378 OK EARLY POTATOES. June 29, 



is required by the method which you have propofed. 

 Ihe diicovery I allude to was, that whenever the fea- 

 iou was mild, or rather warm, iry ftored potatoes (the 

 charr pjon kind), did conitantly produce new potatoes, 

 rx;ftiy in the manner which you have fo fully and 

 tccuratfly defcribed, and that thefe potatoes have been^ 

 deemed at good and palatable by thofe who have eaten 

 them, as any others of their age and fize, the laft of 

 ■^'hich is ufualiy from that of a pigeon's, to that of a 

 litn's egg. But as 1 think this new produAion may 

 f robabiy hsve arifen in a great meafure from the man- 

 ner in which they were kept during the winter, I will 

 t.ike the liberty to inform you of the method I purfued 

 for that purpofe. After having them taken up in the 

 aufumn, -they are, as foon as their furface is tolerably 

 r'ry, carritd and put into a fmall houfe or hovel having 

 clay walls, which are well lined with ftraw and a 

 ihiitched roof ; in this houfe very dry fand is always 

 thrown upon them, which falls into and nearly fills up 

 tile intcrftices of them as they are brought into the 

 Iioufe ; after which they are covered with livaw, to pre- 

 ferve them from the froft ; in this heap, and thus co- 

 vered, they very early in the fpring begin to fprout on 

 the furface, and on that, as aifo fometimes in the more 

 central parts, produce the bulbs above mentioned in a 

 great abundance ; and I have further remarked, that thefe 

 parent potatoes, if I may fo call them, do not thereby 

 become lefs proper to plant for a future crop than thoie 

 ■which have never produced a progeny. I had tliis 

 year young potatoes at my table in March ; and was I 

 to uie means 'whereby to make the hovel warmer, I 

 conceive they would vegetate flill earlier, perhaps in 

 every part of the winter ; but this 1 have not tried ; 

 'hey who pixfer young to full grown potatoes m.ay ea- 

 £Iy do it. 



1 he Kuta Eaga plants, which Dr. Coventry found 

 found on the firit of September, after they had ripened 

 loeir fted, I have retifoii to think, had then no buds 



