Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1909-11-16

New YORK, Nov. 8, 1909.
| Editor Democrat
acknowledge with thanks receipt ol
the Democrats" cheque for s25 in pay
ment of the award to me of the frs
prize for the largest crop Of pOtatoe,
raised this season on an acre in the towI
of Paris, the crop being 346 bushels anC
5S lbs. of good, merchantable potatoes
Iu the course of my business experience
| have received good many cheques fol
S25 but have never received one thai
was more acceptable than this.
beg to thank you for your prompt
courtesy in the matter, and especially
desire, through the columns of the
Democrat" to thank the unknown
donor, and shall be glad if you have an
opportunity to do so, if you will extend
my thanks personally to him. He has
certainly stimulated the potato industry
in Paris.
But, so far as am personally concern
ed, | must say, on the principle of
Honor to whom honor is due" that the
credit for having secured the first prize
at Longlook Farm is largely due to my
farm superintendent, Mr.. Albion l.. Alb
bott.
When the prize was offered said to
him-"Now, We must make good,
strong, hard try for the first prize, or
if We can't get that We must get one of
the other prizes" He replied that be
feared that other contestants would
have richer soil, but that if desired it,
he would do the very best that he could
towards securing prize, and he wisely
remarked that even if we did not get a
prize, we would, at all events, get a
good mess of potatoes!
1t is through his good Judgment, and
his hard work, that we have come out
ahead in this competition.
Complying with your request for the
particulars as to the raising of our crop,
these particulars being also required, |
believe, by the terms of the contest,
would say, that our land, on which the
potatoes were raised, is the ordinary,
medium light loan with a sub-soil of
hard pin gravel, just about such land as
is common in the vicinity of Paris Hill,
neither better nor poorer. The acre was
os a slightly sloping side hill, with no
artificial drainage, but with fair natural
drainage.
We put on seven cords of barn dress
ing, carefully plowing it under and
thoroughly narrowed with disc har-
row. For seed we used about IA bushels
of Worlds Fair, and Carmen No. po-
tstoes. At planting time, on or about
the 3lst day of May, We furrowed the
acre thoroughly and put on fourteen
hundred pounds of high grade Essex
Phosphate, carefully mixing it by hand
with the soil; we dropped the potatoes
by hand, about ~ inches apart and COW
cred them by hand. We began cultivat-
ing about as soon as the potatoes broke
ground, and we kept on cultivating until
the tops became so large that we could
not cultivate any longer. may say
right here that when came up to Paris
Hill in August on my summer vacation,
| was greatly impressed with the degree
of cultivation that had been put on this
patch of potatoes. l had never seen
elsewhere the ground so finely cultivat-
ed. Ii was not quite SO fine as ground
coffee, but there were no cakes, no
Jumps, no hard places; the ground had
been so thoroughly cultivated that the
potatoes got the benefit of every bit of
moisture there was. We sprayed three
times very thoroughly with usual Bor-
deaux mixture. About the 25th of June,
the last time we hoed the potatoes, we
sowed broadcast six hundred pounds Of
the same fertilizer as originally used,
and using the wings of the cultivator,
we brought up the ground thus sown,
close to the potatoes.
l am glad to be able to make this
small contribution to the ever present
question-"Does farming pay?" and the
other almost equally ever present in
quiry-''Can a city man operate farm?"
and am particularly glad that the gen.
erous offer of these prizes has brought
the fact prominently before US farmers
that our soil in Paris seems to be very
we'll adapted to raising potatoes.
Yours very truly,
CHARLES L. CASE.