^94 ^" ^^^ A(hantages of Potato Hujhattdryy May 



was ploughed twice or thrice by the lafl week in May ; furred up- 

 in drills ; the dung then laid in, and the potatoes planted and co- 

 vered from one fide only with a fmall furrow. Two weeks after^ 

 ploughed an ordinary furrow from the other fide of the drill, lay- 

 ing it above the feed, fl\ifting a little fhe flioulder of the furrow 

 that covered them ; in eight days after, harrowed all over : they 

 were hoed, pared, and fiir:cd up \n the ufual manner % and, in 

 October, produced a very pfentifur crop, and not an atom of 

 couch to be feen. Where the beans (.which were a very good 

 crop), were taken off, a plough was run down the drill ; and 

 in a few days the field was harrowety, well dunged, plough- 

 ed alongll with what had been potato, and fown with wheat, 

 ^he crop, where the beans grew, was tolerably good ; that after 

 the potatoes very abundant,, fully three bolls the acre better than 

 the other •, and this laft year fhe barley was equally good with that 

 where the beans ^rew, though on inferior foil. How all this is 

 reconcileable to the very impoverifliing efFe6]f& fo generally afcrib- 

 ed to a potato crop, is foriiewhat myfterious. 



That a perfeO: fallow in general, in many fifuations, and for 

 fome foils in any fituation, is preferable to cultivating potato crops, 

 is incontrovertible •, yet where the foil is light and dry, it mull be 

 in a dreadful Hate indeed, if a potato crop, properly cultivated, 

 does not clean the ground pretty effectually, and cnfure, with 

 more certainty, as weighty a crop of wheat as would be got by 

 a perfe6l fallow. Even loamy foils, though fomewhat heavy, are 

 often in a (late with couch grafs, th^t it v/ould be very unadvife- 

 able to attempt its extirpation by a crop of drilled beans, when it 

 might be done, with confiderable fuccefs, by taking a crop of po- 

 tatoes -, and there is no comparifon as to il\<t chance for a crop of 

 wheat. 



Few feafons permit much to be done for cleaning land of root- 

 weeds before the middle of March, by which time drilled beans 

 fliould be in the ground. From that to the middle of May, when 

 potatoes may be planted with fuccefs, a great deal, in moft fea- 

 fons, may be done for cleaning the land of couch and other roots, 

 which, during that time, if in beans, would have been acquiring 

 additional increafe. Befides, potatoes may be planted in fuch a 

 way, as that a great part of the ground can be turned over two 

 weeks after, and kept ftirring for eight or ten days longer, with- 

 out any injury to the crop ; and no fooner do the plants appear, 

 than the interilices can be ploughed again, and clofer to the rows, 

 than can with fafety be done to drilled beans. Very little earth 

 thrown on them does great hurt, whereas the more that is put 

 on potato plants, if not totally covered, fo much more they thrive ; 

 and tlie hand-hoe, by the ikms being at a greater diitance, can 



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