would as soon t hink of planting a whole ear of 
com in a hill as a whole potato. I have often 
in case of a new kind cut the eye cluster into 
three or four pieces, and had a good hill from 
each piece. As to time of planting, I always 
try to get my whole crop in •or early pota¬ 
toes. 1 believe the earlier they can be got in 
the more certainty of a good crop. As to 
kinds, I have raised legions of them; but for 
to-day and for my location I would say for 
early, the Beauty of Hebron; for medium, the 
Burbank’s Seedling and the Mammoth Pearl, 
and for late, the Bello and the Late Rose. Of 
course, others are good and may do better in 
other places. J. P. 
Growing Potatoes. 
I have a small farm of only 40 acres, but it 
is like a garden, lying nearly level; a sandy 
loam, neither too wet nor too dry, and in good 
condition. I raised last year 1,800 bushels of 
potatoes on 10 acres aud it was a poor season 
with us for potatoes on account of the blight. 
I planted mostly Early Rose, but I shall not 
plant this sort any more. I planted Queen, 
White Elephant, Clark’s No. 1 and Late Rose, 
all of which are good, and went over 200 
bushels per acre. I use all the ashes I can get, 
mostly saw-mill ashes; but I get them cheap— 
$1,00 per load of 45 bushels. I get about 300 
bushels per year, and would get more if I 
could. I drop them in the hill when planting 
—about 20 bushels per acre. s. d. c. 
l.ate Snowiiake. ..Sop. 25., .22t>>4.. Large, splendid po¬ 
tatoes. 
belle.Sep. 15...235 ..Large. 
Defiance..Oct. 1,.. .8839S.. Too many small 
ones. 
St. Patrick.Oct. 1_250 .. Large size, no small. 
Hose's Seedling...Oct. 1....238 .Large, very hand¬ 
some. 
Rogers’s No.4.Oct. 1_293*4. .Large. 
Wail’s orange.Oct, t... . 
Queen ot the V’y.Oct, 1... .19!) .. All large, few In hlU 
Champion of Am.Sep. 23...238 ..Handsome, but too 
many small. 
Rogers’s No. 7....Sep. 2:5...258 ..Large,nosmnllones. 
Mammoth Pearl..Sep. 25...257 ..Large. 
Cook’s Superb... .Sep. 25.. 2.5136, .Large, few small. 
Sllverskln.Sep. 25...231 .. 
Those marked as ripening Oct. 1 had tops 
rather green when dry at that date. The 
Matchless and Silverskin, sent out with high 
recommendation by B. K. Bliss a few years 
ago, are worthless on my ground. Wall’s Or¬ 
ange, introduced last year at $4 per pound, 
gave a good yield of good-looking potatoes. 
Tops were very vigorous and wellco5‘ored with 
a mass of seed-balls—the only variety that pro¬ 
duced seed. 
It will be seen that the Defiance gave by far 
the largest crop. The tubers are handsome, of 
good quality, but there is one fault—too many 
small ones. The Late Snowflake is a sport of 
the Early Snowflake saved by C. C. Phillips, of 
Vesson. It is a great improvement in size and 
yield on the Early Snowflake. The variety 
whose appearance pleased me best at digging 
time was Rose's Seedling. The earliest of all 
was Early Eclectic. It was three weeks ahead 
of Ea rly Rose . Had they been planted very 
early I think the yield would have been better; 
perhaps much better. 
White Star I see praised a great deal in the 
papers, but I found it the meanest potato I 
ever grew, not having a good quality about it. 
I should state the trial plot was in the middle 
of a field of potatoes and 5vas given the same 
cultivation as the whole field received, my ob¬ 
ject being, not to see how large a crop I could 
grow, but to learn the relative yield of the dif¬ 
ferent kinds in ordinary field culture. 
Madison Co., N. Y. E. W. Davis. 
About 25 years ago there was quite a stir 
among potato-growers in this vicinity about 
the smallest possible quantity of seed that 
would be desirable or profitable to plant, and 
many large potato fields were planted with 
only one eye to the hill. While under the 
most favorable circumstances, where the soil 
was firm and moist, one eye was found to pro¬ 
duce fairly well; yet planting only one eye 
was not found profitable in general field cul¬ 
ture, aud many of those who strongly favored 
that way soon gave it up and planted more 
“seed,” with more of the potato, and at this 
time more potato-growers plant two pieces, 
with two or three eyes to a piece, in each hill, 
than any other way. There seems to be a 
medium in the amount of seed, as well as in 
the depth of planting. 
Several years ago I fitted up a fine piece of 
potato ground and laid out the drills six inches 
deep. I planted the potatoes as usual, not 
covering them quite the full six inches until 
after they began to come up. Dry weather 
continued during nearly all of the time they 
were growing. Crop a large yield of fine po¬ 
tatoes. I then thought I had discovered a 
better way to plant potatoes. So, the next 
Spring, with much confidence, I planted a 
larger piece in the same way, only I took more 
care to fit up the soil, and the whole piece was 
fit for an onion bed. I planted the same depth 
aud cultivated well and kept 5veeds out and 
bugs off. In both years the ground was kept 
nearly fiat and cultivated the same. Wet 
weather continued most of the time while they 
were growing. Crop a failure; soil the same 
as before. In the same field I planted a piece 
of potatoes, worked in the usual way, two or 
three inches deep, cultivated well and hoed 
with a hoe twice. The last time we hilled 
them up enough so there would be no green 
ends when we dug them. Crop an excellent 
one—fully 100 barrels to the acre. The soil, 
when the potatoes were planted deep and cul¬ 
tivated fiat, kept heavy all Summer, aud no 
amount of working 3Vould make it loose and 
lively. But the soil, when the hills were 
raised above the level of the ground, kept 
loose and light, and I think that made all the 
difference in the crop. When the soil is light 
deep planting may be the best with fiat cul¬ 
ture, or with the soil slightly round around 
the potato, but when the soil is heavy or hard 
and clayey, two or three inches is deep enough 
to plant, and a broad, flat bill, with covering 
enough to keep the potatoes from getting 
green is, in my experience, the best way. 
Albany Co., N. Y. William Goodrich. 
Early Sweet Corn. 
W. F. Broavn’s experience, as given in a late 
Rural, coincides with mine as to the “Blood 
Red Sweet.” Take a clean turf; put it in a 
box upside clown; place the kernels carefully 
on the turf; then put another sod over it to 
cover it well; then pour on hot water. In a 
few days tbo corn will be well sprouted: suit¬ 
able for planting. A little copperas dissolved in 
the water will be advantageous. w. o. n. 
A Correction. 
In the description of the Shoe-peg Com in 
the Rural for February 24, speaking of the 
two varieties which I had produced from the 
same origin, I am made to say of the ears 
representing these varieties that they had 
now assumed a fixed characteristic, except that 
thej r varied slightly in appearnuco. 1 had pre¬ 
viously said that they differed materially both 
in size and time of ripening. This is contra¬ 
dictory. What I should have written was 
that both of the varieties had now assumed a 
fixed characteristic except that the ears 6c- 
longing to each wore not. quite uniform in ap¬ 
pearance. The two distinct varieties vary, of 
course. Hugh L. Wysor. 
Potato Experiments. 
The follo5ving are the results of my experi¬ 
ments with different varieties of potatoes in 
1882: 
AGRICULTURAL ADVANTAGES OF 
DAKOTA AND MONTANA. 
PROFESSOR LEVI STOCKBRIDGE. 
Quality 
when dug. 
Land grants to the Pacific railroads, and 
their rapid extension across the continent, have 
brought suddenly into market countless thous¬ 
ands of acres of unoccupied laud, owned in 
equal quantities by the Government and the 
railroads—some of it good, some bad, and 
some indifferent for ordinary agricultural pur¬ 
poses. All the roads have been from the first, 
are to-day, in great need of money for con¬ 
struction purposes, and have mado strenuous 
exertions to sell their granted lands to supply 
the want. Sundry systematic schemes have 
been invented and executed to create a groat 
land “boom.” One of them has been to assist 
in organizing speculative companies large aud 
small, to whom the best lands along the lines 
have been sold at specially low prices, aud 
with the addition of special important privi¬ 
leges. Another has been to unite the 011.0143 
of the roads and companies in flooding the 
entire East with unfair representations (to cull 
them by no harsher name) of the marvelous, 
and exhaustions fertility of their lauds, of the 
rapid but solid growth of their towns, which 
aro represented on paper with wide streets, 
great squares, and permanent building blocks 
of brick or stone, and with statements of the 
manifold advantages to be there enjoyed by 
actual farm settlers. Rail cars have been fit¬ 
ted up, adorned and beautified, with carefully 
selected specimens of farm crops of the region 
—specimens of wheat, oats, barley—of vege¬ 
tables and grasses, and then sent East and ex¬ 
hibited in our railroad depot«, and at our 
agricultural fairs as samples of ordinary crops 
from the railroad lands. We are told that 
lands in Avheat, yield 40; in oats, 100, aud in 
potatoes from 300 to 400 bushels per acre; that 
farmers and business men who huve immigra¬ 
ted to that region arc rapidly becoming 
wealthy and independent. 
A recent trip along the line of the Northern 
Pacific Railroad from Brainard in Minnesota 
During the past season I made a careful 
test to determine the yield of the new varie¬ 
ties of potatoes in comparison with the old, 
well-known sorts in ordinary field culture. 
Where potatoes are planted indifferent fields 
it is impossible to tell thoir relative merits as 
differences in quality, condition and richness of 
soils and in the amount of fertilizers applied 
to then make much more diffex-euce in the 
product than would bo caused by difference in 
the variety of potatoes planted. For my own 
information I determined to test the varieties 
side by side with a definite number of hills for 
each—25 hills were planted of each kind, al¬ 
though of a few varieties, having only one po¬ 
tato of each, I could not plant the whole 25 
hills, and the computation was made from the 
number the potato happened to make. One 
who does not grow potatoes expressly for seed 
can hardly realize the care needed to keep the 
different varieties from occasionally getting 
“mixed,” but still greater care is needed in 
making accurate experiments, No part of the 
work can be intrusted to hired help. 
The potatoes ware planted two by three feet 
apart, moasured. A piece containing one 
good eye was planted in each hill. The plant¬ 
ing 5ms all done on May 15. The time of ri¬ 
pening was noted by the dying down of the 
tops. When dug, the product of the various 
kinds was carefully weighed and the yield ]>er 
acre was computed therefrom. Below are 
given the variety, amount of crop per acre, 
No. of 
Bushels 
per Acre 
Large 
IwlC 
I Small. 
The ground was enriched by yard manure, 
spread light and plowed in five to six inches, 
and Stockbridge Potato Fertilizer hi the drill; 
1,400 pounds to the acre. d. a. s. 
Uncasville, Conn. 
Raising Potatoes. 
Here is my plan for growing potatoes: I 
select a piece of suitable ground in the Fall. 
Sod is bast. Manure it heavily with good 
barnyard manure and plow under so as to let 
the sod rot before cold weather; then in the 
Spring I manure with well-rotted manure on 
the surface, and harrow thoroughly till the 
manure is completely incorporated with the 
soil; then I mark one way three feet apart and 
plant two pieces in a place about one foot 
apart, about four inches deep. Then, just as 
the potatoes begin to break ground, I harrow 
thoroughly, then cultivate till it is time to lay 
by; then I use a single-shovel plow to hill 
them with: keep all weeds down—they are 
death to potatoes. I have raised from 450 to 
500 bushels to the acre in favorable seasons. 
Now, as to the seed: I cut to a single eye; I 
I. gi V 
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