SOILS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 27 



other seasons, and over 40 often. As no notice has been 

 taken of the prices of new varieties of potatoes, 

 " boomed " extravagantly as they have been, so no refer- 

 ence to the returns obtained by fortunate speculators has 

 been deemed desirable. Potato growers who are distant 

 from a good market make more money in a season when 

 the crop in the country generally is small, and prices are 

 high, than when a great yield has to be sold at low rates, 

 because the rail carriage and marketing expenses are much 

 heavier on the great crop, being the same per ton when 

 prices are low as when they are high. 



CHAPTEK IV. 



SOILS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



THE potato will succeed in almost any soil, provided it be 

 properly cultivated. But experience demonstrates the im- 

 portant fact that while good crops may be grown in any 

 soil, it does riot follow that the produce thereof will be of 

 equally good flavour and quality. Crops grown on heavy 

 clay land, for example, are inclined to be waxy and want- 

 ing in flavour. The same remarks apply to those grown on 

 peat or bog lands. Those grown on the deep, rich, silicious, 

 or gravelly loams of the Old Eed Sandstone formation in- 

 variably turn out of better flavour and also cook more 

 floury than those grown on other soils. We have also 

 observed that crops grown on the greensand and marls 

 of the New Bed Sandstone formation yield produce of first- 



