-~ my conjectures were perfectly well founded. 
402 SOLANACEE. 
The common white kidney, of a peculiar flavour, esteemed by 
many. 2. The red kidney, reckoned somewhat more hardy. 
3. The black kidney. 
In size the early sorts are the least, and the oxnoble and 
late champion the largest. In colour the earlier sorts are in 
general white, the oblong sorts red, and the latest sorts purple. 
In quality potatoes are either watery, as the very early sorts ; 
waxy, as the American and Irish reds; or mealy, as the ash- 
leaved early, the champion, the kidney, &c. 
The following sorts for forcing in frames, or for the first crop 
in the open garden are recommended by London nurserymen. 
1. Foxe's seedling. 2. Early manly. 3. Early mule. 4. 
Broughton dwarf. 
For general cultivation in the open garden or field. 
1. Early kidney, good flavour and very early, keeps well. 
2. Nonsuch, early, prolific. 3. Early straw, good early sort for 
general use. 4. Small American, small white, much esteemed. 
For main crops the following sorts are arranged in order of 
their ripening. 
1. Early champion, very generally cultivated, prolific and 
mealy. 2. Red-nose-kidney. 3. Large kidney. 4. Bread- 
fruit, prolific, white, and mealy. 5. Lancashire pink-eye, good. 
6. Black skin, mealy, white, and good. 7. Purple, very mealy, 
productive, and keeps well. 8. Red apple, keeping the long- 
est of any. 9. Red American, keeps well. 
In general every town and district has its peculiar and 
favourite varieties, so that, excepting as to the best early kinds, 
and the best for a general crop in all soils, any list, however 
extended, could be of little use. Dr. Hunter, in his geological 
essays, has limited the duration of a variety to fourteen years, 
and Knight, Hort. trans. vol. 1, concurs with him in opinion. 
There are some excellent sorts of party coloured potatoes in 
Scotland, which degenerate when removed from one district to 
another; and most of the Scotch and Irish varieties degenerate 
in England. The best mode, therefore, to order potatoes -for 
seed is to give a general description of the size, colour, form, 
and ouyality wavted, and vj hcthcr for an early or late crop. 
Propagation.—The potatoe may be propagated from seed, 
cuttings or layers of the green shoots, sprouts from the eyes of 
the tubers, or portions of the tubers containing a bud or eye. 
The object of the first method is new, or improved varieties ; 
of the second little more than curiosity, or to multiply as quickly 
as possible a rare and excellent sort; and of the third to save 
the tubers for food. The method by portions of the tubers is 
the best, and that almost universally practised for the general 
purposes both of field and garden culture. One good eye to 
each set is sufficient, and in making the sets reject the extreme 
watery end of the tuber, as apt to run too much to haulm; 
reject also the extreme portion of the dry end, as more likely 
to be tardy in growth, and produce the curl. The middle 
portion is therefore the best. 
When grown from seed the quality of the kinds cannot be 
ascertained till the end of the second summer. ‘The earliest 
varieties of potatoes, it has been already remarked, do not 
produce flowers or seed. T. A. Knight, desirous of saving seed 
from one of these.sorts took a very ingenious method of in- 
ducing the plants to produce flowers. ‘‘I suspected the cause,” 
he says, ** of the constant failure of the early potatoe to produce 
seeds to be the preternaturally early formation of the tuberous 
root, which draws off for its support that portion of the sap 
which in other varieties of the same species affords nutriment to 
the blossoms and seeds, and experiment soon satisfied me that 
I took several 
methods of placing the plants to grow in such a situation as 
enabled me readily to prevent the formation of the tuberous 
roots, but the following appeared the best. ^ Having fixed 
I. SorANvM. 
strong stakes in the ground I raised the mould in a heap round 
the bases of them, and in contact with the stakes: on their 
south sides I planted the potatoes from which I wished to obtain 
seeds. When the young plants were about 4 inches high, they 
were secured to the stakes with shreds and nails, and the mould 
was then washed away by a strong current of water from the 
bases of their stems, so that the fibrous roots only of the 
plants entered into the soil. The fibrous roots of this plant are 
perfectly distinct organs from the runners which give existence, 
and subsequently convey nutriment to the tuberous roots ; and 
as the runners spring from the stems only of the plants, which 
are, in the mode of culture I have described, placed wholly out 
of the soil, the formation of tuberous roots is easily prevented; 
and whenever this is done numerous blossoms will soon appear, 
and almost every blossom will afford fruit and seeds." Knight 
considering that the above facts, which are more fully explained 
in the philosophical transactions for 1806, were sufficient to 
prove that the same fluid or sap gives existence alike to the 
tuber, and the blossom, and seeds, and that, whenever a plant of 
the potatoe affords either seeds or blossoms, a diminution of the 
crop of tubers, or an increased expenditure of the riches of 
the soil, must necessarily take place, succeeded in producing 
varieties of sufficiently luxuriant growth and large produce 
for general culture which never produced blossoms. The paper 
from which we quote is concluded by some excellent observa- 
tions on this subject, chiefly relative to field culture, and which 
ought to be studied carefully by whoever intends to attempt 
producing new varieties from seed. 
Quantity of sets.—Abercrombie directs “for a plot of early 
and secondary crops 8 feet wide by 16 in length, planted in 
rows 15 inches asunder by 9 inches in the row, a quarter of a 
peck of roots or cuttings. For full-timed sorts, and main 
crops, a compartment 12 feet wide by 32 in length, planted 
in rows 2 feet distant, by 12 inches in the row, half a peck of 
roots or cuttings will be required." 
Soil and Manure.—The best soil for the potatoe is light, fresh, 
unmixed loam, where they can be grown without manure. 
Here they have always the best flavour. In a wet soil they 
grow sickly, and produce watery tubers, infected with worms 
and other vermin. To a poor soil dung must be applied ; littery 
dung will produce the earliest and largest crop, but mellow 
dung, rotten leaves, or vegetable earth, will least affect the 
flavour of the tubers. 
Season for Planting.— The last fortnight of March, and 
the first fortnight of April, is the most proper time for planting 
the main crops, a little earlier or later as the spring may: be 
forward, the ground dry or wet. Occasional plantings may be 
made in May, or even the beginning of June."— Abercrombie. 
Methods of Planting.—The sets of whatever kind, or the 
plants forwarded in pots to be turned out with their balls entire 
for producing an early crop in the open air, should always be 
inserted in regular rows, the object of which is to admit with 
greater facility the stirring the earth between, and the earthing 
up of the plants. The rows may be 15 inches apart for the 
small early sorts, and for the larger 20 inches, or 2 feet, accord- 
ing to the poorness or richness of the soil. In the lines traced 
make holes for the sets at 8, 12, or 15 inches distance, letting 
their depth not be less than 3, nor exceeding 5 inches. In 
light soil it is performed by a dibble with a blunt end, and a 
short cross iron shoulder, about 4 or 5 inches from the bottom, 
as a guide to make the holes of an equal depth; one person 
making the holes, and another dropping a set into each hole. 
Strike the earth in upon them fully with a dibble, hoe, or rake, 
either as each row is planted, or when the whole planting is 
finished. On strong heavy land the planting ought to be on 
raised beds, with alleys, or in drills on the crown or parallel 
ee: ~ 
i gy cR 
