18 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



end, but more likely still if it were well incorporated with the soil the 

 previous autumn. 



In gardens, particularly where the soil is usually richer than is good 

 for the Potato, wide planting is desirable. Earlies should be allowed 

 2 feet 10 inches, and later sorts 3 feet, between the rows, and 15 inches 

 between the sets for late strong-growing sorts. By planting them wide 

 the tops get plenty of room, and the crop is much heavier and sounder, 

 and there are fewer small and unsaleable tubers. In working and clean- 

 ing the ground while the crop is growing, the loosening, by forking or 

 grubbing, should be done soon after they are above the ground, and 

 not deferred till immediately before moulding up. The system of 

 grubbing up close to the stems of the Potatoes after they are 1 foot 

 high tears up the stringy roots on which the young tubers are formed, 

 and does a vast amount of harm. In gardens where there is not so 

 much of a breezy circulation of air, the absence of which, with a rich 

 soil, produces a rank and more watery growth, the crop should be 

 carefully looked over w 7 hen 2 or 3 inches above ground; and whenever 

 more than two stems have come up from one set, they should be pulled 

 away. 



Seed should be always saved for the earliest crops from the corres- 

 ponding crop of the previous season; and were the seed Potatoes 

 selected at the time the crops are taken up, and carefully stored by 

 themselves in dry airy places in thin layers, instead of being pitted in 

 great bulk along with the Potatoes, either for use or sale, w r e should 

 hear less of weak blanky brakes and fields of Potatoes. For early 

 crops of the kidney varieties, the very largest sets should be chosen for 

 seed. There is no greater mistake in Potato culture than that of 

 selecting small sets or cutting large ones. I have proved this over and 

 over again, and any one can put the matter to the test by planting a 

 quarter of a field of Potatoes, beginning at one side of the quarter, and 

 planting a row or rows of very small sets, and then a row a size 

 larger, and so increasing in size till the largest is planted. It will 

 be found at harvest that the small sets give the poorest crop, and the 

 largest proportion of small unsaleable tubers ; and the yield of the 

 whole will just be, in this respect, in proportion to the size of the sets. 

 The cutting of sets is not at all necessary for garden culture at all events, 

 nor attended with much, if any, profit under any circumstances, and 

 it is attended with great evils. The tuber that is cut loses much of 

 the sap, which it is of great importance to retain ; and, in dry seasons 

 especially, cut sets are more likely to perish from what is termed dry- 

 rot. The bleeding set is frequently encased among dry manure, and 

 in a dry ridge of soil ; and unless a soaking of rain wards off the evil, 

 blanky fields are the certain result. The sap is sucked from the 



