POT 



477 



POT 



beds, which should not be more than dug round the heap, and well smootli- 

 four parallel ridges, and the set8 in- ened with the back of the spade, 

 sertcd along their summits. [ Potatoes should not be stored until 



Hoeing. — As soon as the plants are perfectly dry, nor unless free from 

 well to be distinguished, they should be earth, refuse, and wounded tubers. It 

 perfectly freed from weeds; and of the is a good practice to keep a hole open 

 early crops the earth drawn round each on four dilTerent sides of the heap, 

 plant, so as to form a cup as a shelter entirely through the earth and straw, 

 from the cold winds, which are their for a week or two after the heap is 

 chief enemy at that season. But the formed ; for in proportion to its size it 

 main crops should not be earthed up, ajways ferments, and these orifices 

 for earthing up diminishes the crop one [ allow the escape of the vapours and 

 fourth. Throughout their growth they ' perfect the drying, 

 should be kept perfectly clear of weeds. | To raise Varieties. — A variety of the 



It is very injurious to mow off the I potato is generally considered to con- 

 tops of the plants, as is sometimes re- I tinue about fourteen years in perfection, 

 commended. The foliage ought to be after which period it gradually loses its 

 kept as uninjured as possible, unless, good qualities, becoming of inferior 

 as sometimes occurs on fresh ground, : llavour and unproductive; fresh va- 

 tlie plants are of gigantic luxuriance, rieties must, therefore, be occasionally 

 and even then the stems should be only i raised from seed. The berries, or ap- 

 moderately shortened. It is, however, pies, of the old stock, having hung in a 

 of considerable advantage to remove warm room throughout the winter, the 

 the fruit-stalks and immature flowers as seed must be obtained from them by 

 soon as they appear, unless the stems washing away the pulp during Februarv. 

 are very luxuriant. A potato plant This is thoroughly dried and kept until 

 continues to form tubers until the i .'\pril, and then sown in drills about 

 flowers appear, after which it is em- | half an inch deep and six inches apart, 

 ployed in ripening those already formed, in a rich light soil. The plants are 



The very earliest crops will be in weeded, and earth drawn up to their 

 production in July, or perhaps towards stems, when an inch in height: as soon 

 the end of June, and may thence be as this has increased to three inches 

 taken up as wanted until October, at they are moved into a similar soil, in 

 the close of which month, or during rows, sixteen inches apart each way, 

 November, they may be entirely dug up ' and during their future growth earthed 

 and stored. In storing, the best mode | up two or three times. Being finally 

 is to place them in layers, alternately 1 taken up, in the course of October, they 

 with dry coal-ashes, in a shed. But a must be preserved until the following 

 still belter plan, usually, is to allow spring, to be then replanted and treated 

 them to remain where grown, moulding as for store crops, 

 the rows over six inches deep, and 

 taking them up a week before wanted. 

 The best instrument with which they 

 can be dug up is a three-fiat-pronged 

 fork, each row being cleared regularly 

 away. 



The tubers should be sorted at the 

 time of taking them up ; for, as the 



Some gardeners sow in a moderate 

 hot-bed, very thin, in drills the same 

 depth as above, and nine inches apart. 

 Water is frequently and plentifully 

 poured between the rows, and earth 

 drawn about the stems of the seedlings 

 until they are a few inches in height. 

 They are then transplanted into rows, 

 largest keep the best, they alone should water given, and earthing performed as 



be stored, whilst the smaller ones are 

 first made use of. The most common 

 mode of preserving them, throughout 

 the winter, is in heaps or clamps some- 

 times called pyeing. The heaps are 

 laid in pyramidal form on a bed of straw, 

 and enveloped with a covering, six or 

 eight inches thick, of the same ma- 

 terial, laid even as in thatching, and the 

 whole inclosed with earth, in a conical 

 form, a foot thick, taken from a trench 



usual. The only additional advantage 

 of this plan is, that as the seed can be 

 sown earlier, the tubers attain a rather 

 larger size the first year. 



It is to be remarked, that the tubers 

 of every seedling should be kept sepa- 

 rate, as scarcely two will be of a similar 

 habit and quality, whilst many will be 

 comparatively worthless, and but few 

 of particular excellence. If the seed 

 is obtained from a red potato that flow- 



