SECTION II. 



SOILS. 



During the past few years, since wheat has become 

 an unprofitable crop to grow, the extent of land avail- 

 able for potato culture has been so largely increased that, 

 unless the- cooking properties of the tubers are very 

 good, potatoes are as unprofitable as the crop they have 

 supplanted. The potato markets are almost always 

 glutted with inferior ware, which barely pays the 

 farmer for the expense he has incurred in its produc- 

 tion. Except in seasons when, through severe attacks 

 of disease, drought, frost, or other exceptional reasons, 

 the yield throughout this country, as well as on the 

 Continent, is greatly reduced, long and paying prices 

 for inferior ware are not obtained. The uncertainty of 

 the crop affords a chance for it to occasionally prove 

 more remunerative than a grain crop, as if the attacks 

 which have proved disastrous to others have not affected 

 a special farm or district, those unaffected naturally 

 benefit by the increased prices which a curtailment of 

 the supply induces. In fact, the speculative features of 

 the crop are a great inducement to those who are suffer- 

 ing from prolonged unremunerative prices for other 

 produce to engage in its growth in the hope that 

 fortune will specially favour them. Satisfactory prices 



