20 



it would be much better to grow it in drills than beds, and 

 to grow it in alternate rows, with some other root crop — say 

 turnips or carrots — than alone. The advantages of this mode 

 of cultivation, were, first, that even if the potato totally 

 failed, two-thirds of a crop of roots might be obtained on 

 the land, by turning the whole of the earth and manure 

 round the turnips or other plants grown in the alternate 

 drills. This additional supply of nourishment would secure 

 two-thirds of a crop, even if the potatoes failed. This 

 reduced the risk of the experiment to that of the seed used 

 and one-fourth of the crop. But the diminution of the risk 

 was still greater than that, for the rows of potatoes being five 

 feet distant from each other, did not touch, even when in full 

 leaf, and thus the disease could not spread by contagion 

 from one side of the field to another, as it did when they 

 were planted close. In a field of three acres, cultivated on this 

 plan, the tops were green a fortnight to three weeks after all 

 those on the other parts of the same farm were withered and 

 the crop was so little injured by the disease, that only about 

 a fourth of it was lost ; while there is still a fine crop of 

 Swedish turnips growing on the land. 



" Where soils consisted of peat earth, the cultivation of 

 the potato might safely be continued. The smallest crop 

 yielded on any peat land in this district was half the usual 

 crop, whilst in general the crop had been two-thirds. The 

 only difference that it was desirable to make was, to grow the 

 potatoes in alternate drills with Swedish turnips, and thus 

 ensure a fair return from the land, even if the potatoes should, 

 for the first time, fail. It had been calculated by Mr. Pusey, 

 and other able writers on agriculture, that a good crop of 

 Swedish turnips was worth from £l 4 to £16 an acre, even at a 

 distance from large towns ; and it was one-third more valu- 

 able in Lancashire and other thickly populated counties. 

 At the same time, however, that it may be prudent to guard 



