72 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



early potatoes were ripe before the rust touched them. I 

 have a number of varieties that did not rot at all. Many of 

 them were dug last October, and they were just as nice 

 potatoes as ever grew. I use a very little salt, and do not 

 experience any difficulty. I always have the fertilizer well 

 mixed with the soil before I drop the seed. I do not know 

 that the salt was any benefit, but it certainly did not do any 

 damage. 



Mr. George B. Andrews. With regard to the question, 

 " What is the best potato?" I would say that I think the 

 New Queen is certainly a week earlier than the Beauty of 

 Hebron, and is fully as good a potato. I have grown it 

 for two years on sod that was never ploughed before, with 

 chemical fertilizers, following the Rural New Yorker's 

 French system. We have had two bad potato seasons, 

 but I have not had a rotten potato on the farm. I have 

 used no barnyard manure. 



Mr. GoDDARD of Barre. Two years ago I had an experi- 

 ence that was a little new. It seemed to me it was difierent 

 from what I had ever heard of then, and I have not heard 

 of anything of the kind since. My potatoes rotted very 

 badly, and I was advised that the sooner I dug them the 

 better it would be. So I had them dug, and every potato 

 that was not sound was left in the field. Those that were 

 carried in were placed on the floor and allowed to remain 

 long enough to be thoroughly dried. By the way, the 

 ground was pretty wet when they were dug, and a good 

 deal of dirt adhered to them, and of course it was not 

 possible to tell aljsolutely whether they were sound or not ; 

 but, as I say, they were allowed to lie on the floor until they 

 were thoroughly dried. Then they were carefull}^ looked 

 over, and a good many were found to be decaying. I 

 intended to put into the cellar only such as were perfectly 

 sound. Before spring I was obliged to pick over those 

 potatoes three or four times, and every time found a good 

 many decayed potatoes. Now, what I was coming to 

 was this. Those potatoes were dug about the middle of 

 September. Near the last of October I discovered that in 

 one corner of the field there were perhaps twenty or twenty- 

 five hills that had been overlooked. I dug them up, and I 



