last question I will answer. I like the Early 
Rose best for early, taking yield, quality, 
beauty and flavor into consideration. The 
King of Earlies, or Bheese's Fifty Dollar 
potato, as he has it in his Essay, is very 
good; and the Peerless, I think, is decided- 
where seed may be had. We cannot say 
what the best kind for Connecticut is. The 
same variety of wheat is not adapted to all 
localities and soils. We shall be glad to re¬ 
ceive experience relating to this subject. 
Our correspondent says nothing of the ele¬ 
vation and character of his soil. 
like those of the Early Rose, as well as its 
general appearance. Vines medium bight, 
somewhat spreading, and the tubers grow 
very compactly in the hill. For 
three years they have been grown* 
side by side with t he Early Rose, 
and have proved from seven to 
ten days earlier than that favor¬ 
ite variety. They are more pro¬ 
ductive than the Early Rose, ful¬ 
ly equal if not superior in quali¬ 
ty, flesh very white, dry and 
_ floury, an excellent keeper, and 
a has, so far, shown no indications 
of rot. The present proprietors 
.. intend to test it the coming sea¬ 
t's^ eon and increase the stock. If 
it proves to possess all the good 
qualities claimed for it by the 
y “ j raiser, it will be named and 
offered for sale in 1873. It is not 
now in market. Mr. Wood- 
house, who reserved a half peck I 
of the stock of these potatoes for 
his own use, when he sold to the 
Messrs. Bt.tss, claims to have 
been offered $500 for that half 
peck —or $4,000 per bushel—by 
• one of bis neighbors. We do 
not mention this to excite in opr readers 
an undue desire for a novelty. The offer 
reminds us of a friend of ours who sold a 
dog for $150. When we asked him how 
that happened, he said he received in ex- 
GROWING POTATOES UNDER STRAW 
In the Rural New-Yorker of February 
3d, your Illinois correspondent asks for in¬ 
formation respecting the growing of pota¬ 
toes on t he surface of meadow or pasture 
lands, by merely dropping the seed thereon 
and covering the same with straw, without 
anything more being done until digging 
time. The above question I should have 
some difficulty lit answering were 1 to at¬ 
tempt it just as it reads, for I have had no 
experience in growing potatoes merely by 
dropping t hem on the surface, without fur¬ 
ther preparation of any kind, except the 
covering of straw; but have produced a 
very excellent crop by previously plowing 
and cultivating the soil before planting. 1 
also covered the seed not quite its usual 
dept h before 1 applied the covering of Btraw^ 
which was about ft foot in thickness. 
The growing of potatoes in this way is 
not without its difficulties. The informa¬ 
tion 1 have gained, not only by personal ex¬ 
perience, but from various sources, and 
especially from those who have tried the 
experiment, all go to prove that the straw 
arrangement is not, exactly a failure, nor by 
any means is it the all in all. Those who 
grew them on the surface without plowing, 
having only a straw covering, say in some 
instances they have done well ; but tlie 
greatest difficulty to be experienced in 
growing them in this way, is in connection 
with the digging; they are so thoroughly 
mixed and tangled with the straw, together 
with the half rotten sod and soil, thus 
making it rather troublesome in securing 
them all. Another drawback to this mode 
of growing potatoes is the mice, which i 
have found to be rather destructive beings, 
the straw appearing to be just the place for 
them to operate in. The only benefit to be 
derived from this way of growing potatoes 
is, the straw covering acts ns u special rem¬ 
edy to keep the moisture in the ground, 
especially in a dry season, and saves the 
ordinary" cultivation in keepingdowu weeds, 
&c.— Canada, Province oI Ontario. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of Feb. 3d, 
1873, an Illinois correspondent asks if any 
of the readers of the Rural have, the past 
year, produced a crop of potatoes by drop¬ 
ping the seed on the surface of meadow or 
pasture land, without plowing, and covering 
it with straw; and with what results, &c. 
Now, as I have been raising potatoes under 
straw for the fast thirty 7 years and more, I 
will give you a bit of my r experience. I did 
not raise any potatoes for some years past 
Without plowing the ground. 1 have tried 
to raise them on sod and on plowed ground, 
without covering with ground before I put 
l lie. straw on, but i bad no good crops either 
way. It will do on sod, or on plowed 
ground, if you put plenty of straw on, in a 
wet season. 1 never raised a poor crop of 
potatoes yet, when I first plowed the ground 
then planted them in the same way 7 as I 
Hungarian Hay.— B. O. Joiixson asks if 
steaming will destroy the injurious prop¬ 
erties of Hungarian hay. We cannot say 
from experience. Hungarian grass, if cut 
when in bloom and properly cured, will not 
injure any kind of stock. We think that is 
the best way of treating it; but if the hay 
on hand contains full formed seed, the tes¬ 
timony of those who have fed it is against 
its use. for horses especially'. If wo had 
such, we should not hesitate to try the ex- 
Orchard Grass Seed.— G. Walker is 
advised to write to any first-class seedsman, 
advertising in our columns, for Orchard 
Grass seeds; they will give him the price. 
It is an excellent pasture and meadow 
grass. We would not sow it alone. It does 
well to seed with red clover. For meadow, 
if sown alone, not less than two bushels of 
seed per acre should be used. 
SUTTON’S NEW GIANT HYBRID CLOVER, 
ly the best and most profitable potato 1 
ever saw for late. I had it planted side by 
side with the Peach Blow last season ; the 
Peerless yielded double that of the Peach 
Blow, and is a much nicer potato.— Michael 
Jacoby, Marlon, 0. 
NEW FORAGE PLANTS 
Several new forage plants are offered 
this season for the first time. Among those 
that come to us well recommended, we may 7 
mention Sutton’s New Giant Hybrid Cow 
Clover, and Carter’s New Annual Blue Clo¬ 
ver. The first is claimed to he a hybrid be¬ 
tween the common red clover (Trifolinm 
vratensc,) and the Zigzag clover, (T. medi¬ 
um.) It is said to be extraordinarily pro¬ 
ductive 
FIELD NOTES AND QUERIES, 
Seed from the Male Pumpkin.—Will 
some of your readers give their experience 
in raising pumpkins from the seed of what 
and under favorable circumstances 
may bo mown three times in one season. It 
is also very succulent, and succeeds on soils 
not well adapted to the growth of our com¬ 
mon red clover. Whether it will succeed 
in this oountry or not, remains to be deter¬ 
mined. 
Carter’s Annual Blue Clover is probably 7 
not a true clover, but a variety of Medicaijo, 
and we have to regret that its scientific 
name, or origin, is not given in the English 
journals, although they speak highly of its 
merits. Judging from the meager descrip¬ 
tion received, and the accompanying illus¬ 
tration, we conclude it is nearly related to 
the common Lucerne, (Medicaqo saliva.,) 
also known as Spanish Trefoil, Alfalfa, etc. 
The common lucerne produces flowers of a 
violet-purple or bluish color, and it would 
not require a very powerful imagination to 
suggest the name of Blue Clover. It is, 
however, a good old pluut, well worthy of 
cultivation, especially in hot, dry climates; 
and we have only to hope that Mr. Carter 
has really produced an improved variety, as 
claimed. 
NOTES AND QUERIES, 
lil-lookmg a pattern as man over designed 
for his delight. There is no breadth and 
no repose in it, but a dotting-about of beds 
and borders everywhere, and a piece of 
water in the center appears to have been 
designed from the pattern that would re¬ 
sult from placing three fiddles with their 
necks together, and then tracing a mark 
around them. It will be apparent what I 
mean—a hybrid between the geometrical 
and the natural form of fountain basin; the 
"'hole surrounded by 7 a vertical margin of 
stone.” 
To Cover a Steep Bank with Grass.— 
A German method is:—For each square rod 
carter’s new annual blue clover. 
is called the male pumpkin—the pumpkins 
with a protuberance on the blossom end*/ 
Also, if any have ever raised a pumpkin 
that did not appear on the vine several day r s 
before the blossom did. I ask these ques¬ 
tions because there has been some discus¬ 
sion about t he fecundity of different pump¬ 
kins (or their seed) and of what kind of 
blossoms produced pumpkins. — K., Niles , 
Mich. 
The Best Kind of Spring Wheat.—A 
Correspondent at Deep River, Conn., asks 
what is the best kind of spring wheat, and 
A NEW SEEDLING POTATO 
George W. Woodhouse of Vermont, an 
amateur cultivator of seedling potatoes, 
lias raised a very promising seedling pota¬ 
to— so promising that the entire stock has 
been purchased by B. K. Bliss & 8on, the 
introducers of the Early Rose to public 
notice. We give an engraving of this po¬ 
tato, which is said to have been raised from 
a seed-ball of the Jackson White in 1868. 
The Garnet Chili was growing in close 
proximity to the Jackson White, and the 
dry garden earth and loam. This is placed 
in a tub aud to it liquid manure, diluted 
with about two-thirds of water, is added 
and well stirred in. so as to bring the whole 
to the consistency of mortar. The slope j s 
to be cleaned off anil made perfectly smooth 
and then well watered, afterwhich the paste 
just mentioned is to be applied with a trow¬ 
el and made as even and thin as possible, 
bhould it crack by exposure to the air, it 
is to be again watered aud smoothed up, dav 
by 7 day 7 , until the grass makes its appear¬ 
ance, which will be in from eight to four¬ 
teen days, and the whole declivity will 
soon be covered by u close carpet of green. 
Grouping of Plants,—There is no way 
in which this deadening formalism of our 
gardens maybe more effectually destroyed 
than by the system of naturally grouping 
hardy plants. It may afford most pleasing 
results, and impress on others the amount 
of variety and loveliness to be obtained 
from many families now unused. Trees 
and shrubs, distinguished for their fine foli¬ 
age, collected in a quiet glade; and then 
brlghfc-foliaged trees should be set in con¬ 
trast with quieter colors, and varied with 
bright beds of flowers and leaf plants, or 
hardy flowering shrubs. These groups 
should be irregularly but artistically plant¬ 
ed. Then on a knoll plant a large bouquet of 
the rosaceous family—hawthorns, cherries, 
plums, pears, peaches, almonds, &c. There 
is so much that may be done to add to the 
bewildering beauty of a landscape by natu¬ 
rally artistic planting, that we are often 
astonished that people do not “see it.” 
A NEW SEEDLING POTATO 
