PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 313 



plants in place when three or four inches high, and keep them well watered 

 and the ground nicely worked, and you can raise cabbage." 



The thanks of members were freely expressed for this timely information, 

 which may enable every one to grow his own cabbage plants, which is now 

 found to be so extremely difficult that the cabbage crop, as a general thing, 

 is much smaller than it should be, as it is one of the most profitable ones 

 grown. 



Farming in Maine. 



Mr. Edward C, Chase, North Yarmouth, Cumberland county. Me., says 

 that Mr. Hooker, who wrote of farming in Maine, did not give a fair view 

 of the case. Mr. C. says: "We are nearly all farmers here, and make a 

 pretty good living, raising produce for Portland market. There are more 

 potatoes raised in this town than in any other town in the State. We 

 have a number of varieties, such as White Mountain, Jacksons, Davis's 

 Seedlings, Oregons, and Long Reds. Our market price now is about 10 

 cents a bushel. As a general thing, they did not rot last year. Out of 

 350 bushels, I did not have one quart of rotten ones. I plant on pasture 

 ground, without manure, or anything but plaster. I cannot get so great a 

 yield, but I get good sound potatoes. I have adopted this plan for a num- 

 ber of years, and have never failed of a good crop. Potatoes want to be 

 shifted as often as once in two years; they yield better, and are not so likely 

 to rot. The only remedy I can find to pi-event the rot is to plant without 

 manure, and to plant early. We generally plant our potatoes first of any 

 crop. The kind we call Oregons grow until the frost comes, and are very 

 large, and yield better than any we have. There have been forty bushela 

 raised from one bushel of planting-. They will grow on any soil without 

 manure, and yield well, but are not so saleable as Jacksons. 



" We raise sweet corn for market to sell green; there is a great call for 

 it to put up in cans, to send to all parts of the world. We get from six to 

 twelve cents a dozen. We also grow a great many apples, and we find 

 that this kind of farming affoi-ds a pretty good living for those who stay 

 at home. 



Root-Grafting. 



Mr. Geo. W. Dean, Franklin Mills, Portage county, Ohio, wants to say a 

 few words about root-grafting. He says: "There seems to be among East- 

 ern men an unaccountable prejudice, except upon the hypothesis of a lam- 

 entable ignorance, against root-grafting the apple. All their objections to 

 the system are based upon statements that are not true. I am somewhat 

 familiar with root-grafting, as practiced in Northern Ohio and Western 

 New York, and I think I am warranted in stating that no nurseryman, 

 making any pretensions to respectability in the business, uses anything 

 but seedling stocks, one to two years old; in rare cases three years, but 

 they are always considered objectionable. Roots from an old tree are not 

 used, and a nurseryman who would use them when he could get seedlings, 

 would be a fit subject for a mad house. I have handled a good many root- 

 grafted trees, and some budded ones, and I cannot see why one is not as 

 good as the other. The objection to pieces of root being used has no force; 



