221 



Ten bushels of seed, 3 33 ; covering and planting, 4 00, 7 33 

 Hoeing twice, including ploughing, 5 00 ; digging, 



five days, 5 00, . . . . . . . 10 00 



39 83 

 Returns — Produce, 150 bushels, at 25 cents, . . 37 60 



Loss, |2 33 



Of the best method of cultivating potatoes, whether in hills 

 or in drills, the question is not yet determined. I believe that 

 more may be produced to an acre, and that upon the whole 

 they are more easily cultivated, in drills than in hills ; yet some 

 excellent cultivators advise to plant them in hills, to plough 

 both ways, not to raise the earth round them, but to leave the 

 hill formed by the passage of the plough both ways in a flat or 

 rather concave state, so that whatever water falls upon the sur- 

 face may be directed to the centre of the hill, and consequently 

 to the roots of the plant. 



8. Mangel Wurtzel, &c. — Of other vegetables raised in 

 the county it cannot be necessary to go into a particular ac- 

 count. The usual varieties are produced in all parts of the 

 county ; and the market in Boston is supplied with some of its 

 earliest and best vegetables from the gardens in Middlesex. It 

 would be interesting and useful to point out the particular 

 modes of cultivating and forwarding these different varieties, 

 but this would occupy more time and space than I now feel at 

 liberty to devote to it. The details in these cases would excite 

 surprize ; and it might stagger the credulity of some persons to 

 tell them that horse-radish, to the amount of sixty dollars, has 

 been annually sold from two rods of ground ; and that the cul- 

 tivation of the common dandelion is a source of considerable 

 profit. Many statements of this kind which have been made 

 demonstrate how much may be accomplished by mmute, con- 

 centrated, and well-directed labor. 



A crop of mangel wurtzel obtained in Charlestown deserves 

 particular observation. The soil on which this crop was grown 



