1878.] TRANSACTIONS. 13 



of cold ; he keeps his crop in the barn through the winter, and frequently 

 keeps it until April ; his soil is a heavy clay, and retentive, but is under- 

 drained ; it is bad to stir in the spring, and therefore he does all he can 

 to the soil in the fall ; he thought ."00 bushels to the acre an average 

 crop ; he put fifty to sixty two-horse loads or from eighteen to twenty 

 cords of manure to the acre ; he uses a general variety of barn manure, 

 tannery refuse, lime and salt, in a compost ; horse manure he would 

 compost a year before using ; the lime and salt is intended to fix the 

 maggots ; he has used them successfully for ten years, but he would not 

 like to say they were au unfailing remedy ; he applied them by mixing in 

 the manure and also by sowing over the field ; he did not think freezing 

 onions would bei-efit them, but they may be once frozen without much 

 harm ; repeated freezing and thawing is bad ; the point is to keep them 

 at an even temperature ; if they freeze they should be kept covered to 

 protect them from thawing. Many of the points were brought out by 

 questions from various gentlemen present. 



Mr. Joseph S. Perry thought the potato crop the most imi)ortant, and 

 how to get a crop is worthy of study ; experience is most valuable, and 

 generally the best observer will succeed best ; his own plan is to plough 

 early in the fall; the next spring he would manure liberally, eight to 

 twelve cords to the acre, and i)lougli lightly ; he could not cover potatoes 

 with a horse-hoe with success ; they do not cover evenly ; two or three 

 inches is the proper depth ; he would run a cultivator through the field 

 in six or eight days after planting, to keep down the weeds, and this 

 should be repeated every week ; he hoes three times, but by using the 

 cultivator hoeing is light work. Last year he raised 1000 bushels of 

 Early Rose, and eight hundred of Davis Seedlings ; the latter he thought 

 the best crop ; Yankees prefer Early Rose, but foreigners choose the 

 others. In regard to the bugs, he found it cheapest to pick the bugs, 

 especially as he could get boy pickers cheap ; he did not think Paris 

 green injurious to the crop, but there is a prejudice against it, and a crop 

 will sell more readily without it ; he would "hill up" the crop lightly ; 

 he would plant in rows, one way, and one piece of potato to ever}'^ 

 eighteen inches ; could not afford to manure in the hill. 



Dea. Edward Kendall spoke of painting window blinds with Paris 

 green ; its poison is arsenic ; he had ground it and applied it, but he had 

 experienced no evil effects ; he would not hesitate to eat vegetables 

 where it had been used; it might work differently with different people, 

 the same as other paints ; he would work in Paris green rather than in 



white lead. * 



Mr. Hadwen, in a pleasant speech introduced Mr. J(d»n B. Moore of 

 Concord, the originator of Moore's Early Corn and Moore's Grape. 



Mr. Moore expressed his pleasure at the freedom of the discussion, 

 and compared it to the reticence of the market gardeners in the State 

 3 



