THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



upon the soil. "We have had immense crops of the finest roots on 

 ground deeply dug and heavily manured at the time of planting. 

 The first step to success is to manure heavily ; but it is better to 

 manure in autumn than in spring — but better late than never. 

 Anything commonly used for manure will serve the purpose. On 

 bog-land bones are the best manure ; on loam and clay nothing so 

 good as charrings of rubbish and rotten dung. On any kind of soil 

 potash, sulphate of magnesia, and common salt may be used as a 

 top-dressing with advantage. If we take eight tons of potatoes oil' 

 an acre of land, we remove from the soil 90 lbs. of potash, 8 lbs. of 

 soda, 5 lbs. of lime, 8 lbs. of magnesia, 34 lbs. of sulphuric acid, 

 20 lbs. of phosphoric acid, 10 lbs. of chlorine — 175 lbs. of mineral 

 matter in all. 



3. Rotation. — Potatoes should not follow potatoes, or any 

 other root crop. Let them follow a green crop. The Cornish mode 

 is to follow a two-course of broccoli and potatoes alternately ; and 

 as the land is heavily manured for the broccoli, no manure is put 

 on for the potatoes. In gardens a four-course should be followed ; 

 as, for example, put potatoes on the plots 1, 2, 3, 4 in succession, 

 which will bring potatoes on the same piece every fourth year : — 



1 2 



4 3 



4. Sets. — Large sets are better than small ones, and all sets 

 should, if possible, be sprouted in full daylight before they are 

 planted. A good average weight for sets is 4 ozs. each. As we 

 cannot always have the kind of sets we want, choice may be made 

 of sets ranging in weight from 3 ozs. to 6 ozs. To overpass this 

 range either way is a bad practice, except in the case of the earliest 

 varieties ; and these will usually give good crops from sets of 1 oz. 

 to 2 ozs. each.* It is a mistake to suppose that cut sets are ob- 



* Chats are best disposed of as pigs'-food. Where this cannot be done, it is 

 good economy to cook ibem quickly in their skins, in the same way as Dew potatoes. 

 When done, remove the skins, shake them about in butter, and serve very quickly , 

 and as hot as possible. 



