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many stems are broken or laid by the children employed, this must tend 

 to neutralize the benefit of destroying the flowers. In the Transactions 

 of the Highland Society of Scotland it is said the difference in favor of 

 plucking off the blossoms as soon as they appear, instead of allowing 

 them to remain, was nearly one-sixth of the crop. Tliis may be consid- 

 ered an extreme case ; but from a late variety favorably situated we may 

 safely calculate on a gain of tubers of not less than one ton per acre. — 

 Much difference of opinion exists as. to whether potatoes intended for sets 

 should be partially or thoroughly ripened. Under-ripe sets have proved 

 highly beneficial in mitigating the curl and dry-rot diseases ; and I believe 

 it is certain they invariably produce more vigorous and productive plants 

 than perfectly ripe tubers of the same variety. I was first taught this 

 lesson by some villagers who were noted for the earliness of their pota- 

 toes. For two or three successive seasons I obtained my seed-stock from 

 them, and was always assured it was of the same early variety they grew 

 themselves. But I could not produce my crops so early as they, by at 

 least a fortnight ; and being unable to account for this difference, I re- 

 solved to buy the first potatoes they brought to market having the 

 appearance of being nearly ripe. I did so, and the tubers were so imma- 

 ture that they shrivelled almost like prunes before the time of planting; 

 but I found I was now enabled to grow them not only nearly as early aa 

 the villagers, but larger also ; and the increased size of the tubers I con- 

 sidered to be a consequence of the greater vigor of the plants afforded 

 by these under-ripe sets. 



Mr. Knight planted an early variety in July ; the tubers produced 

 were soft and watery, and unfit for food ; but, as he anticipated, they 

 afforded the best of plants; "they presented the appearance of a differ- 

 ent variety, and afforded a more abundant crop and larger tubers than he 

 had ever before obtained from the same variety." But the crop was not 

 quite so early : Mr. Knight attributed " this variation in the periods of 

 maturity of the crops, solely to different degrees of luxuriance in the 

 plants, and to the increased size of the tubers in the one." But I 

 suspect that the difference was not solely owing to these causes. 



We see in a backward spring, how impatient vegetation seems to be 

 at the restraint which is imposed upon it, and with what rapidity and 

 energy plants grow in such a season, when the weather becomes favorable. 

 A peach tree which Mr. Knight had grown under glass, he afterwards 

 planted out by the side of a tree, of the same variety which had always 



