214 [Assembly 



over the side of a tub of water will draw all the water out of the 

 tub like a syphon. I find that my potatoes, left as the grew, are 

 surrounded wuth earth comparatively dry, each potato having its 

 jacket of drier earth next to it. 



John Lodge— I have been a working farmer and gardener al- 

 most half a century. I say plant your potatoes in land plowed 

 and subsoiled very deep. A friend of mine from Nova Scotia was 

 here recently wilh a cargo of his own potatoes, of Avhich he had 

 last season 300 bushels an acre. He sold his cargo for $5,000. 

 Plant none but the best and largest whole potatoes. 



Mr. Bergen — The whole potatoes require many more for plant- 

 ing than the cut ones. We expect as many potatoes as there are 

 eyes in the seed. For early ones we want but few shoots. My 

 friend, Mr. Bennett here, thinned out his shoots and got a di- 

 minished crop. He expected earlier and larger ones. 



Prof. Mapes — The number of the eyes constitutes no rule for 

 the number of tubers. Beatson's great experiments on potato 

 growing form a lesson, the truth of which my experience con- 

 stantly confirms. He planted whole potatoes with the most valu- 

 able results. The experiments were on several hundred acres, 

 and of the most exact and registered operations. Some persons, 

 in forming judgments in agricultural matters, are fond of judging 

 by the eye, as they say — a very uncertain judgment as to amount 

 of crops. One says that corn has a hundred bushels on an acre, 

 not thinking what the ears are. He can be mistaken one half by 

 not noting that in some ears the diameters are nearly double — 

 and of course the shelled corn — that of others. 



An Irishman planted potatoes lately on a portion of Newark 

 meadows, and raised 500 bushels of very large potatoes on an acre. 

 He digs a spade and a half deep, putting one digging on another, 

 so forming beds, keeping the land always in perfect tilth. 



Mr. Bergen — I always thought the cutting of potatoes for seed 

 a questionable method, yet some of the best and largest potato 

 ■growers among us on Long Island do cut their seed potatoes to 



