434 TRAXS ACTIONS OF THE 



always improTe them. It may be used from five to fifteen bushels 

 per acre. It always does best upon land that has been limed. I 

 would use it five to ten bushels per acre on old pasture. It is 

 useful in all compost. It is largely used upon cabbage gardens 

 near this city. If you slack three bushels of lime with the 

 solution of one bushel of salt, it is the best thing ever used to 

 decompose muck. It is also excellent upon the roots of peach 

 trees. Guano is much more valuable when treated with a carboy 

 of sulphurous acid to a tun. It makes the guano fine, so that all 

 the lumps can be divided and mixed with the soil. I prefer tc^ 

 mix guano with super phosphate. 



HOW TO GROW POTATOES AND PREVEXT ROT. 



Solon Robinson — I have a letter from A. Sprague of Harvard, 

 Delaware county, N. Y., stating how he has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing good sound crops of potatoes for fifteen years past, which 

 he proposes to add to the discussion upon this very important 

 question. He says : 



" In the fii'St place, I select di*y and sandy soil. Plow and 

 plant as early as the season will admit, say March, or April, 

 and always by the 10th of May, in ground well plowed and 

 furrowed each way, three and one-half or four feet apart. Cut 

 your common sized tubers in four pieces, giving each piece a 

 share of the seed end, and put from four to six pieces to each 

 hill, down in the furrow where they cross at right angles. Sepa- 

 rate the tubers, or there would be no benefit in cutting. For 

 manure I take littering or straw, the coarsest I can find in my 

 barn-yard, or clean out an old bay where a mass of short straw,^ 

 dust and chaff has accumulated ; or take stuff from under barn 

 floors, that has laid a number of years untouched, and contains a 

 quantity of nitre. Take a shovelfull, or forkfull, and throw 

 directly on and over the tubers, then cover with earth, not leav- 

 ing one straw uncovered if possible. In case the straw or 

 manure lies loose, or quite dry, step both feet on the hill just 

 finished, pressing tightly down. In conclusion, I would say your 

 patch of potatoes ' will look doubtful of ever coming up or 

 amounting to anything, until about the 20th of June. By that 

 time the ground begins to crack and the tender stalk makes its 



