146 



the sua until they strike root. Propagated by this method, even from 

 diseased plants, they ha\e been greatly improved. They are also true 

 to their kinds. 



To injure a vigorous, sound, and full crop of potatoes, it is necessary 

 that the seed should be frequently changed, at least once in eveiy three 

 years. Farmers might retain favorite varieties, if suitable to the cli- 

 mate and soil, only procuring them from a difterent, and, if possible, 

 from a poorer soil than that of their own farms. By this too-much- 

 neglected method, the potato is both invigorated and renovated. Every 

 intelligent farmer knows that by growing the same crops too long on 

 the same soil both the one and the other are deteriorated. On the oth- 

 er hand, the benefits resulting from a change of seed, whether tuberous 

 or cereal, have been proved from experiments made by the most emi- 

 nent agriculturists in every quarter of the globe, notwithstanding that 

 some may have said and written to the contrary. "The reason why this 

 interchange of crops," says the celebrated Liebig, "is so advantageous — 

 the principles which regulate this part of agricultm-e, are therefore, the 

 artificial production of humus, and the culti^^ation of difierent kinds of 

 plants upon the same field, in such an order of succession, that each 

 shall extract only certain components of the soil, while it leaves behind 

 or restores those which a second or third species of plants may require 

 for its growth and perfect development." 



Although numerous failures have recently taken place in various sec- 

 tions of the country, by what is popularly called the " blight" or " dis- 

 ease," yet, all in all, there is no crop so remunerative through a series 

 of years, as the potato. It forms an excellent article of food not only 

 fot man, but for horees, oxen, milch cows, calves and swine. 



Opinions differ regarding the eftects of potato-culture on the soil : 

 some maintaining that the ground is thereby improved, while others as- 

 sert " that from the large quantity of nutritive matter which the potato 

 extracts from the soil, it cannot, reasoning from analogy, be viewed in 

 any other light, than a serious drain upon the vegetative powei's of the 

 land ; and numberless experiments have been shown, that when planted 

 a second time, without manure, the crop has sensibly diminished."* 



•British Husbandry, by Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 



