284 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and planting it was about ^12 ; cost of marketing, as near as I 

 can judge, about f 20 per thousand. 



I raised on this piece 3,500 cabbages suitable for the market, 

 averaging from 35 to 40 pounds as they grew, (with leaves and 

 stump, and free from dirt ;) when trimmed for the table they 

 averaged from 25 to 30 pounds per head. I commenced market- 

 ing them the first of September, averaging from ^8 to $10 per 

 hundred ; I sold some as high as f 12 per hundred. It took 

 about four ounces of the white drumhead seed. 



Salem, October 20, 1858- 



WORCESTER NORTH. 



Statement of John Brooks^ Jr. 

 Potatoes. — The lot on which my experiment potatoes grew, 

 I supposed to have contained one acre, but it was found by 

 measurement to contain only 139 rods. The soil is light and 

 gravelly. The crop of 1856-7 was grass without manure. It 

 was ploughed May 25th, with a double plough, about eight 

 inches deep, harrowed and furrowed. The cost of ploughing 

 and other preparations was six dollars. I manured with fifteen 

 loads of horse manure, spread before ploughing, and 300 pounds 

 guano mixed with one load of muck, one handful in each hill ; 

 value of manure, -115, guano, $9, total f24. It was planted 

 June 8th, 9th and 10th, in hills two and a half by three and a 

 half feet apart. Seed twelve bushels St. Helena potatoes, 

 worth $600 ; the cost of planting being $4.50. They were 

 hoed twice at a cost of $8, and harvested October 2d and* 

 4th, yielding 71^ pounds per square rod. The potatoes raised 

 are very nice ones, and do not rot in the least. I have sold 

 four barrels for $1 per bushel, and have an order for from 

 two to ten barrels more. 



Statement of Abel Marshall. 



Potatoes. — The acre upon which my crop of potatoes for 

 experiment was raised, is a variable soil ; part of it a light 

 yellow loam, with a loose subsoil, and part of it a heavy, dark 

 loam, with a clayey bottom. It has been in grass, without 

 manure, for twenty years previous to the present. It was 



