36 



Will you allow me, gentlemen, respectfully, to express my sur» 

 prize, that the gentlemen farmers belonging to the Society, are re- 

 conciled to the Trustees offering a premium, for these experiments, 

 and yet that so few of them, are inclined to execute them. Al- 

 though they will find, that they require care and thought, yet they 

 would find them easy, and very interesting, and would they not, in 

 a i'ew years be richly rewarded, by having the community, and 

 themselves, well supplied with a large variety of genuine seed, as- 

 similated to the climate, and the necessity of offering premiums 

 precluded. 



Gentlemen — I further present to your notice, a small field of po- 

 tatoes, consisting of 1798 hills. It is a dry declivity, of clayey 

 loam — this is the third season it has been cultivated with potatoes. 

 The middle of May four cords of common barn manure was ploughed 

 into it — It was then harrowed, and holed four feet each way, from 

 the centre of the hills — The holes were made very broad, flat, and 

 shoal, that the seed might have an equal depth and space. The 

 seed was cut lengthways, and two potatoes put in each hill, in four 

 pieces, one foot apart — in placing the seed, great care was taken, 

 that the cutsides should be uppermost, as in a previous dry year, by 

 not attending to this circumstance, those that were put, cut side 

 down, did not rise from the ground until near July. My design, 

 was not the most abundant, but the most valuable crop — had it have 

 been the former, I should have chosen the long red, or River Plate 

 potatoe, or some other prolific bearer. I sought for those of the 

 most superior quality, that I knew. I therefore took Nos. 1 and 2, 

 which are four seasons from the seed of the balls, and for which 

 your Society awarded a premium in 1827 — their quality is very 

 good, one of them, No. 1, is very superior. For the third, I chose 

 the black potatoe, the excellences of which are, that it is a good 

 bearer, of good quality, and retains its value through the Summer 

 into September, better than any kind I know — it is particularly val- 

 uable for long voyages. For the fourth I took the chenango, or as 

 it is called in Pensylvania, from whence it came, the Mercer pota- 

 toe, and where it commands near double the price, of those com- 

 monly received from the North. The form of placing the seed 

 brought the plants in the different rows within three feet of each 

 other. Four or five of the tall Marrowfat pea, were planted directly 

 in the centre of each hill, from which fifteen bushels of green ones 



