444 [Senate 



ner : the ground was thrown into drills and manured heavily ; the 

 potatoes were cut into sets of single eyes fourteen days before requir- 

 ed for planting, and covered with plaster and lime — a few, for the 

 sake of experiment, were not so covered. At the expiration of the 

 time specified, they were sprinkled with small, almost imperceptible 

 globules, having life, and were consequently rejected — those limed 

 were free, I planted them in drills on the manure nine inches apart — 

 tops, centres and ends separately, to mark the difference in growth. 

 The potatoes in the first three rows, three hundred feet in length, were 

 covered with dry charcoal dust. Second three rows with oyster shell 

 lime. 



Third three rows with bone dust. 



Fourth " " poudrette. 



Fifth " " unleached ashes. 



Sixth " " new mown grass and piaster. 



Seventh" " fine salt. 



Eighth " " silicate of potash. 



Ninth " " guano. 



And so on throughout the field, each alternate three rows with a dif- 

 ferent substance, except six rows in which I planted the same seed on 

 the manure, without any composition. And adjoining them, six rows 

 of French potatoes, received three weeks before directly from France j 

 the furrows were then all reversed by the plow, and the potatoes cov- 

 ered. After which a heavy stick was drawn by a pair of horses across 

 the furrows, to level them. The potatoes covered with dry charcoal 

 dust. No 1 came up first. 



No. 6, covered with new mown grass and plaster, .... second. 



No. 8, " " silicate of potash, third. 



No, 9, " " guano, fourth. 



No. 3, " " bone dust, fifth. 



No. 4, " " poudrette, sixth. 



No. 7, " " fine salt, seventh. 



No. 5, " " unleached ashes, eighth. 



No. 9, " " oyster shell lime, ninth. 



The twelve rows without composition came up later than any of the 

 rest. When four inches high, the ground was plowed from them — 

 and after an interval of six days, plowed to them again, the field be- 

 ing in perfect order. They required no other attention during the 

 season. On the third of October they were plowed out, and proved 

 to be perfectly sound with the exception of the twelve rows planted 

 with Pink Eye Kidney and French potatoes without composition, 

 which were entirely rotten. 



Six hundred bushels were pitted immediately, and not examined 

 before the 5th of December, when they were found to be perfectly 

 sound. During the summer I examined fields in Dutchess, Ulster, 

 Albany and Schenectady counties, and invariably found insects with 

 numerous legs ensconced within the withered vine. In some in- 

 stances a small worm, not unlike the apple worm, but red, and very 

 minute: the conclusion I came to, was, that these insects fed upon 

 the albumen requisite to form the perfect potatoe — and consequently 



