In many parts of the country the potato crop was a sad failure, particularly in the immediate vicinity of New York. The heretofore profitable acres of New Jersey and Long Island - where as much work and money are expended on this crop as on most of the vegetables nominally requiring higher culture - the blight swept like a besom over the fields and the harvest was cut down to comparatively low figures. Last spring a publishing house, in conjunction with the leading fertilizer manufacturers, offered large money prizes for the best yields of various farm crops. The potatoes only concern us, as being somewhat of a garden product. In this contest many good yields were reported, the largest and the winner of $1100 prize money, being that of Chas. B. Coy, of Aroostook Co., Maine, who produced 738 bushels on a single measured acre of land. As to soil and culture, the land was fairly fertile, and the culture most thorough throughout the season. Other noteworthy results in this trial are reported from Western New York 669 bushels, Maine 537. Minnesota 532, Maine 523, and 54 other yields above 200 bushels per acre, reported all the way from Pennsylvania to California. It is noticeable that the largest yield on stable manures, either alone, or in connection with fertilizers, was 491 bushels ; therefore, it is self-evident that high grade chemical fertilizers are, by all odds the most efficacious in crop producing capacity.

It would be interesting to have a statement of the cost and comparative market value, per bushel, of each of these competing crops.