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April and May, to be taken up in small portions as wanted for 
present eating. During the growth of the plants, open the 
lights fully in the middle of fine dry days, but shut at night, 
to guard against frost. Water attentively, as the mould and 
weather may require. Nicol’s plan is the same as that of 
Abercrombie. Mr. Hogg, a market-gardener in the neigh- 
bourhood of London, prepares an old cucumber or melon- 
bed, by removing the earth from its surface, and laying on in- 
stead an inch deep of fresh mould, on which he sets the pota- 
toes, in rows 6 inches apart, and the potatce sets the same dis- 
tance from each other, which are then covered 4 inches deep 
with mould, and the frames and glasses placed upon the bed, 
and carefully protected from frost. At the end of the fifth day, 
the outside of the old dung should be cut away close to the 
frame, in a slanting direction inwards; and strong linings of 
hot dung applied instead, which should be renewed if necessary 
at the end of three weeks. Air and water must be carefully 
given. ‘The potatoes grown in this way are generally ready for 
use seven weeks after planting. The variety thus cultivated by 
Mr. Hogg is Foae's yellow seedling. Mr. Knight's mode is to 
plant the potatoes in pots 6 inches in diameter, in January, one 
set in each pot; and the pots are then set in the ground and 
covered with litter, to protect them from frost, and in this situa- 
tion they remain till the hot-bed is ready to receive them, in 
which the pots are afterwards plunged. : 
Forcing potatoes in pots or boxes.—This is sometimes at- 
tempted in stoves. One set is placed near the bottom of 
a large pot, and gradually earthed up. When nearly full 
grown, it is taken to the cherry or peach-house, for the sake of 
more air. Another mode of planting in pans or boxes is thus 
described by Abercrombie: ‘‘ Plant potatoes of the growth 
of the season before the last; that is, the produce of 1816 to 
be planted in December, 1817, or January, 1818. . Potatoes so 
kept will appear as if surrounded by a brood of new potatoes in 
contact with the seed or parent potatoe. The leaf buds are re- 
moved, and the potatoes planted in a circle, and in layers, in 
earthen pans or wooden boxes, with alternations of fine loose 
earth. Such pans or boxes may be put into sheds or in 
shelves in the kitchen. By this treatment no leaves will 
emerge above the soil, and young potatoes may be reared 
at any required period. A similar mode has been described by 
Mr. Sherbrook. The boxes, containing alternate layers of 
light earth, and potatoes of the preceding year, are placed in 
a dry, covered place, free from frost; they receive no water, 
and produce “ good, fine, young potatoes in December.” For 
a succession, the process is to be repeated. 
Incidental forcing of potatoes.—‘ Small young spring pota- 
toes are likewise obtained from some of the winter store of old 
potatoes, as they lie in the house; especially where they have 
been mixed with sand, and permitted to shoot as they lie, when 
they produce a few small button potatoes in spring, some of 
which are occasionally brought to market, but only for imme- 
diate use. T. Moffat grows early potatoes thus: “ A compost 
consisting of equal quantities of loam, sand, and coal ashes, with 
an addition of lime in powder, equal to about one-fifth of the 
whole, was formed into a bed four feet wide, and four inches 
deep, on the floor of a dark fruit room. Upon this bed, early 
in September, large potatoes, of the preceding year’s growth, 
were laid, 3 inches apart every way, with their best eyes down- 
wards; these produced young potatoes, which became fit for 
use about Christmas.” 
Forwarding to raise a crop in the open garden.—For this pur- 
pose some spread a layer of sets on hot dung, or in boxes placed 
in any warm situation, whether in the light or in the dark. 
After they have sprung 3 or 4 inches, they are to be trans- 
planted into the open ground, which should not be sooner than 
SOLANACEE. 
I. Sotanum. 
May, unless they have some protection at night; such as fronds 
of fern, spruce-fir branches, &c. But the best method is to 
grow the sets one in each pot, and to plant them out with the 
balls entire, in May. 
Substitutes for forcing potatoes. —Dr. Nochden describes the 
mode by leaves and layers of earth at length-(in Hort. trans. 3. 
p- 48.), and subjoins a method of preserving young potatoes as 
such for winter use ; but this method we consider not worth far- 
ther notice, as it appears of no practical utility. 
Field culture of the potatoe.—Notwithstanding the value of the 
potatoe as an article of human food, it is doubtful whether they 
can be placed so high in tbe scale as several other articles of pro- 
duce, when the profit and loss account of the agriculturist is to 
be ascertained. They require a great deal of manure from the 
farmer, while, generally speaking, little is returned by them; 
they are a bulky unhandy article, troublesome in the lifting and 
carrying processes, and interfering with the seed season of 
wheat, the most important one to the farmer. After all, from 
particular circumstances they cannot be vended unless when 
raised in the vicinity of large towns ; hence they are, in most re- 
spects, an unprofitable article to the agriculturist. To him the 
real criterion is the profit which potatoes will return in feeding 
beasts ; and here we apprehend the result will be altogether in 
favour of turnips and ruta-baga, or Swedish turnip, as the most 
profitable articles for that purpose, although potatoes are ad- 
mitted to be more nutritious, and to fatten cattle much 
quicker. 
The varieties of potatoes cultivated in fields are innumerable. 
The early field varieties are: 1. The early kidney. 2. The 
nonsuch. 3. The early straw. 4. The early Champion. The 
last is the most generally cultivated round London. Early va- 
rieties with local names are cultivated near most large towns. 
The late field varieties in most repute are: 1. The red-nose 
kidney. 2. Large kidney. 3. Bread-fruit, an excellent white, 
mealy, good-tasted sort, raised from seed in 1810. 4. The 
Lancashire pink-eye, good. 5. The black-skin, white interior, 
and good. 6. Purple, very mealy, productive, and keeps well. 
7. The red apple, mealy, keeps the longest of any. 8. The 
Tartan, or purple and white-skinned, an esteemed Scotch pota- 
toe, prolific, mealy, exceedingly well tasted, and keeps well. 
The varieties grown exclusively as food for live stock are: 1. 
The Yam or Surinam potatoe, large, red and white-skinned, and 
the interior veined with red ; flavour disagreeable, and not such 
as to admit of its being used as human food. It succeeds best 
on heavy lands. This is a most valuable sort for the farmer; as 
with this variety he has an excellent assistant to his turnip crop, 
or rather a succedaneum, which is of material benefit when tur- 
nips are consumed, in feeding live stock ; its produce is 12-15 
tons per acre. 2. The oxnoble; large, yellow without and 
within, very prolific, unfit for human food. 3. The late Cham- 
pion ; large and prolific, white-skinned, and may be used as 
human food. 
The soil in which the potatoe thrives best is a light loam, nei- 
ther too dry nor too moist; but if rich it is so much the better. 
They are, however, grown on many other kinds of soil, where 
they are free from stagnant moisture, with a reasonable portion 
of manure added. The best flavoured table potatoes are almost 
always produced from a newly broken-up pasture ground, not 
manured, or from any new light soil. Repeated on the same 
soil, they very generally lose their flavour. 
In preparing the soil for field potatoes, it is of much import- 
ance to free the soil as much as possible from weed roots; both 
because the horse-hoe must be excluded altogether when the 
vegetation is vigorous, and because at no period of their growth 
is it safe to work so near the plants, especially after they have 
made some progress in growth. The first ploughing is given 
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