. §28 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
mode of enriching land is so feasible, so cheap, and attended with so 
satisfactory results, as that of plowing under green crops. If the soil 
is so poor that clover alone will not take root, seed it down with millet and 
clover very early in the spring, harrowing in with the millet thirty 
bushels of wood ashes, or two hundred pounds of guano; then sow the 
clover seed, say one peck to the acre, and harrow it in. 
Astonishing results are obtained from plaster, by dusting the vines with 
it as soon as they are fairly through the soil; again immediately after the 
last plowing and hoeing; and at intervals through the whole growing 
season. The first application may be light, the second heavier, and after 
that more bountiful, say two hundred pounds te the acre. The action of 
plaster is not easily explained, but the results are undoubtedly beneficial, 
particularly in seasons of extreme drought. It renders plants less pala- 
table to insects, and appears to be fatal tomany of the fungifamily. The 
vines retain a bright, lively green color, and the tubers continue swelling 
until growth is stopped by the frost; besides, potatoes thus grown are so 
sound and free from disease as to be easily kept for spring market, 
withoutloss by rot. Mr. Compton has seen a field, all of the same soil, all 
prepared alike, and all planted with the same variety, at the same time, 
on one-half of which, that had received no plaster, the yield was but sixty 
bushels per acre, and many rotten; while the other half, to which plaster 
had been applied inthe manner above described, yielded three hundred 
and sixty bushels per acre, and not an unsound one among them. 
Potatoes should not be planted year after year on the same spot; trouble 
with weeds, and rapid deterioration of quality and quantity of tubers, soon 
render the crop unprofitable; and loamy soil thus planted continuously 
soon becomes compact, heavy, and lifeless. Most growers argue that 
potatoes should be planted whole, as a greater supply of starch is thus 
available, until the plant can draw support from the soil and atmosphere. 
Mr. Compton thinks, however, that the poor results attending eut tibers 
are traceable to improper ones improperly cut. Large, mature, sound 
tubers only should be used, cut in pieces of two or three eyes each, with 
as much flesh as possible around and under each eye to the center of 
the tuber. The seed should be often changed. The best and most exten- 
sive growers procure new seed every two or three years; some every year. 
When the tops are two inches high, run a corn plow five inches deep, 
close to the hills, turning the furrows from the hills; plow both ways. 
Standing on the squares of earth, warmed on all sides by the air and 
sun-light, the potatoes grow rapidly. As soon as the tops are six or 
seven inches high, plow seven inches deep, midway between the rows, 
turning the furrows to the hills. Hoeing is generally unnecessary; but 
when needed, draw mellow earth to the plants with the hoe, keeping the 
top of the hills somewhat hollow to catch the rain. ' Then, as far as stir- 
ring the soil is concerned, let ¢é alone, as after a certain stage new tubers 
are formed each time the soil is disturbed; and if the last plowing be 
deferred until the vines are large, a great quantity of small potatoes is 
sure to be the consequence. 
Mr. Compton closes his essay with remarks on the value of the po- 
tato as food tor cattle; and an elaborate chapter, with illustrations, on 
the ten distinct species of insects that prey npon the potato plant. 
ONION-RAISING : What kinds to raise, and the way to raise them. By J. J. H. Gregory, 
seed-grower, Marblehead, Massachusetts; 12 mo., pp. 35. Salem, Massachusetts; 
Geo. W. Pease & Co., 1869. 
This is a small work, but of a decidedly practical character, in which 
the author gives his long experience in onion culture, in a neighborhood 
