THE POTATO 471 



about his potato and hog business. Extracts from 

 the letter follow : 



"This has been the earliest season for potatoes 

 ever known in our neighborhood (Lincolnshire) 

 since we began to send early potatoes in quantity 

 to market. June 11th was the earliest day pre- 

 viously we have ever sent tons to market. This 

 year I sent away on June 6th and 7th three tons 

 twelve hundredweight of Early Puritans (this 

 is an American variety) and they realized exactly 

 £50 Enghsh money ($250) gross. 



"On June 12th I got away a few Eclipse and 

 realized a very good price, and on June 15th I be- 

 gan to dig Eclipse with a good gang of diggers and 

 pickers. And about these I must tell you a little 

 history which I hope will interest you. On July 

 26, 1910, I bought two fields of land here near the 

 woods and very poor indeed — well known as be- 

 ing the poorest land in the parish. Perhaps you 

 do not know the old English saying, ' If you want to 

 take land go near the church and far from the 

 wood.' These two fields have an area of exactly 

 fourteen acres. They cost £18 ($90) per acre; 

 this is, £252 ($1,260). ^ 



" Now perhaps you will excuse me from boasting, 

 but I had potatoes well started in boxes — Eclipse 

 was the kind — and planted on these fields in 

 March. This land is very light, and, as I said, 

 very poor, and I wanted to get it cleared up as 

 early as possible to sow for turnips, as getting a crop 

 of turnips eaten ofif poor land succeeds splendidly 

 here, makes us sure of a good grain crop (barley 

 or oats) the following year, or, we can take an- 

 other crop of potatoes. Well, I succeeded in get- 

 ting all the potatoes oflf of that field * green,' as 



