208 



not be permitted to sprout ; if they cannot be planted in due time, they 

 ought to be placed on a cool floor, and get repeated turnings, say every 

 second day ; they should be shaded from light — in this way I hate 

 known sets to be preserved perfectly safe for hvo months. 



The London market gardeners have now adopted a mode of forcing 

 the seed, in order to procure new potatoes at an early season ; it is thi* 

 — very early in spring, sheds are erected, in which a great many ro^n 

 of shelves are fitted up. On these shelves the sets are placed in thin 

 layers, and stoves are used to heal the sheds, and increase the tempera- 

 ture so as to promote vegetation in the sets; and when they have 

 sprouted, they are taken down carefully, and placed in drills which haye 

 been prepared for the puipose ; they are then covered with clay, the 

 sprouts being unbroken, and their tops reaching within an inch of the 

 surface ; they soon appear above ground, and continue to grow rapidly, 

 and outstrip those planted in the fall, or in the spring. One market 

 gardener manages the seed of fifty acres in this way, and he says he 

 never loses one by the blight, as his crops are all ripe before the peri- 

 odic arrival of that destroyer. This is a much better plan than autum- 

 nal planting, which is recommended by some as a sure remedy for 

 blight or rot. I have frequently tried fall planting, and I found that 

 the evil counterbalanced the good resulting from it. Many of the tu- 

 bers rotted during winter, and the ground became so hard, that a good 

 return could not be expected fi-om those that escaped. I found that 

 potatoes properly planted in spring, produced earlier and better potatoes, 

 and withstood the blight better than those planted in autumn. I have 

 known farmers to be at a great loss by planting tender kinds of pota- 

 toes, which were not strong enough to withstand the blight, whilst other* 

 have reaped a rich reward from sowing hardy kinds, on Avhich the 

 blight or rot took little or no effect. 



VARIETIES or THE POTATO. 



A great many varieties of potato are cultivated in Europe and Amer- 

 ica. Some of the more approved kinds are the Ash Leaved Kidney, the 

 Cumberland Kidney, the Wicklow Bangor, the Cumberland Bangor, (all 

 early kinds,) the Niggeiloe, the Meshannock, the Cumberland Kempt, 

 (early,) the Ox Noble, the American Apple, the Lumper, the Merino, 

 (ooarse, late kinds,) the English, Irish, Scotch, and Russian Rods, the 

 White, Red, and Strawberry Pinke, the Early Kent, the Coppu, Ac, (good 



