Proceedings of the Fabmees^ Club. 317 



Mr. Ilenrj T. Williams. — I tliink lie is ; he cannot be encouraged. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — Mr. Williams is quite right. 



Mr. T. C. Peters. — How doctors will differ. I have known the 

 SM^eet potato to be grown as far north as Lake Ontario, in a sandy 

 soil. 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble. — As a curiosity, merely, or to see what one 

 can do. The sweet potato ceases to be a profitable crop when 

 one goes north of jS'ew York city. Not many are raised north of 

 forty degrees. It requires a long summer and a mellow autumn. 



Mr. J. C. Thompson. — Some time ago, traveling in Pennsylvania, 

 I met a German farmer who told me more about the sweet potato 

 than any person I ever saw. He said he could grow the tubers of 

 any shape he wished, and give a person long or short, slender, chunky 

 or flat, to order. He showed me his modes, and on coming home I 

 made some trials. First, as he directed, I stamped the bottom of a 

 furrow and made it quite hard. Then laid down the sprout of sweet 

 potato and tjovered it with long manure, with a little earth atop. 

 Then I laid sods in the bottom of the furrow, then a board, covering 

 with manure and a little earth. The result was the same in each 

 case, the potatoes ran along the board or the hard bottom, and were 

 in some cases two feet long. The best management, however, is that 

 which gives a potato nearly round. It sells the best by thirty or forty 

 per cent. In Kentucky the farmers cut the seed potatoes into small 

 pieces, and when they are sprouted, set them out. In cultivation 

 there is some dispute whether the ridge or the hill system is best. 

 But those cultivated in hills are the best, and they are less liable to 

 be eaten by mice. With us the sprout only is planted. The soil 

 should be dry and warm, and the exposure southern. The sets may 

 be put out any time from the middle of May till the middle of June. 



The Walla- Walla Valley. 

 Mr. II. Parker, of Washington Territory, read a paper on the 

 attractions of his home in the far west. The Walla-Walla Valley is 

 in the south-eastern corner of Washington territory, about 200 miles 

 from Boise City, in Idaho, and about 400 from the point on Salt Lake 

 where the last spike of the Pacific railroad was driven. The settler 

 can get there either by way of the Pacific railroad, at a cost of about 

 $200, or by the way of San Francisco and Portland, on the Columbia 

 river, at a cost of about $300. He advises the overland route. The 

 advantage of this valley over nearly all the Kocky mountain country 



