A Potato Experiment

Last fall we plowed up m acre of rather poor gravelly land, that had been in grass ior ten years ; in the spring i'our cords of well composted barnyard inanure was spread on and plowedin; then the field was harrowed, and fiirrowed three feet apart. The we selected medium sized potatoes of the 'Trol i tic" variety, scoopéd out all the eyes but one, and planted one f oot apart in the f nrrows ; manured in the hills with hen-manure, one handful well mixed with the soil to each hill. The hen inanure was scraped from under the roosts in the poultry houses during the winter, mixed with three times itsbulk of dry road dust, and stored in boxes and barrels under cover until wanted; as nearly as we could estímate, we uscd ten barrels of this mixture on the field. The potatoes were thoroughly hoed three times, and the bugs kept under by hand pickingand Paris green. We harvested 200 bushels by actual measurement; all were marketable except eight bushels which were too small. The potatoes were large, remarkably even in size, and but very few scabby ones. The f ollowing is the debit and credit account. To plowing , $ 3 50 Iliu-rowing and furrowing 1 50 Compost t UU Ten brls. hen manure at $2 per brl... 20 1)0 Seert 12 oo riantrag s uu Hc.eing '■', 50 Digging 6 00 t 54 50 Uy 284 bushels, at 50 cents Ï142 00 Net protit $87 50 Tnterest, taxes, and the costof "bugging" were not reckoned in the cost of the erop, as the manure left in the ground, and the eight bushels of small potatoes wei e sold from the field, so there was no cost for marketing. We consider this erop a pretty fair showing for the "barren hills of New England." and if it provea nnything it proves that poultry manure properly applied to the soil, is fully as valuableasany of the commercial zers.-