1804. On Scooping Potatoes for Seed. 287 



dry (for want of fteeped) feed, without its beings tinc:ed with 

 fmut; while, by fleeping the grain, I never had a particle worth 

 notice. 



The pra<flice, where T refide, is to obtain, annually, from Mark- 

 lane (at an extravagant price no doubt) as many cjuarters of 

 EfTex or Kentidi feed as are likely to yield fufficient increafc for 

 the number of acres to be fown the following feafon, and to 

 avoid any in the fmalleft d'.gree hurt with fmut; to drcfs the 

 feed remarkably well ; and, in the evening before fowing, to 

 pour it (lowly into calks three fourths full of f< a v^ ater, (lirring 

 it about, and fkimming off all the light grain. Among this water 

 it remains during the night; and, next morning, is dript in carts, 

 and fown, after being mixed wiih as much flacked lime as make 

 it part. This, to any perfon who, among his neighbours, cart 

 obtain a fufficiency of caflcs, and not a great way from the fea, 

 is by no means an expenfive procefs ; as the fame wafer, except 

 what tlie wheat imbibes, may be kept, and ufed for a fecond and 

 after fowings. The practice is attended with this further advan- 

 tage, that while grain, fo fleept, will, to a certainty, vegetate foon- 

 er than if fown dry, or when fprink'ed with urine, it is in no dan- 

 ger of having its vegetative powers dtftroyed, aJmitting it re- 

 mains among the fea water for fome days, fhould the fowing be 

 impeded by froft or rain. 



W. 



TO THE CONDUCTOR OF THE FARMERS MAGAZINE. 



On Scooping Potatoes for Seed. 



Sir, 



Having often heard your quarterly Publication, * The Farm- 

 er's Magazine,' recommended as containing much ufefui luior- 

 mation in agricultural concerns, I was induced, a f f w days ago,, to 

 purchafe the two laft years publications; and mud in julHce hj 

 I am not difappointed. There is one cafe, however, treated of 

 by a number of your correfpondents in 1802, which, I am a(lo- 

 niftied to find, differs fo far from the practice I have had ; I 

 mean, fcooping the feed from the potato. From all the inrcr- 

 mation I have feen in your publication, there is only one inftance 

 where it is faid the fcooped feed was a good crop, viz. at Pow.lsr- 

 haugh ; and your correfpondent A. S. is not certain but the crop 

 might have been better, had the feed been cut in the ordinary 

 way. 



T3 In 



