8 Cultivation of the Potatoe. 



treated it in various ways at that time, merely with a view to 

 vegetable physiology, my object being to discover whether 

 the distinguishing characters of these varieties were due to 

 the nature of the soil, or the mode of fertilizing it. Since 

 that time I have, in raising the potatoe, tried all the methods 

 proposed by others, as well as those which I have myself 

 devised. As far~as the quantity of produce is concerned, the 

 results df various modes of planting and cultivation have 

 shown but little difference, unless, indeed, the cultivation 

 were altogether neglected or badly arranged. The quantity 

 of produce was found to depend upon the soil, when the spe- 

 cies cultivated was the same. But the manual labor, and, 

 consequently, the net profit, varied considerably. I have 

 -done my utmost to reduce this manual labor to the smallest 

 possible amount, without sensibly diminishing the produce, 

 for, in the raising of potatoes the rent of land is much less 

 considerable than the expenses of cultivation. 



" I will venture to say, that I have attained this object more 

 nearly than any one else, and that I have found myself near- 

 er and nearer to it at the end of almost every successive 

 year. I therefore beg those persons who have read my for- 

 mer works,* and the observations which I have made on the 

 culture of the potatoe, to consider such observations as the 

 result of my apprenticeship, and those which I am now about 

 to make, as more complete and matured." 



Ip order to make some sort of classification of the innumer- 

 able varieties of the potatoe, we must confine our attention to 

 the most useful part, the tuber. It is true that the leaves 

 and the flowers appear to bear some relation to the form of 

 the tuber, but the particular examination of them belongs 

 more properly to the botanical cultivator. 



The skin of the potatoe is, in some varieties, of a dark 

 color, approaching almost to blackness ; in others of a red- 



* Thaer's English Agriculture, vols. 1 and 2. 



