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Gentlemen : — The half acre of potatoes which I offered for premium 

 was ploughed early in April seven inches deep, harrowed thoroughly, 

 and planted April 18th. 



I marked the ground in rows three feet apart, furrowed six inches 

 deep, planted whole potatoes, planting size two to four ounces, eight- 

 een inches apart, and covered them by hand hoe with two or three 

 inches of sod. In a few days I spread along the furrows two cords 

 of well rotted manure, mainly corn stalks, which after being picked clean 

 by the cows, had served as bedding for the horses, and afterwards mixed 

 with the manure from the cow stables, and the whole kept in a fermenting 

 condition through the winter and early spring by the daily application 

 of slops from the house. This manure was twice thrown over, and 

 at the time of using was well rotted and fine. I then harrowed the 

 piece thoroughly with a rotary harrow. May 24th we cultivated and 

 hoed the piece, and it then looked as promising as it possibly could. 

 Five days later we hud the freeze, and an occasional scrap of tinder 

 was all that could be seen of the potato crop. 



My usual practice is to harrow the potato crop once after the vines 

 are up : but this year the crop looked so promising that I substituted 

 cultivating and hand hoeing. 



But the frost changed all that, and on the 31st of May I harrowed 

 and cross harrowed the piece with an Acme harrow, till it was as fine 

 as an ash heap. 



In about ten days the vines began to show again, and on the 16th 

 of June they were all well up, looking almost as well as they did three 

 weeks before and we cultivated and hoed them : and this, with one 

 dusting with plaster and paris green, was all the attention the crop 



received. 



When the committee were here in September, they selected and 

 dug what they considered an average rod, and the yield was at the 

 rate of four hundred bushels to the acre. 



The varieties planted were Beauty of Hebron and Pride of Amer- 

 ica. I did not perceive any difference in the yield of these varieties. 

 Beauty of Hebron is a few days earlier, while Pride of America is the 

 better keeper. 



It mav be of interest to state that on the 30th of May I dug up a 

 Beauty of Hebron potato on tiiis piece and broke off all the shoots 

 and reset it about three inches deep. The vine was about a week 

 later in coming up : otherwise there was no appreciable difference 

 between tliis and the other plants which had been cut down by the 

 frost, in time of blossoming, ripening, or in the yield. 



Respectfully, 



John C. Dillon. 



