99 



with a Randall harrow. The last week in May, the potatoes, 

 Clark's No. 1, were planted in hills 3 feet and 8 inches apart, 

 each way. 500 lbs. Standard phosphate per acre, was also 

 used in the hill. It was seeded heavy, not less than six eyes 

 to the hill. Used the Thompson horse hoe, and only two 

 days labor on the acre from planting to digging. Mr, Joseph 

 E. Randall, of your committee, selected 9 square rods, which 

 proved to be hardly up to the average of the piece. On these 

 9 rods there were 16 bushels of merchantable potatoes and an 

 immense number of small ones, viz.: — 5^ bushels. Total 

 amount of potatoes raised on the 9 square rods, 21^ bushels, 

 or at the rate of 382 bushels to the acre. 



Lot No. 2 has been under cultivation five years. Crops 

 in '81 and '82, onions, and treated both years with 1600 lbs. 

 phosphate to the acre, and nothing else. Last fall it was 

 ploughed five inches deep, and in the spring was well harrowed 

 and then furrowed with the horse hoe, one way, not quite 

 three feet. 1000 lbs. Standard phosphate per acre, was then 

 strewn in the furrows and brushed over. The potatoes were 

 then dropped the first week in May, about fifteen inches apart 

 and covered with the horse hoe, the idea being to raise them 

 with as little hand labor as possible. The hand hoe was used 

 only a very little, the horses doing almost all the work. The 

 potato bugs raged, but Paris Green and "eternal vigilance" 

 beat them. Mr. Randall selected here, 6 square rods — which 

 proved to be a little above the average of the piece. On these 

 6 rods the yield was 14 bushels of merchantable and 1| bush- 

 els small and scaly potatoes, or at the rate of 406 § bushels 

 per acre, if I mistake not. 



There were three different varieties on this piece, — '' Clark's 

 No. ]," "Beauty of Hebron," and the " White Elephant." 

 Clark's No. 1 and the Beauty of Hel)ron produced three times 

 as many small potatoes as the White Elephant, otherwise, the 

 difference in the yield was impej'ceptible. 



