COMPOSITION OF POTATO- TOPS. 377 



each, to the acre, is as small a dressing as can be judi- 

 ciously applied. Double that quantity would not be ex- 

 cessive." " With respect to top-dressing for mowing 

 lands," says another practical farmer, " I would state 

 that for several years we have been in the habit of rais- 

 ing from one to three acres of early potatoes for 

 market. We have usually dug them early in August, 

 and before the tops were dead. The tops are taken 

 directly from the field, and spread on the mowing lands 

 to very great advantage. We think the tops from an 

 acre of potatoes sufficient to top-dress an acre of mow- 

 ing land, and the effect is equal to three or four cords 

 of good manure." 



The practice alluded to in this extract is worthy of a 

 careful trial by those who are so situated as to adopt it. 

 It is known that the tops of potatoes contain a large 

 percentage of the organic elements of plants. 



Fromberg found in one hundred pounds of the leaves, 

 in a natural state, from .82 to .92 per cent, of nitrogen, 

 and that one hundred pounds of leaves dried contain from 

 5.12 to 5.76 per cent, of nitrogen. If his results are 

 correct, and there is no reason to distrust them, we 

 add to the land fifty pounds of inorganic salts, besides 

 nearly twenty pounds of nitrogen, among the organic 

 constituents of every ton of potato-tops. This would 

 make a ton of them equal in value more than two 

 tons of the best Ichaboe guano. 



In a case which I have in mind, a very poor, worn- 

 out grass lot was top-dressed with fourteen ordinary 

 cart-loads of good stable manure to the acre. The 

 quantity of grass was increased four-fold. Clover and 

 Timothy came in as luxuriantly as on any new-laid 

 piece. If the top-dressing were repeated once in five 

 or six years, there would be no danger of exhaustion, 

 though there would be an advantage in loosening the 



32* 



