320 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



The next in rank is the Economist, yielding 43-^-.^ pounds for 

 one. The Early yielded 39 pounds, and the Harrison 32-}f 

 pounds. The trial of one summer is not sufficient to determine 

 accurately this question of productiveness ; for, unaccountable 

 as it may seem, one variety does well one season and fails the 

 next, while precisely the reverse may be true of another variety. 

 The Early Goodrich did not do itself justice the past summer, 

 while the Colebrook Seedling, that failed the previous summer, 

 has redeemed its character the present season. With us the 

 greatest producers for a succession of summers are the Garnet 

 Chili, the Harrison and the Gleason, and these varieties have 

 also the great merit of uniform size. The Early Goodrich has 

 been a great producer, but, like the Northern Spy apple, while 

 there are many large and good, there are also many small. 



Other things being equal, we should give preference to an 

 early and white potato over the late and red. The early potato 

 is most likely to escape disease and frost, and comes into market 

 when prices are high. Almost every season we hear some old 

 fogy farmers, who have never heard of any other early potato 

 than the Early June, say, in July : " We do not like early pota- 

 toes ; they are soggy. We prefer old potatoes till the new ones 

 are ripe." Tliis means they prefer the old withered potatoes, 

 with the starch dried out of them, to Early Junes or Round 

 Pink Eyes. To cure all such prejudices needs only a few doses 

 of Sebec or Early Goodrich taken at dinner time. One dose 

 will generally suffice, but a week's application is warranted to 

 cure. A dose of the Early Rose would perhaps be still more 

 efficacious ; but the Rose tastes too strong of silver to be used 

 as a medicine. Dr. Holland, of the " Springfield Republican," 

 is the only man we know who has had much experience in eat- 

 ing the Rose potato, and he commends them highly ; and well 

 he may, for in eating two or three barrels he unwittingly ate 

 what would have sold for as many hundred dollars. Editors 

 are expected to know everything, and we hardly know how to 

 excuse the doctor for his ignorance of the market price of the 

 Rose potato. Possibly he was writing his " Katrina " while the 

 potatoes were being consumed, and the editor was lost in the 

 poet. If the Rose contributed to his inspiration the world 

 gained by his loss of the potatoes. 



