchantable potatoes were produced from the 

 first three than from the last three plantings. 



"(3) The average yield for the first three plats, or early planted, is 

 489 pounds ; of the late planted, or last thne plats, 510 pounds, or a 

 difference of 21 pounds in favor of later planting. 



" (4) The average yield of the plantings from April 27 to May 11 was 

 smaller than of those planted from May 18 to June 1, and each plat con- 

 tained, on an average, 37 pounds more of unmerchantable tubers than 

 did the several late plantings." 



Vermont Station, Bulletin No. 18, January, 1890 (pp. 20). 



Pig feeding, W. W. Cooke, M. A. — The raising of pigs for the 

 profitable utilization of skim-milk is an important auxiliary of dairying, 

 which is the leadiug brauch of farming in Vermont. Investigation 

 having indicated that the methods of feeding employed by even the 

 best farmers involved a great waste of food materials, the station under 

 took the experiments reported in this bulletin, with special reference to 

 economy in feeding. Differences in breeds of pigs were also taken into 

 account. The experiment was conducted with two pigs each of the 

 three breeds, Berkshire, Chester White, and Yorkshire, between May 

 14 and November 11, 1889. The pigs were about five weeks old at the 

 beginning of the trial. The time of the exi>erimeut was divided into 

 four periods. The feeding stuffs used were skim-milk, corn meal, and 

 wheat bran, which were fed iu rations varied for each period and chang 

 ing from a very narrow to a wider nutritive ratio. The daily ration for 

 each period was as follows : 



I. Skim-iuilk 2J to 6 quarts, with a nutritive ratio of 1 : 2. 

 II. Skim-milk 6 quarts, corn meal 4 to 10 ounces, ami wheat brau 4 to 22 ounces, 

 with a nutritive value of about 1 : 2.9. 



