University Experimental farm. 
251 
POTATOES. 
The following’ varieties were planted May 13th, in rows feet 
apart, hills 18 inches apart in row. The time of ripening is not 
given, as the vines were attacked by a fungus growth, about the 
middle of August, which soon destroyed the vitality of all varie¬ 
ties alike. To this cause I attribute the small yield of the later 
varieties. 
Variety. 
Bushels per 
acre, of 60 
lbs. each. 
Alpha . 
106.7 
Earlv Rose. 
193.5 
Earl}' Favorite.*.. 
140.7 
Extra Early Vermont. 
168.4 
Snow Flake. 
Brownell’s Beauty. 
201 
105.5 
Compton’s Surprise. 
137.7 
Peachblow. 
58.6 
Sutton’s Redskin Flour-ball. 
57.3 
Eureka. 
197 
Nonsuch. 
168.4 
Acme. 
130.7 
Hundred Fold. 
80.7 
IMPROVEMENT OP SOILS BY MECHANICAL MEANS. 
This experiment was begun in 1871, to be continued five years, 
upon four adjacent plats of an acre each, which have been cultivated 
as follows: 
Plat 1, to be plovved to a depth of five inches only. 
_ « 
Plat 2, to be plowed twelve inches deep. 
Plat 3, to be plowed tw^enty inches deep by trench-plowing. 
Plat 4, to be plowed twenty inches deep by subsoiling. 
Plats 1 and 2 have been cultivated in the prescribed manner from 
the beginning. 
Plat 3, in 1871, was plowed twelve inches deep only; in 1872 and 
1873, seventeen inches; in 1874 and 1875, eighteen inches, which 
is as deep as it was found practicable to plow. 
Plat 4 was subsoiled sixteen inches deep in 1871; seventeen 
inches in 1872 and 1873, and eighteen inches in 1874 and 1875. 
The cultivation of these plats has been the same in all other re¬ 
spects than those mentioned. 
The soil is clay, with heavy clay subsoil; the land is level and 
