Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-02

market with potatoes. They certainly did
 not do it, and what was the reason? ]? This
 he would like to hear discussed to-day, and
 also the question as to what price potatoes
 could be raised and sold for if the crop was
 successful, and at what price if unsuccessful. He had known, when he was boy, of pota- toes being sold at eighteen and twenty cents bushel in the New York market with profit, and he inquired why it was that they
 could not be sold now at a profit at fifty or
 seventy-fve cents, or even one dollar bush-
 eL
 Mir. Street, of East Haven, said he had
 rich experience from his fathers help when
 he gave him lot and told him to do the best
 he could with it. His father always said that
 if he could get all the manure he wanted he could raise potatoes but this had not been
 the speakers experience in late years. Whether it was because the seasons changed
 he could not tell. He felt, however, that if
 he could succeed in farming or gardening in any way it was by raising potatoes. He had experimented great deal with fertilizers,
 but not with the most gratifying results. Marvin Olmstead, of North Haven, said that years ago he had assisted in gathering from 400 to 600 bushels of potatoes to the acre, but he could not understand how it was
 that with the present Improvements in agri- cultural implements and the benefits of fer tilizers that so few potatoes could be raised and that the yield to the acre was so small. Mr. Street said his experience in raising potatoes was so contradictory that he felt delicate about giving it. His practice was to plant in furrows and place a fine sweating manure on the potatoes after they are dropped. In ploughing he put on very little manure broadcast. He frequently commenced plant ing in March, but not later than the first of April, and then continued planting at inter vals for month or two. He got his hun dred dollars to the acre easier from the first crop than from the second or third crops. hot "a about one thousand bushels of potatoes on about three and one half acres. The best | fertilizer he had ever tried was fish and pot 1 ash placed in the drills and mixed with the earth before dropping the potatoes. He | thought he had used about half ton of fer | tilizer to the acre. The price he received | for his potatoes would average about $50 to | the acre. 1 Mr. Morgan said he promised to keep the weeds out of his potatoes and he did it. He kept his cultivators and tools going all the ! time, and while he had more work than his l neighbors to keep the weeds out, yet he had | easier work to dig them. He said that the | dryer the season the more the ground should ! be stirred and he did not believe it would do l any hurt to stir the ground often in wet | season.
 1 In reply to question Mir. Morgan said he | did not believe that manure routed potatoes. \ He thought they routed from other causes. | Professor Brewer said it was generally be- l lieved that the richer manure tended to rot | the potatoes; but he hardly thought this was the case. There were some years that pota- | toes routed more than others, but he did not l think the manure had anything to do with it. The rot comes from specific fungus, l but just when that strikes the potatoes 1t is hard to tell. If anybody can discover this l they will make 8 fortune. | Mir. Webb said he did not believe that the
 farmers were particular enough in selecting
 their seed, or in cultivating, or in taking
 care of the potatoes after they are harvested
 The president announced that the lecture
 for the next meeting would be announced
 through the papers, and the April meeting 1 WAS then adjourned