Angnst 27, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



147 



frequently proved. I always prefer to green my seed Potatoes 

 slightly, but it is not absolutely necessary, and they are then 

 disposed in single layers upon shallow wooden trays, made 

 of slabs or old doors, with a rim of wood tacked all round, and 

 are placed secure from damp or Irost in an underground callar 

 having a temperature of about 4ir. A fair twilight is admitted 

 through a dirty glazed aperture measuring ;! feet by 1 foot. I 

 take especial care that the lirst shoots which push from the 

 seta are not maimed or bruised, and according to the size of 

 the set I allow one or two eyes to grow. If an excess of these 

 form they are rubbed off in their first stage, and 1 follow up this 

 disbudding process till, by planting time, the proper number of 

 shoots which wore allowed to remain have become robust, 

 sturdy, and strongly attached to the tubers, plainly pointing 

 out the advantage gained over the old enervating method of 

 allowing shoots to bo produced merely to be cut off. Nothing 

 is lost to the Potato ; whatever nourishment has been taken 

 from it remains stored up in the strong young shoot or shoots, 

 and the seed Potato is ready to be committed to the soil with 

 its energies unimpaired, with incipient leaves ready to ex- 

 pand and compete for the light of day, and which begin to 

 exercise their functions immediately. 



It should be remembered that each succeeding series of 

 shoots consequent on disbudding is weaker than its predecessor, 

 and that when disbudding has been done three or four times the 

 leaf buds are destroyed. Who, then, can wonder at the con- 

 stitution of the Potato having become weakened, and at the great 

 loss of crop likely to ensue through the destruction even of 

 the first shoot ? But, as I have stated, it is not the top of the 

 young shoot alone, but with it goes a quontity of food intended 

 to nourish the sprout until roots aie emitted to cater for it. 

 Besides, it is tolerably well understood that the crown of tho 

 Potato bears the shoots which produce the heaviest producp, and 

 this end generally buds first. The consequence is, that in- 

 stead of one or two original stems, we have in their place a 

 host of sprouts of inferior powers, and the result will be that 

 in lieu of a superior produce, there will only be a very inferior 

 weakly sample. Under the system of carefully protecting the 

 one or two first shoots, in all probability these will become 

 monopolisers, and the result will be that the weaker eyes will 

 not be able to push, and, consequently, a superior-sized even 

 quality of tubers, not only for the market and home consump- 

 tion, but also for feeding pigs, which, I imagine, will prefer and 

 thrive better on good, sound, fair-sized Potatoes than on those 

 which are watery and undersized. 



Having thus disposed of the second question, under which I 

 have included my answer to the third, 1 will now endeavour to 

 take collectively the other points on which my opinion is asked. 



With regard to planting, the good old plan like the " good 

 old times," I have my doubts about. I never adopt it now. 

 This is how I used to plant Potatoes ; — The whole of the ground 

 ■was entirely dug over about the beginning of May, and a line 

 stretched between its extremities from north to south. The 

 soil was next cast out about 4 inches deep with a spade, which 

 was made to bear against the line longitudinally, then raw 

 manure was placed in this narrow trench, and the cut sets were 

 put, about '.) inches apart, immediately on the top of the dung. 

 The hue was then shifted 2 feet, or 2V feet at most, and the 

 soil removed was cast over and made to cover the first row of 

 sets, and so on. " Cafiiiiigs," or hoeings, and right-angled 

 mouldings-up followed in due time, mangling the roots, and 

 served to cast off the moisture from their remaining fragments, 

 It was a very expeditious plan, and served to destroy the stamina 

 of the Potato about as effectually as any that could have been 

 adopted, especially taken in conjunction with tho previous 

 treament of the seed, which had probably been kept in masses, 

 heated, forced into vegetation, and deprived of the long pre- 

 mature shoots over and over again, till almost all tho strength 

 of the tuber was sacrificed, and then the seed Potato was cut 

 to pieces, and placed in a mass of dung as above. Avoid the 

 practice as you would the plague. 



My present system of growing Potatoes in this garden, and I 

 have pursued it for about fifteen years (I have cultivated the 

 Potato on the same site twenty-two years), is on what I call the 

 ridge-and-trench plan. It is admirably adapted for rich soils, 

 and more especially for mine, as this ground is very much 

 overshadowed by trees, which have been very badly managed. 



In the first place I never use raw manure at the planting of 

 Potatoes. I prefer quickUme, wood ashes, or mortar rubbish 

 spread over the ground, and slightly worked in just before 

 planting, at the end of March or the beginning of April, ac- 

 cording to the weather. To insure its economical working, it 



is best to divide the Potato ground into three parts, two-thirds 

 to bo bastard or hall-trenched as soon as convenient — by the 

 middle of March — as the Cabbage tribe is cleared away, and 

 to apply the lime to the surface. The other third, which has 

 been cropped with, say, early Potatoes and Cauliflowers, and 

 Grange's Broccoli in the trenches, may then bo thoroughly 

 trenched during dry weather in the autumn. I well manure it 

 in the following manner. We hear much about earth closets 

 and house sewage, as if they wero something new, but one 

 of our sewage tanks and our earth closets hei-o have been 

 in use for more than twenty years. The sediment from the 

 tanks is cleared out once a-year, and mixed with road scrapings, 

 along with the contents of the earth closets, in a large opening 

 dug in a backyard for the purpose. To all this are added the 

 contents of the mixen, consisting of tho refuse from the gar- 

 den, a decayed-leaf hotbed, and all tho sweepings and refuse 

 that are collected from a house and grounds in the country. 

 This mixture is wheeled on to a third part of the Potato 

 ground every autumn, and wellworked-in during the trenching. 

 I am never afraid of my ground becoming exhausted. Talk 

 of emigration and England not being large enough for its 

 population, why, not one-fourth of the country is cultivated as 

 it ought to be ! I prefer to apply the quicklime to the surface 

 of this portion of the ground for its next spring dressing, 

 at the rate of about seventy bushels per acre, to attack the 

 stubborn, slow-decaying remnants of the refuse, and then te 

 plant with the second-early short- topped store Potatoes. 



For all light soils worked upon this principle, I recommend 

 the flat system of planting, with this difference : plant, at the 

 end of February or the beginning of March, quite G inches 

 deep, slightly hoe the land to keep down weeds and let in air, 

 never mould-up at all, and allow fully 3 feet C inches between 

 the rows for store Potatoes. 



For rich garden soils I decidedly recommend the ridge-and- 

 trench plan, and this is how I practise it. The first week in 

 April is time enough to plant, at least I find it so. For first 

 early Potatoes allow 3G inches between tho rows, and for store 

 sorts quite 42 inches, and do not be afraid of these distances ; 

 premising, of course, that the ground has been trenched, and 

 half-trenched, and that lime, old mortar, or wood ashes 

 have been applied. Measure out the ground, stretch two gar- 

 den lines where two rows of sets are to be, and then place 

 the seed tubers upon the surface of the soil along the lines, 

 1 foot set from set for the early kinds, and at least 1.5 inches 

 apart for the late sorts. Then readjust the lines between the 

 two rows of sets, and an inch or two wider than the spade, so as 

 to mark out a trench between the two rows of Potatoes. Force 

 down the spade to its full depth rather slopingly between the 

 lines in order to leave the sides of the trenches even, and cast 

 out every spadeful of soil alternately to the right and left, not 

 directly over the sets, but as far from them as the edges of the 

 ridge will allow, so that the seed Potatoes may appear as if 

 lying in a hollow. The crumbs that are afterwards shovelled out 

 may take the central position upon the sets without injuring 

 the young shoots. Now, instead of finishing-oii these ridges 

 at once (for a superincumbent weight of earth, in consequence 

 of the ground being recently trenched and loose, might cause 

 a troublesome displacement of their sides), cast part of the 

 "crumbs" only from the trenches upon the sets, and bury 

 them roerely 3 inches or so. In another fortnight, when the 

 ridges have become settled, or the young green tops of the sets 

 are seen just peeping up, then is the time to shovel over them 

 the remainder of the crumbs from the trenches, forming a 

 good 6-inch-broad apex, and tho rilges may be " left to them- 

 selves," though the mind of the worker must at once think 

 about how the trenches are to be occupied with the Cabbage 

 tribe, of which none can be better for the purpose than Brussels 

 Sprouts or early spring Broccoli. Tho ground in which these 

 are grown should be well drenched occasionally, as soon as the 

 crop is off, with sewage from the tanks ; and along the centres 

 of the ridges, between the Brussels Sprouts, rows of Early Stone 

 Turnips may be sown, immediately after the Potatoes are off, 

 with a fair chance of securing some good sweet Turnips before 

 hard frost comes. 



The Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, or other plants of the Cabbage 

 tribe may not appear quite so stocky and even as when planted 

 on a piece of ground specially prepared, but they soon become 

 strong and improve in appearance. As the Broccolis grow 

 shovel the ridges of soil to their stems, which answers the 

 same purpose as laying them down with their heads to the 

 north in order to protect them from the severity of the winter. 



I have as yet only referred to garden cultivation, but " H. C." 



