POTATOES. 201 



bushels to the acre is not a large return from well- 

 fertilized and properly tilled ground ; still we find 

 that the average crop of the country is not quite one 

 hundred, even in favorable seasons. Taking the 

 price of Potatoes at seventy-five cents per bushel, by 

 adopting better methods of culture, the increased 

 value in the United States of this crop alone would 

 amount to over seventy-five millions of dollars a year. 



Although the price of Potatoes has only advanced 

 a trifle within the past ten years, and farm wages 

 and other farm expenses have nearly doubled, yet I 

 feel confident that I can make as much per acre now, 

 cultivating Potatoes, as in 1860 ; simply by making 

 use of the methods named, and planting varieties of 

 Potatoes that are more productive than the Mercer 

 or Prince Albert. There is no system of farming so 

 perfect as not to be susceptible of im2^ro^•ement; and 

 the intelligent farmer is always ready to make a 

 change or follow a new method of culture, when it 

 is evident that, by so doing, he will increase the pro- 

 duct per acre or lessen the expense of producing. 



Our method of cultivating Potatoes, which has 

 given entire satisfaction for the last three years, is 

 substantially as follows. The ground, which is a 

 heavy clay, and naturally very poor, is Fall-ploughed, 

 throwing it into " lands " about twenty feet wide, and 

 left in this state until Spring. When the soil is dry 

 enough to be worked, in April, it has a second plough- 

 ing, crosswise — never turning the soil less than ten 

 inches deep. The manure is then spread broadcast on 

 the surface, the quality of the soil regulating the quan- 

 tity. However, we seldom use less thaa twenty two- 



