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Statement of J. B. Knight. 



Statement to the Essex Agricultural Society of a crop of Po- 

 tatoes, for premium, raised by J. B. Knight of Newbury, 1879. 



The crop of 1878 was grass ; no dressing applied, ground 

 ploughed in fall of 1878, seven inches deep, at a cost of two 

 dollars per acre ; soil, a clayey loam. Twenty-five loads of 

 common barn-yard manure, thirty bushels per load, hauled on 

 in the Fall of '78, before plougliing, and left in piles to be dis- 

 tributed in the spring, manure valued on the ground at f 1.50 

 per load. 



The manure was spread on the ground in the spring and 

 skim-ploughed in, three inches deep, and harrowed with wheel 

 harrow at a cost for spreading, ploughing and harrowing, of 

 four dollars per acre ; planted the first and second weeks in 

 May, in rows three feet apart, hills two and one-half feet in the 

 rows, with small or medium sized potatoes, one whole potato in 

 a hill. The seed was selected from the pile of small potatoes 

 not suitable for merchantable potatoes, about twelve bushels 

 used per acre, valued at the time at one dollar per bushel ; cost 

 of planting, exclusive of seed, two and one-half dollars per 

 acre. They were twice hoed, and cultivator used between the 

 rows, at estimated cost of four dollars per acre ; harvested 

 first part of October ; estimated cost, six dollars per acre. 



In my remarks of last year, I gave it as my opinion that it 

 was decidedly best to plant whole potatoes rather than to cut 

 them, and my experience this year decidedly confirms that 

 opinion. It is certain that the first start of the roots and 

 sprouts must come from the potato without aid from the soil, 

 and the substance of the potatoes must furnish the material 

 for this first start, and I think that the whole potato will fur- 

 nish this material better than the cut one, and give a vigorous, 

 stocky shoot, whereas the cut potato gives a much weaker 

 looking shoot, and one point towards a good crop is gained by 

 the whole potato, which, I think, is of advantage. 



This certifies that I have measured a piece of land for 



