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pluck off the flowers ? Should tubers intended for sets be thoroughly or 

 partially ripened ? 



The usual mode of applying manure is to place it below the sets. Mr. 

 Knight advised that it should be spread upon the soil and so plowed in. 

 Doubtless this is the better practice and is gaining ground. A soil in a 

 state of nature is of a nearly uniform character, but one soil differs from 

 another in quality ; and we may observe how wonderfully plants in a 

 state of nature accommodate themselves to the circumstances in which 

 they happen to be placed. If a seed germinates in a poor soil, the young 

 plant may be seen acting as wisely as if it had reason or instinct to guide 

 it ; it does not aim at too much but fashions all its organs on a moderate 

 scale. In a rich soil there is a corresponding increase in all parts of the 

 plant. In both there is an unity of action — and adaptation of means to a 

 crtain end. Plants being thus constituted, by placing the whole of the 

 food immediately surrounding the young potatoe plant, and none in the soil 

 beyond, we evidently practice a sort of deception upon it, we induce it to 

 make exertions at the commencement of its growth which its after means 

 will not enable it to carry out; therefore, as Mr. Knight observed, 

 abundant machinery will exist Avith a scarcity of raw material, and the 

 crop of tubers will naturally be found defective, comparatively, with the 

 growth of the plants. The time will p.rrive when farmers Avill inquire 

 how manure can be most equally diffused throughout the soil, especially 

 for such crops as grain, in which unity of action, or equal ripening, is a 

 point of considerable importance. 



Mr. Knight advised that the flowers of potatoe plants should be pluck- 

 ed off, and he was very desirous to obtain varieties, which, owing to some 

 malformation of the floral organs, or peculiarity of habit did not natural- 

 ly blossom ; because the production of blossoms and seeds must tend to 

 diminish the weight of tubers, or they must be formed by an increased 

 expenditure of the riches of the soil. There can be no doubt that the 

 crop of tubers would be increased to some extent by plucking off the 

 blossoms as soon as they were visible. If a Dutch florist wishes to prop- 

 agate a hyacinth, he adopts means to prevent its flowering, and a progeny 

 of young bulbs is the consequence. If an English tulip grower has a 

 bulb which grows too strong, producing seven or eight petals instead of 

 six, the required number, in order to tame it he allows it to ripen its 

 seeds. An onion forms its bulb one year, blossoms and seeds the next, 

 and so dies ; but persist in not allovring the plant to blossom, and the 



