176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that Snowflakes and Brigham's seedlings have produced, for 

 a great many years, larger crops than any other potato that I 

 could raise ; but they have run out, and I ought not to have 

 planted them this year. The yield per acre was 66§ bushels. 

 That is not a fair yield, and I attribute it a great deal to the 

 want of rain. You cannot raise a crop of potatoes, anymore 

 than you can a crop of hay, unless you have that fertilizer, 

 rain, applied to it. Nature generally gives us that iu suf- 

 ficient quantities ; but when it ceases to fall, you are just as 

 badly off as if you fail to apply manure. Nature has so 

 ordered it, that no crop can be produced without a certain 

 amount of rain. If that crop of potatoes was a failure, I 

 think it was a failure because of the want of rain. 



Take next mangolds. I had a field of mangolds of about 

 four acres, and they produced at the rate of 620 bushels to the 

 acre. There were 2,480 bushels of mangolds on that four acres. 

 I took one end of this field, three-quarters of an acre (just the 

 same land as the other), and applied $21 worth of this fertil- 

 izer, and on this fourth of an acre I got 390 bushels. The laud 

 on which I raised the 620 bushels per acre was manured at the 

 rate of ten cords to the acre, making $80 per acre, at $8 per cord. 

 I could not see any difference where the fertilizer was placed, 

 with the exception of one corner, and I will tell you why I 

 think that was. I had not enough of the beet fertilizer for 

 that three-quarters of an acre, and, having some of the turnip 

 fertilizer, I used that on that corner. I knew there was not 

 enough potash in it, but I intended to make that deficiency 

 good by applying ashes. I consider that if I had given that 

 small corner piece a barrel of ashes, I should have had enough 

 of that ingredient that was wanted; but I had not enough, 

 and I only put on just one-half. I put on one-half of the 

 formula for turnips, instead of using, as I should, the whole 

 of the formula for beets. I could see that there was a decided 

 falling. off in that corner. I think the whole field suffered for 

 want of rain. I know it did, just as well as all the rest of 

 the crops in the region suffered ; but I could see that where 

 I applied the kind of fertilizer that I knew had not sufficient 

 potash in it, there was decidedly less crop. It could be seen 

 at the time of gathering ; it could be seen at the time of 

 growing. 



