d successful cultivation of the
Potato.

BELLEFONTE, PA., January, 1870.
W. T. WYLIE.

OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,
NEW-YORK, January, 1870.

REV. W. T. WYLIE: DEAR SIR: The essays submitted to us by Mr.
Bliss, according to your announcement, numbered about twenty.
Several could not be called essays from their brevity, and others
were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required and
were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of
Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee,
decidedly superior to the others as a practical treatise, sure to
be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and well
worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself.

In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours,
MASON C. WELD, _Chairman_.

POTATO CULTURE.

BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The design of this little treatise is to present, with minuteness of
detail, that mode of culture which experience and observation have
proved to be best adapted to the production of the Potato crop.

It is written by one who himself holds the plow, and who has, since his
early youth, been engaged in agriculture in its various branches, to the
exclusion of other pursuits.

The statements which appear in the following pages are based upon actual
personal experience, and are the results of many experiments made to
test as many theories.

Throughout the Northern States of our country the potato is the third
of the three staple articles of food. It is held in such universal
esteem as to be regarded as nearly indispensable. This fact is
sufficient to render a thorough knowledge of the best varieties for use,
the character of soil best adapted to their growth, their cultivation
and after-care, matters of the highest importance to the farmers of the
United States.

The main object of this essay is so to instruct the novice in
potato-growing that he may be enabled to go to work understandingly and
produce the potato in its highest perfection, and realize from his
labors bestowed on the crop the greatest possible profits.

SOIL REQUIRED--ITS PREPARATION.

The potato is most profitably gr