PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 241 



The Dover potato is a very choice variety, red skin and white 

 flesh ; very good quality and yields well. 



I have another seedling that I vouch as fifth, the name not re- 

 collected, and these five I have selected out of all the sorts which 

 I have experimented with. 



The Peach blow is a good potato, but has some serious faults. 

 The Buckeye is a good potato, particularly early. The Mercer 

 rots so that we have given up its culture. 



Mr. Veeder. — In Albany county, the Mercer potato is grown 

 upon very sandy land, without rotting ; while upon clayey soil it 

 has rotted this year very badly. It is preferred to plant potatoes 

 upon clover sod. We use a good deal of plaster on the clover, 

 but no manure for the potato crop. 



Andrew S. Fuller. — In the vicinity of St. Louis, I have never 

 seen potatoes of first-rate quality, though groAving of large size. 

 The soil there is heavy and mucky, and the potatoes coarse. 

 Hence potatoes are brought from the light lands up the river, 

 and are so much better that they sell for four or five times as 

 much as those grown near by that city. It is my opinion that 

 potatoes are always better when grown in sandy soil than in 

 clayey or mucky soil. The potatoes grown for this market on 

 Long Island, and in the sandy lands of New Jersey, are superior 

 to those grown upon heavy lands in any other section. 



FRUIT HOUSES. 



Mr. Carpenter asked that the subject of fruit houses, and the 

 best mode of preserving fruit for winter use, should be made a 

 question for the meeting next Monday. 



Mr. Roberts asked to add fall planting of trees, both fruit and 

 forest, and also the best mode of cutting and preserving grafts. 



KYANIZING FENCE POSTS. 



Solon Robinson. — I have a letter of inquiry from R. Dixie, 

 Painsville, Ohio, about kyanizing posts. He says that in some 

 of the reports of procedings of this club, one person recommends 

 copperas and another, blue vitriol, and he wants to know which 

 it should be, since copperas retails for six cents a pound, and 

 the other at six times that. 



I answer, that originally all similar substances to copperas 

 were called vitriol instead of their proper names of sulphates, 

 distinguishing them by colors. As "green vitriol" (copperas) 

 is the sulphate of iron, " blue vitriol " sulphate of copper, &c., 



[Am. Inst.] P 



