35 



Land of a calcareous nature produces the best potatoes. Clay- 

 land produces those of a poor quality. Gypsum in the hill is gen- 

 erally supposed to improve both the quality and the product. 



I have no estimate of the expense of cultivating an acre of pota- 

 toes in Essex County except the one given on page 22. If we sup- 

 pose the amount of seed used to be 20 bushels, and that the digging 

 is at the rate of 30 bushels to a day's work, the expenses will not 

 much fall short of $50, including ten loads of manure at $2 per 

 load. The crop in such case, with ordinary success, may be rated 

 at 300 bushels. The price is seldom less than 25 cents, and rarely 

 exceeds 40 cents in quantities. Potatoes return nothing of value to 

 the soil. Wheat, within my own observation, has done extremely 

 well after potatoes. Potatoes are best grown in a deep rich loam ; 

 and will well repay good cultivation. 



Onions are a considerable crop in the county ; the cultivation as 

 a field crop has been principally in Danvers and Newbmy. Of late 

 they have been subject to a blight, which reduces the value of the 

 crop, and sometimes renders it worthless. Neither the cause nor 

 preventive is understood. In Danvers, until the two last years, 

 25,000 bushels a year have been raised ; the last year, two thirds 

 of that amount. They are sold in the market to be shipped to 

 New Orleans or the West Indies ; and the price varies from 30 

 to 67 cents : 300 to 400 bushels to an acre may be considered 

 a fair crop ; 600 bushels are sometimes obtained. The estimate of 

 the cost of cultivation, which I have obtained, is fifty days' labor to 

 an acre. This includes nothing for manure nor rent of land. The 

 manure very generally applied, where attainable, is muscle-bed, 

 which is obtained in Salem at the rate of $1 per horse load ; and 

 laid in heaps on the land in autumn, where it is completely pulver- 

 ized by the action of the frost. 



In Weathersfield, Connecticut, it is well known that this vegetable 

 has been extensively and profitably cultivated for years ; and mainly 

 by female labor. After the land is ploughed, manured, and fitted 

 for the seed the whole labor is performed by women, even to fitting 

 the crop for market ; — formerly in successful seasons $100 or more 

 was not an uncommon result of a woman's summer labor in the 



