Report on the Cultivation of Potatoes. 479 



dust, or other tillages, to the extent of from 3 or 4 to as much as 

 6 or 8 cwt. per acre. Generally, it may be observed, that farm- 

 yard manure alone is preferred on heavy land, but that some 

 light-land farmers do not object to supply its place to a certain 

 extent with guano, bones, or other substitutes. Mr. Birch 

 prefers the manure of horses which have been bedded on saw- 

 dust, while Mr. J. Pearson, of St. Michael's Hall, Garstang, who 

 supplements 17 tons of farmyard manure with about 6 cwt. of 

 guano per acre, states that he has found that by using a larger 

 quantity of farmyard manure his crops are more liable to 

 disease ; also, that if they cut the setts and do not cover them, or 

 nearly so, with earth before distributing the guano, there is danger 

 that the manure will kill them. The heavier dressings of manure 

 are frequently admitted to produce larger crops, but are as fre- 

 quently asserted to render the plants more liable to disease. 

 There is considerable variation in the width of the drills, and 

 of the distance apart in the rows. For late potatoes the drills 

 vary from 26 to 32 inches wide, and the plants from 9 to 18 

 inches apart. The distances are less for early than for late 

 varieties of potato, especially with regard to the width of the 

 drills. These are, in some instances, reported to be as little 

 as 18 or 20 inches wide for early varieties ; and Mr. James 

 Hatton, of Southworth Hall, Warrington, who prefers the 

 smaller width, sends the following note on potato-cultivation in 

 his district : — 



" In the neiglibourliood of Warrington, especially on the Cheshire side, it 

 is the chief aim of the farmer to get his potatoes in the market as early as 

 possible, and the greater bulk are sent to Manchester before any disease 

 appears. As a rule, the early varieties are all sprouted in boxes before plant- 

 ing. The land is manured and ploughed in beds a yard wide; one man 

 makes holes with a setting-stick, two women or boys put in the setts (which 

 are sprouted about an inch long) with the sprouts upwards ; and the holes 

 are closed with rakes by women or boys. In the course of a week or two the 

 beds are covered out of the furrows with an inch or two of soil, either by 

 spade or plough, nothing more being done to them, except weeding by hand 

 when required, until got up for the market in June. The land is sometimes 

 replanted with potatoes, for seed the following year. Or it is sown with 

 common turnips to grow all winter, and send to market early in the spring, 

 if not wanted at home, the land being again planted with potatoes of a later 

 variety the second year. Afterwards it is sown with wheat and seeded down. 

 This is only done on good early land, being in the first instance worked 

 [planted with potatoes] off the grass, instead of taking a crop of oats first. 

 This plan requires much manual labour, and the potatoes, of course, are not 

 allowed to grow to maturity ; but the high prices got are supposed to pay the 

 grower far better than by allowing the crops to grow to maturity, and run the 

 risk of losing so many by disease." 



The two following quotations illustrate the after-cultivation 

 of the potato-land. Mr. Turton, a heavy-land farmer, states as 

 follows : — 



