16 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



All good soils contain all these ingredients, but their removal by 

 cropping necessitates manuring, and it is evident that for the potato 

 we require a manure rich in potash and phosphorus. Good stable 

 manure is the best manure for potatoes where it can be obtained cheap. 

 Guano is immensely beneficial, but, generally speaking, it is too dear. 

 Anew mineral manure, called "kainit" peculiarly rich in potash, 

 appears to be the best for the potato field, as it costs only four 

 pounds per ton, and if dug in with superphosphate at the rate of 5 

 cwt. per acre will produce a crop three times as heavy as the same 

 land would produce without it, except in those few cases where 

 manure is not at all required. 



We have had no potato plague since 1866, when we grew a 

 crop on tiles, and proved that in a bad season this system may be 

 depended on to save the crop. We were so fortunate as to obtain 

 at a pottery a tile admirably adapted for the purpose, but as it was 

 not made for the purpose, we should be doing our readers no 

 service by directing them to the makers. Any tile that can be 

 employed in such a way that the potatoes will, when planted, be 

 placed upon them, with a hollow tunnel beneath, will answer 

 the purpose. The common roofing tile may be considered a good 

 model, but it should be double the ordinary size to afford a fair test 

 of the system. And here we must remark that in such a summer as 

 that of 1870 tiles would be useless, and they might indeed be 

 injurious, though I shall take care to say that, judging from my 

 experiences in potato growing, they might be always used with 

 advantage. However, the case is as clear as I can put it. In 1866 

 we had our trial-ground literally covered with heaps of filth, con- 

 sisting of diseased potatoes. The few rows grown on tiles were 

 sound and good, and the cost of the tiles was more than paid for. 

 In the hot summers of 1868 and 1870 we had no tiles in use, and 

 therefore obtained no experiences of the value of tiles in hot and dry 

 seasons. 



Potato disease ! It is one of the greatest calamities with which 

 we are familiar. My tile system, whether good or bad, aims directly 

 at it as a remedial or preventive agent. Whence comes disease ? 

 From the sun we may say. Tes, the potato disease may be 

 described as cosmical. If the sun happens to be covered with spots 

 on the disk next us in July and August, the potato fields are 

 ravaged by the murrain. The potato is peculiarly the product of 

 Sunshine : in hot, dry summers the crop is good ; in cold, wet 

 summers the crop is bad ; if chilly rainy weather occurs at the end 

 of July, and continues through August (as in 1866), the crop is 

 almost annihilated. We make a joke of the value of an " if ;" but 

 if, yes, if we could predict our seasons, we could in a great 

 measure make sure of a potato crop in good and bad seasons alike. 

 IF we knew a bad season to be coming, we should plant on tiles 

 without manure, and be content with a smallish crop, harvested in 

 good condition, but for a good season should dispense with the 

 tiles, and manure heavily, so as to make the very most of the 

 fructifying sunshine. 



All other vital points in potato culture may be summed up in 



