224 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



and tidy ; and by the first week 

 in May, the little purple sprouts 

 appear along the rows, and, then, for 

 fear the night frosts should nip them 

 off, we bring a few loads of charred 

 rubbish, saved on purpose, from a 

 heap of hedge-clippings, weeds, turf, 

 and other rubbish burnt during the 

 winter. We go along the rows care- 

 fully, and shake this loose stuff over 

 the young plants carefully, and as 

 we have not quite enough for the 

 whole piece we very lightly hoe the 

 rest up so as just to cover them with 

 mould and no more. In another 

 fortnight they are through again — 

 but frosts are over, summer is hurrying 

 on, and the potatoes now begin to 

 grow like " winkin," as the boys say. 



By the first week in June, the man 

 who " makes toad in the hole," and 

 whose operations we just now des- 

 cribed, comes by, and says he, " Your 

 taturs want mouldin' up." " No they 

 don't," says we. " But ain't you going 

 to mould 'em up ; its the way every- 

 body else does ? " " Well, that's the 

 reason we don't do it — we act contrary 

 to what everybody else does, for the 

 sake of looking wise, and peculiar, and 

 experimental. Philosophers never walk 

 in the ways of the world, else they 

 Avouldn't be known as philosophers. 

 Thales didn't when he fell into the 

 ditch, and so we don't intend to mould 

 them up at all." 



No ; and we don't either, but 

 neither do we intend that weeds shall 

 choke them ; so we give the ground a 

 good hoeing over on a bright dry day 

 after a shower ; loosening the surface 

 between the roots, destroying every 

 weed, and letting the air have access 

 to the roots ; but we don't draw a bit 

 of earth to the stems — in fact we like 

 a few to get greened, through being 

 very close to the daylight, for they 

 make capital seed, and the large ones 

 very seldom grow just on the top of 

 the root. In another fortnight or 

 three weeks, and before the haulm 

 quite meets across the rows, we give 

 them another hoeing, choosing a hot 

 day, and getting the whole piece done 

 long before the sun threatens to melt 

 us ; of course not a weed is left 

 amongst them, the sun burns them up 

 before night, and the crop looks cleau 



j and orderly, and soon blossoms abun- 

 dantly. Now we go over them again, 

 and nip off every flower-stem, picking 

 them out from the tops as fast as hens 

 pick up barley, and then we've done 

 with them as far as culture goes ; time 

 and the weather do as they like with 

 them, and we trust in Him, who 

 giveth the increase, for the reward of 

 our work. 



Well, August comes ; the haulm be- 

 gins to lose its freshness ; the weather 

 has been hot and dry for many weeks, 

 and everybody says we shall have 

 glorious weather for harvest. "Another 

 week or two's rain '11 swell up the 

 taturs," says our friend of the dibber. 

 "Yes," say we; and September has 

 hardly set in, before the rain sets in 

 too, and, as our friend says, " This '11 

 swell up the taturs a bit," " Yes," say 

 we, "ours are swelled up — into sacks." 

 "What, took 'em up a'ready? " Oh, 

 yes ! all up ; nineteen tons to the acre ; 

 we expected twenty." " Why, I never 

 saw more than eleven ton in my life, 

 and thought that good. What's the 

 quality?" "Never saw such taturs, 

 upon my word ! " There they are, not 

 a diseased tuber among them, all 

 thoroughly ripe, and housed, before 

 the disease has commenced its havoc ; 

 for did you ever know disease to pre- 

 vail much until the heavy autumn 

 rains came on, when, as a rule, there 

 ought not to be a potatoe left in the 

 ground. 



Now, if you should fail to gather 

 from the above how potatoes should 

 be grown, I will, in a very few words, 

 restate the matter, and add some other 

 particulars of importance. First, as 

 to sorts. In cold moist soils, the black- 

 skinned, and rough red sorts, thrive 

 best, and are not so liable to be effected 

 by adverse circumstances. For general 

 open ground culture, in dryish districts, 

 the old Regents, Forty Folds (other- 

 wise known as Farmer's Profit, and 

 French Spreader), Shaw's Early Ful- 

 ham, Early Oxford, and liilott's Flour 

 Ball,. are the best that can be had. It 

 is better to trust to good old sorts, than 

 to risk much with new ones — at the 

 same time, new sorts of potatoes are 

 much wanted, and everyone interested 

 in growing this crop, should try some 

 of the new sorts of which good reports 



