1870.] THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 17 



when intended for early forcing, should not be stored in heaps, but be 

 kept in a light place in single layers. In this way there is no danger of 

 the buds becoming elongated and weak when they commence to grow. 

 After being planted, air on all favourable opportunities should be ad- 

 mitted to them ; for if allowed to become drawn and sickly in a close 

 damp atmosphere, no after-treatment will cause them to produce a 

 satisfactory crop. When coming to maturity, the soil should be allowed 

 to become dry, and the lights drawn off for a portion of the day when 

 the weather is fine, which will help to give quality to the tubers. It 

 may be remarked that if the Potatoes are planted 7 inches deep, 

 they will require little or no moulding up, for that is an operation 

 attended with more or less injury to the stems and leaves ; and if 

 the tubers are covered with sufficient soil to prevent greening, it is 

 sufficient. 



To succeed the crops in pots and frames, a quantity should be started 

 either singly in small pots or in boxes, and planted out in some warm 

 sheltered spot about the middle of April. They may be 3 to 4 inches 

 high when planted out, and till danger from frost be over, they will re- 

 quire protection by some means at night. These will keep up the sup- 

 ply till those planted in the usual way for general early crops are ready 

 to use. I am not an advocate for springing main crops of early Potatoes 

 to be planted in March more than half an inch, and even that without 

 putting them into heat. It is easy to have them sufficiently sprung 

 by selecting seed from the early crops of the previous year and keeping 

 them in a dry airy store-room, where they start into growth far stronger. 



Touching upon the general routine of Potato cultivation, it may be 

 laid down as a rule necessary to first-class results that the soil should 

 be an open deep loam, well drained, rather inclined to be sandy than 

 otherwise, and that it should be trenched 2 feet deep, and well pul- 

 verised. The crop should be planted in ground that has been well 

 manured for a previous crop, and no more manure added for the Potatoes. 

 One half of the manuring in the field culture of the Potato is worse 

 than useless. It is generally done in dry weather in April, when the 

 manure gets dried before it is ridged in with the plough. In light dry 

 soils I look upon the ridge system as very objectionable. The manure 

 and sets are enclosed in a dry state in an elevated ridge, where the 

 manure, once dry, is not easily wetted, and where in a dry season it can 

 be of little use to the crop. Indeed, I have seen it turned out again 

 in autumn almost as dry and entire as when it was covered up in 

 spring, and under such circumstances it only served as a means of 

 starving the Potatoes. If the crop were planted in the flat — as in 

 garden culture — on light dry soils, instead of in ridges, it would give 

 heavier crops. The manure would then be far more likely to serve its 



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