86- 
to felect. Great numbers, from in- 
fpection only, will be weeded out 
and rejected ; and of thofe retained, 
more will be again rejected, the 
fucceeding and following years > of 
the remaining few, there may dif- 
ferent Heats YRS ftill exift; fuch as 
ill or well favoured, clofe or coarfe 
grained, productive, non-prodic- 
tive, &c. &c. Each may have their 
refpective value: but I think it may 
be generally afferted, that the finer 
kinds fooner degenerate ; ; the coarfe 
kinds, which are almoit, if not al-. 
ways, more productive, retain their 
vigour thé longe&. ‘The following 
example confirms this opinion. 
Spring, 1785.—I procured a new 
kind -of potatoe, called-a Dass, 
lately raifed from. feed; where, I 
know not: the charatter of which 
was, large, coarfe- grained, ftrong- 
flavoured, and of courfe rejected 
from the.table- but being very pro- 
ductive, was etl forcattle. The 
laft year, it. was fo much improved, 
as to be no longer rejected ; it ftill 
retains the quality of being pro- 
duétive, even fo much as yielding, 
this prefent year, fix buthels from 
every hatute perch. It fhonld be 
obferved, that the prefent very luxu- 
rig crop may be in great meafure 
owing to having been “planted on a 
virgin foil, which was never before 
improyed, or broken up; very little 
dung was ufed. Here is an evident 
change for the better; the plants 
are vigorous, and there is at pre- 
fent no appearance of decay: this 
new, foil may be a means of pre- 
ferving the plant a few years longer; 
but a 
time, become ablolately neceflary. 
Hence it fhould appear, that al- 
though the difeafe, after the prefent 
Rock. has been, to a certain degree, 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
total change of feed will, in’ 
1790: 
infeed, can never. be cured, yet 
means may be taken for prevention :_ 
and that this isthe cafe in this dif- 
trict, is evident ; few crops, of late 
years, having failed, by being much 
infected with this diforder ; for,’ 
wherever the curl has appeared, in 
ever fo fmall a degree, that ftock 
has been rejected by the attentive 
cultivator, and new feed obtained. 
I am the more encouraged to 
ofter you thefe hints, for that, after 
having drawn them up, in the man- 
ner here fent, I read them ovér to 
a very intelligent farmer ‘in this 
neighbourhood, who. faid that thefe 
thoughts totally correfponded with 
his own. l have fhewn them alfo 
to a refpectable clergyman, who, to 
his other many. excellent qualities, 
is always ready to communicate in- 
formation, and has favoured me 
with the following extra& froma 
private letter. 
« A labouring man in my neigh- 
bourhood has got a very good po- 
tatoe: the only fault is, that out of 
four plants, three of them are abo- 
minably curled ; on which account, 
I defired he would give me four. 
potatoes. From each potatoe I took 
a feoot, not a /et,’in order to fee if 
the fhoots would be, curled; they 
were not: fo, poilibly, their not be-" 
ing curled may be: accidental, or 
poflibly the curl may arife from the 
jet planted, Another year, I will. 
plant a dozen, or more, of thefe. 
potatoe fhoots: then, if there fhould 
be no curl, I fhall be clearly of 
Opinion, that the curl arifes from 
fome difeafe in the “4 What I 
mean by a fhoot, is—I put three or 
four fets into a flower-pot; when 
they have fhot to be about two 
inches high, and have fibres, I take. 
the fets up, and, with a knife, cut, 
the 
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