12(i WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1891. 



and then test them. I wonder how many of my hearers could 

 guess within hundreds of bushels how many potatoes are wasted 

 and consumed in our city every da3^ The swill gatherers could 

 judge best of the waste. Twelve bushels to a thousand inhabit- 

 ants, would be a fair estimate, and that would give the moderate 

 sum of 960 bushels at an average cost now of $1.20 a bushel, 

 making nearly $1200 a day for potatoes. 



Now, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, in my opinion 

 there are but two other things used in large quantities in this 

 city, that are worthless to those who use them ; and those are 

 tobacco and rum. 



No good farmer values potatoes at more than 20 or 25 cents 

 per bushel to feed stock ; but it is a fashionable habit we have of 

 using potatoes, so they must be grown. The very best variety 

 is the early Beauty of Hebron. There are a few of the newer 

 varieties, both early and late, that are worthy of a place in every 

 garden. The early Essex and Charles Downing are giving 

 universal satisfaction. According to government statistics, the 

 potato crop exceeds all other crops excepting fruit and butteF, 

 reaching more than $125,000,000 in a single year. 



The question of the day will be incomplete without a word 

 on fertilization and vegetable hygiene. As great as have been 

 the improvements on vegetables in a quarter ol" a century, the 

 advance in the knowledge of fertilizing the soil, to grow them, 

 has been greater ; and we hope that the interest awakened in 

 the prevention of disease of vegetables will continue. There 

 was a time within the memory of the small boy, when it 

 appeared as though many of the vegetables we prize the most, 

 were doomed. The potato-rot seemed to have the grip of a 

 giant, and many people gave up raising them ; but thanks to 

 our experiment stations, preventives were found in the new way 

 of fertilizing with phosphates, and other special manure, and 

 spraying the vines with a copper preparation at the same' time 

 as they were sprayed to kill the voracious larvae of the potato 

 bug. 



Just as celery came to be almost a necessity a species of 

 fungi attacked its leaves, and it disappeared from the gardens 



