POTATOES FOR 1849. 281 



larly of the old people as to the average produce of former days, 

 and find that from three to four bushels per Cheshire rood of 

 eight yards square was and still remains the estimated amount 

 of a good crop. I think it tolerably evident, however, that 

 rather more stimulus is required in these days than formerly. 

 This may be owing to the introduction of turnip husbandry, by 

 which course the soil becomes robbed, in some degree, of its 

 organic matter, or, in other words, there has been an increase of 

 tillage. Now there must be some reason for this wearing out : 

 this surely cannot be termed atmospheric. 



The old ash-leaved kidney remains as sound as ever, at least 

 with me, and produces enormous crops ; but, as before observed, 

 this kind has never suffered a fiftieth part of the abuse which 

 other kinds in general, especially the later sorts, have undergone. 

 Here then rest^ a strong fact, to which I would beg respectfully 

 to draw attention. 



Again, the old red-apple class, which was so highly esteemed 

 in this district a few years since, on account of its keeping pro- 

 perties, is now all but extinct in this quarter. These potatoes 

 were in the habit of bringing enormous prices formerly in the 

 Manchester markets, during the months of May, June, and 

 even July, being extensively worked by the bakers in bread- 

 making during the high price of wheat. All this induced the 

 farmers to plant later and later still, until at last it was no un- 

 common affair to see them planting this very late ripener in the 

 early part of June. One of our very best summers, however, is 

 scarcely sufficient to ripen this kind properly for seed. This I 

 have constantly urged to the farmers, but they are not the class of 

 men with whom to discuss the organization of buds. Their minds 

 need some flirther preparation in order to comprehend this subject : 

 we must therefore lay our account with the next generation. I 

 have constantly seen these red potatoes, in October, " whipped 

 to death " (for I can find no other term to express it) with cold 

 blasts, when the tops were indeed quite young. I have planted 

 the same kind in March in a warm garden, and could then 

 scarcely get them matured — at least in the same sense in which 

 the early kinds are matured. In addition to this, they had to 

 undergo a fermentation of somewhere about 100° to 120° in the 

 pits. Indeed many pits, uncovered a week or two after pitting, 

 would smoke like a smothered bonfire. Now, if this is not an 

 abuse of the constitution of the potato, what is ? Ought not 

 some bad results to have been expected from such a course ? 



VOL. Ill, 



