Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 503 



Dr. Isaac P. Trimble expressed himself delighted with the informa- 

 tion contained in that letter, and asked : " If we can get the Mercer 

 back again, who wants to pay fifty dollars apiece for these new fan- 

 gled kinds ?" 



Dr. F, M. Hexamer, of Newcastle, said, in relation to the improve- 

 ments of old varieties, that all late improvements had consisted in 

 originating new varieties, which could be more profitably cultivated 

 than the old kinds. Hardly anything had been done to perpetuate 

 the old kinds. No one could dare to run down the Mercer potato; 

 but if it could not be raised profitably, that ended the question. The 

 failure of this kind of potato was not, as had been often alleged, attri- 

 buted to the practice of planting the smaller bulbs, and using for 

 domestic purposes the larger ones. The speaker had planted large 

 ones, and yet they rotted. Whether the transfer of a certain kind of 

 potato from one section to another, from one class of soil to another, 

 might operate in preserving the produce from decay, was a very 

 important question, and one that entered largely into this question 

 now under discussion. The speaker quoted instances where the escu- 

 lent improved vastly by its being transplanted from one soil to 

 another, and also cases where it degenerated. As a general thing, 

 Dr. Hexamer believed that the transplanting gf a potato from a 

 heavy soil to a light, friable one, tended to improve the quality. 

 There was no use in trying to raise potatoes through a fifty dollar 

 seed if Mercers could be raised at 325 bushels to the acre ; but if a 

 fifty dollar seed would give you the means of raising a fine healthy 

 potato to take the place of a sickly one, then the money could not be 

 better expended. 



Deep and Shallow Plowing. 



The chairman announced that the subject of deep and shallow 

 plowing would be resumed, and he proclaimed that if any one had 

 anything fifrther to offer on the subject of shallow plowing, in addi- 

 tion to what Dr. Trimble had adduced the previous week, he would 

 now be heard. 



Mr. H. B. Smith stated that the Farmers' Club in Connecticut 

 valley, several years ago, recommended deep plowing, and the farmers 

 took the advice and plowed several inches deeper than usual the 

 succeeding season. The result was a failure of crops, and from that 

 day to this, the farmers in that valley would call an advocate of deep 

 soil plowing a stark naked fool. [Great laughter.] He (Mr. Smith), 



