834 



another crop, would be analogous to their removal ; and if our ex- 

 pectations were limited to the increased growth of the other crop, 

 the plan would become, in a great degree, an assurance against total 

 loss. 



" Considering beans* an uncertain crop in the climate and soil of 

 Cornwall, I have for the last two years grown beans with an insu- 

 rance crop under them in alternate rows, and the success has been 

 SuflBcient to induce me to extend the practice, and to double the bean 

 crop in 1847, and adopt the same principle in growing potatoes. 



" A different standard may be required of the width of the rows, in 

 different soils and for different varieties of potatoes. The standard I 

 have generally adopted is 27 inches in single crops, and from 18 to 

 20 inches in alternate rows of different crops. 



" The plan of planting a second crop on land in which potatoes 

 have failed, is not practicable on a large scale in the midst of turnip 

 hoeing or harvest. The land can be seldom found in good order for 

 this purpose, even if the time for planting the second crop should not 

 be past, while the plan of double-cropping may be readily carried 

 out to any extent at the proper season, and the secondary crop will 

 be ready to grow immediately on the failure of the principal. 



" The crop that is considered of the least importance can always 

 be kept back to allow of the more free growth of the principal, but 

 no reasonable expectation ought to be entertained of a greatly in- 

 creased joint produce from double crops; still, under the present cir- 

 cumstances of the potato-disease, I conceive it may prove useful if 

 our views are limited to the expectation of an increased growth of one 

 crop compensating the deficiency of the other, in case of a failure 

 from any cause affecting its growth.f 



" The comparative experiment, in 1846, was made fairly. The 

 winter beans and potatoes (large white) were all planted on the last 

 day of February, in a clover lay, double ploughed, and manured in 

 the rows with 3 cwt. of guano per acre. 



" In 184.5 the tick beans and potatoes (large white) were planted in 

 the last week of March, after oats, and manured by 3 cwt. of guano ; 

 and the produce of the potatoes, under the beans, was much larger, 

 per acre, than the same variety sown several weeks later. 



" * See Lord Lovelace's account of bean crops, with an undercrop of cabbages. 

 English Agricultural Society's Report, 1844. 



f In this place two tables are introduced to illustrate the author's experiments, but 

 unfortunately are so arranged in the printing as to be perfectly unintelligible. — Ed. 



