NORTH HADLEY, MASS. 
5 
Copyrighted. Reproduced from the Rural New Yorker, of March 8, 1890. 
HOWE’S PREMIUM, 
A new, very early Potato of great promise. 
The above illustration appeared in the Rural New Yorker last March together with Mr. 
Carman's report on tests of new varieties of potatoes. I knew nothing of it whatever, until 
a friend called my attention to it, some several days after it had been published. The natu- 
ral inference is, that it was for intrinsic merit that it was selected, in preference to the other 
novelties of the season, as a subject for illustration in this leading rural publication. The 
following is the report given on the test of this potato. 
“ Howe’s Premium, from U. D. Ilowe, North Hadley, Mass. Cannot say as to earliness on 
account of blight. Two pieces yielded 12 large and seven small tubers. Peachblow shape, 
roundish, irregular, as shown in Pig. 46, from nature. Eyes rather deep, purplish. Skin buff 
with some pink. Yield 6 % pounds, or 786.50 bushels to the acre.” 
This yield is equaled by only one other variety reported, which is given exactly the same 
figures. 
This is the most distinct variety ever offered. It is so unlike other potatoes in appearance 
that a bushel of them mixed at random in a large pile of one hundred different varieties, 
I could be easily picked out again with a certainty. It is almost perfectly round, pinkish skin, 
white flesh, is exceedingly early, grows compact in the hill, yields well, resists rot, is good 
quality, and keeps sound and solid for a year. 
A friend of mine, Horticulturist at one of the experiment stations, mentioned incidentally 
in a recent letter the value he placed on my new potato. Out of about 300 varieties tested at 
the Station, it was, with a single exception, the earliest of them all, and yielded nearly 300 
bushels per acre. He mentioned that a friend of his had tested carefully fifteen of the earliest 
varieties he could find and pronounced this the earliest of his list. 
J. J. II. Gregory, Seedsman, of Marblehead, Mass., and what better authority can you de- 
sire, says of this variety in his catalogue for '9t : “This is a new variety that I want all 
my customers who want a first-class early potato to make the acquaintance of. In my last 
year’s catalogue, I spoke of it as follows : 1 Among the sixty -four varieties planted in my ex- 
perimental plot last season, this was the most distinct efirly variety ; the short, stout vines, 
and the broad, stout leaves attracted the attention of every visitor. The crop was an excel- 
