22 THE POTATO. 



petitors were declared by the judge to have produced over 

 18 tons per acre, the highest yield being 18 tons 13J cwt. 

 No crop responds more freely to liberal manuring than the 

 potato crop, and, except on land new to potatoes, and full 

 of organic matter, great crops cannot be produced without 

 such treatment. In Jersey very heavy manuring is 

 general, and, although potatoes are grown on the same 

 land year after year, while the crop is raised very early, 

 and much before it has grown to its utmost bulk, 6 to 8 

 tons per acre are produced. In the parts of this country 

 where yields of 10 to 12 tons per acre are often produced 

 on a large acreage, the manuring is also on a very liberal 

 scale. In many experiments the yield has been twice as 

 much on manured as on unmanured land, even when only 

 artificials have been used. In Ayrshire, as in Jersey, early 

 potatoes are grown on the same land year after year, and 

 yet, by means of heavy manuring, seaweed often taking 

 the place of farmyard manure, excellent crops are grown. 

 Potatoes raised when they are only half-grown, to catch 

 the high-priced markets, do not commonly yield more than 

 3 to 6 tons per acre; but later liftings run up to 8 or 10 

 tons; and occasionally as high as 14 tons. These and other 

 figures relating to the Ayrshire crop were supplied by large 

 growers to Mr. Arthur Sutton a few years ago, when he 

 was visiting the district, and they were published in an 

 article which he contributed to the Journal of the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society. Such crops of early potatoes, 

 although not early enough to sell at the highest rates, *>are 

 very profitable. But the district is one of the very few 

 parts of Great Britain in which first earlies can be grown 

 without serious risk of damage by frost. 



Prices. There are great variations in the prices of 

 potatoes in different years, as well as in those of the very 

 early and the late tubers in the same season. With respect 

 to the main crop, it would not be very easy to find a greater 

 variation than there is in the prices of the present season, 

 1904-5, and those of the preceding one, as the rates have 



