REPORT ON POTATOES. 



BY H. C. WEST. 



Of the fields entered for premiums one was planted to corn for 

 two 3'ears and the other had grown corn for seven years previous 

 with about seven loads of manure in the hill in 1885. 



In April both had about twenty-five loads of manure plowed under 

 and the second week in May they were harrowed and marked out 

 three rows at a time and five rows to the rod, and 300 pounds of 

 cotton-seed meal, 500 pounds of cotton hull ashes, 100 pounds of 

 plaster, 150 pounds of lime (dry slacked) mixed and sowed broad- 

 cast to the acre. One field planted with seed said to have been 

 brought from England to Canada and planted one year, then planted 

 one year in Massachusetts, a long, large white potato, with shallow 

 eyes and smooth skin that holds its size well at the ends. The 

 second field with a potato said to be from a seed ball of the Early 

 Rose that resembles the old Peerless. 



The potatoes were cut and dropped so that about ten bushels would 

 plant an acre from 18 to 24 inches in the row and covered with a 

 horse-hoe that leaves a small ridge. Before they came up or about 

 the time they appeared top of the ground bushed thein with a green 

 cedar bush which killed the weeds in the hill or on the ridge and saved 

 a large amount of hand labor. 



Before the weeds got started again went over them with the horse - 

 hoe once in about every ten days as long as the horses could walk 

 between the rows without pulling up the tops, and the few weeds that 

 were left cut them with a hand-hoe and on an average two days work 

 by hand to the acre will keep the land free from weeds. 



The brush and horse-hoe must be used before the weeds get started 

 or when very small for they will not kill large weeds that have 

 rooted. 



The committee gave me 164 pounds to the rod. One of the com- 



