Report on the Cultivation of Potatoes. 477 



interested in the subject to a summary of the 100 replies which 

 have been received to the foregoing Schedule of Questions. 

 This I have endeavoured to give in the following pages, as well 

 as verbatim extracts, descriptive of the most important or most 

 illustrative practices mentioned by the growers. I have also, in 

 the concluding remarks, endeavoured to point out the most strik- 

 ing features of the replies, as they appeared to me, after more 

 than one careful perusal of them. The result is not, perhaps, 

 very definite ; but such as it is, it was entirely unexpected, and 

 may possibly contain the germ of something more important than 

 can at present be inferred. 



I. — Lancashire. 



Twenty-three reports have been received from this county ; 

 namely, six from heavy-land farmers ; eleven from occupiers of 

 bog, peat, or black soil, with a varying subsoil ; and the 

 remainder from farmers holding various descriptions of sandy 

 land, on a sandy or gravelly subsoil. One of these last replies 

 appears so important that I have printed it, following a similar 

 one from Worcestershire, verbatim, on p. 506. 



The place of potatoes in the rotation of crops is either imme- 

 diately after ley, or after ley-oats ; but this variation does not 

 appear to be dependent upon the character of the land. The 

 former shift generally consists of, (1) wheat, (2) barley or 

 oats, (3) seeds, left for two or three vears and followed bv 

 potatoes. Mr. W. Turton, of Burnt Mill Farm, Halebank, 

 Liverpool, prefers this rotation because he considers that the 

 decayed sod is beneficial, not only in supplying the roots of the 

 potato-plant with a certain amount of nutrition, but also in 

 keeping heavy soils, such as his, free and open. For that 

 purpose, Mr. R. Atherton, of Mount Pleasant, Speke, Liverpool, 

 has used sawdust, which, however, though acting very well for 

 potatoes, is not beneficial to the succeeding crops of wheat and 

 barley. Another heavy-land farmer, Mr. R. Whalley, of Mill 

 •Green, Bold, Warrington, and a light-land farmer, Mr, W. 

 Longton, of Rainhill, Prescot, achieve the same end by mixing 

 farmyard manure with road sweepings, which they are careful 

 to buy in dry weather. 



Mr. William Birch, of Stand Farm, Aintree, Liverpool, whose 

 farm consists chiefly of black and peaty soil on sand, remarks, 

 in reference to the system of taking potatoes after ley : — 



" In tliis neighbourhood there are two methods of preparing land for 

 potatoes, the second of which is considered by the cleverest potato-growers to 

 be the best : — 



^^ No. 1 Flan. — In the months of October and November, tie grass-land 



