Cultivation of Early Potatoes. 103 



land for the seed to storing ; including the method of sprouting, 

 upon which the profit of the lemon kidney in a great measure 

 depends ; and we think would also prove advantageous if applied 

 to the growth of late potatoes. 



And first, we shall commence with the preparation of the 

 ground, keeping in mind the nature of the soils before men- 

 tioned. Let us then take a small field — an acre or two of arable 

 land — for we would by no means recommend a beginner to com- 

 mence with a larger plot. For be it remembered that the culti- 

 vation of the earhf potato, though similar in many ways to that of 

 the late, yet differs in many respects. A farmer who has been 

 accustomed to cultivate his thirty or forty acres of potatoes may 

 ridicule the idea of making so much of so small a matter, and 

 remind us of a " certain mouse and a certain mountain,'" which 

 have not escaped our recollection. He may treat it as a joke : 

 but we should be acting unkindly, at least, if we did not, in 

 recommending the adoption of our system to more general prac- 

 tice, add a word of caution to the recommendation. We should 

 be sorry to be the means of involving any novice in what might 

 prove to him an unprofitable investment. What, then, we have 

 said, we must beg to repeat. Make only a small beginning, and 

 increase year by year as you find you are enabled to work to 

 profit. You must remember that the period of cultivating the 

 early potato is very limited, and is by no means as extensive as 

 that of the late varieties. Indeed, from ei(/ht to ten weeks is the 

 usual time from the period of setting to lifting. 



But to return to the preparation of the soil. Select a dry 

 sandy loam, and, supposing it to be a corn-stubble, you should 

 cart your manure on to the land in February. If the field be 

 pasture or meadow-land, it would be better to take a crop of 

 oats from it the first year ; or the field must be trenched and the 

 sod turned down on its face to the bottom of the trench. 



Short, well-decomposed horse and cow manure should be 

 spread on the land to the amount of 30 tons per acre ; long 

 manure will not answer, for it does not work as soon, and more- 

 over drags and impedes both plough and spade. The manure, 

 when spread, must be ploughed down when the land is dry. If 

 the land is not dry, you must wait till it is ; in this case, let the 

 manure remain in the heaps in which it has been set out from 

 the cart until the land is in a proper state. It is the general prac- 

 tice to spread the manure just before the plough, and a very good 

 practice it is, to prevent Avaste and loss of ammonia, &c. You 

 had better do nothing than attempt to prepare the land in a wet 

 state, you would only be defeating your own object. It is a 

 matter of greater importance than is generally considered not to 

 meddle with it until it is dry. 



