d 7 



PRIZE ESSAY 



POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



$100. 



IN the fall of 1868, I offered $100 as a prize for the best Essay on the 

 Cultivation of the Potato, under conditions then published ; the prize to be 

 awarded by a committee composed of the following gentlemen, well known 

 in agricultural circles : 



Colonel MASON C. WELD, Associate Editor of American Agriculturist. 

 A. S. FULLER, Esq., of Ridgewood, N. J., the popular author of several horti- 

 cultural works, and Associate Editor of the Hearth and Home. 

 Dr. F. M. HEXAMER, who has made the cultivation of the potato a special 

 study. 



In the month of January, 1870, the committee awarded the prize to D. 

 A. Compton ; and this Essay is herewith submitted to the public in the hope 

 of stimulating a more intelligent and successful cultivation of the Potato. 

 BELLEFONTE, PA., January, 1870. W. T. WYLIE. 



POTATO CULTURE. 



BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA. 



THE design of this little treatise is culture in its various branches, to the 



to present, with minuteness of detail, exclusion of other pursuits, 



that mode of culture which experience The statements which appear in 



and observation have proved to be the following pages are based upon 



best adapted to the production of the actual personal experience, and are 



Potato crop. the. results of many experiments made 



It is written by one who himself to test as many theories, 



holds the plow, and who has, since his Throughout the Northern States of 



early youth, been engaged in agri- our country the potato is the third of 



OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, > 

 NEW-YORK, January, 1870. S 



REV. W. T. WYLIE : DEAR SIR : The essays submitted to us by Mr. Bliss, according 

 to your announcement, numbered about twenty. Several could not be called essays from 

 their brevity, and others were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required 

 and were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of Hawley, 

 Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee, decidedly superior to the others 

 as a practical treatise, sure to be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and 

 well worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself. 



In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours, MASON C. WELD, Chairman. 



