POTAT' i 



rOTTTKY. 



i , tbc tfif will h found to be the more efficacious implement 

 IB Ik* Brat count of treatment after the plant* are well up. 



BOOM plant one or two wta in the centre of every square yard, but 

 in Men own grc*t and continued earthing, until e.vh square preeenU 

 the fnn of a pyramid, in contemplated : and, if our preceding remarks 

 be correct, this treatment i* only applicable to deep and retentive soil*. 

 Orwt return* hare no doubt been thus obtain. ,1. but by this mode 

 ||Jm the lea** poeriMe incorporation of the manure with the soil. 



In minute husbandry, such a* that exemplified in labourer*' allot- 

 ment*, which exclude* the plough altogether, the ordinary and beat 

 practice u to lay the Mt* in rows, after a very deep winter digging, 

 marked with a garden-line. The workman digs precisely as in a 

 garden-plot tor cabbage. : he dean a little drill, lays the aeta straight, 

 put* a sufficiency of manure over them, and then covers from the next 

 spit, which he digs with a spade or a three-pronged fork flattened at 

 to* end*, levelling and pulverising as he advance* to the distance at 

 which he again puts down his line and forma a new drill. Thus the 

 entire piece in thoroughly loosened, the manure perfectly covered, and 

 erenr facility given for the hand-hoeing in due course. 



The next stage of the potato is that in which it blossoms. It has 

 been recommended to pluck off the flowers. Excessive blossoming is 

 no doubt injurious, I nit experience has generally proved that the extra 

 coat is hardly defrayed by the additional produce obtained. If the 

 flowers are plucked off, they should be nipped in the early bud. 



When the crop is fully npe, which is indicated by the withering of 

 the stalks, and when the land is free from stones, labourers, in the 

 proportion of about twenty to one plough (half of these being usually 

 men, and the remainder women or young persons), should be set to 

 pull up the stalks, and carefully collect the tubers which may be 

 attached to them, before the plough proceeds in its operation. When 

 it U prepared for work, the men, with prongs flattened at the extremity, 

 are placed at such distances from each other as will give them proper 

 time to fork out the potatoes cleanly for the pickers, who are also 

 stationed at exact distances with a basket between every pair, into 

 which they gather the potatoes. 



The common swing-plough may be employed in three ways : First, 

 in taking off a slice from each side of every drill, and leaving it to the 

 workmen to open out the centre with their prongs ; or in its third 

 movement it may turn up this centre, under which the main body of 

 the tubers lie, which is more expeditiously and easily done if the earth 

 be in fit condition. Second, a double mould-board plough with a long 

 sack, and diverted of its coulter, may be drawn by two strong horses 

 through the centre of the drills, and completely under the level of the 

 tubers, so as to avoid injuring them, by which means the work-people 

 will be kept exceedingly busy ; and if the land be in good friable order, 

 this is the most expeditious mode, and, providing there is a perfect 

 harrowing afterwards, the crop will be taken out with sufficient clean- 

 line**. Third, the crop may be taken up by prongs or long narrow 

 spades without the plough. In wet weather this more tedious but far 

 safer method is frequently adopted, and if the drills be short and the 

 beadriggB under crop also, it is the most desirable, effectual, and 

 economical mode. In removing the produce in this manner, it is 

 obvious that the number of gatherers should be much less in propor- 

 tion to the men than under the other circumstances. The headnggs 

 should evidently be the first parts of the field cleared, to make a free 

 space for the ploughs in the boutings, and for the carts. 



One horse will answer for three carts if the distance of draught to 

 the pits be short, by changing him alternately from an empty to a full 

 one ; but this only applies to the Scotch and Irish system of draught 

 by single cart and horse*. The general mode of securing the crops in 

 pits in the field is the safest. In making the pits improperly so 

 termed, for the base is only sunk a few inches, and the potatoes are 

 raised considerably in the heaps the only caution to be observed is 

 that furrows should be cut on all sides to prevent water from lodging 

 or penetrating inwards, and that the earth thrown up and over them, 

 to the depth of four or five inches, should be well beaten with spade 

 or shovel to exclude moisture and frost. The potato-stalks, however 

 apparently dry, should never be laid between the potatoes and the 

 earth in these accumulations, for they soon ferment and rot, and injure 

 all the potatoes in contact with them. Straw is at least useless. The 

 length of the pit depends on circumstances, but the breadth should 

 not exceed four feet, as large accumulations are most liable to fer- 

 mentation*. 



Of late years the potato has been extremely subject to disease, 

 which first became apparent generally in 1845-6, when the whole crop 

 in Ireland, the mainstay of the people's food, was lost, and a famine 

 ensued. Since that, the same disease ha* annually reappeared, blackening 

 the leave* before they become naturally ripe, and rotting the tubers 

 either in the ground or in the heap : so that one-tenth to one-half the 

 crop i* lost. The only apparent means of remedying this attack, or 

 diminishing it* virulence, is by early planting early sorU in early 

 places, so as to obtain a ripe crop before the time (July and August) 

 when the di*ea*e generally show* itaelf. It is also said to be a palliative 

 of this di*e**e, if not a remedy for it, when, by earthing up the 

 nearly ripened crop, the tuber* are covered with at lent three inches 

 deep of earth, before the period of attack. Beside* this diseaae, there 

 U " the curl," which U an imperfect formation, and wa* first generally 

 observed in 174, when it gave ri*e to various conjecture* and un- 



profitable discussion* : the cause is yet unknown. One thing however 

 i* dear, that from a crop of which any part is intended for seed, nil 

 the plant* affected with curl should be carefully separated 

 general removal commence*. The dry rot, or decay .vhieh 



during recent Tear* *o fearfully prevailed in many part* of the 1 

 Kingdom, is also still unexplained u to it* real cause, though the 

 press ha* teemed with essay* and very plausible theories respecting it. 

 The set, though apparently sound when planted, has either i".i 

 germinate at all and rotted away, or has feebly and partially thrown 

 out it* sickly shoot*. The most contradictory causes have been 

 assigned : over-ripening in the preceding year ; under ripening 

 mentation in the pit : i". im.-ntation of the set in the ground when 

 placed in contact with hot. duni< (which is utterly absurd, for wln-u 

 in the ground no injurious fermentation can arise); very hot We 

 great drought, hot sun, cold parching wind, dry and heating n. 

 sea-ware, which is always damp ; exhaustion of the kind from a long 

 course of culture, contradicted by many instances in which it appears 

 that the produce of the same variety for instance the apple has bean 

 successfully cultivated during sixty-five years without any failure ; or 

 the loss of vitality from prematurely shooting. 



If potatoes have fermented in their accumulated state, they would 

 bear obvious evidence of it, and therefore be rejected. F< 

 cannot be the true cause in every or even the majority of cases, nor 

 does the failure probably proceed from insects in the eyes, as ha* 

 suggested, for if so, it is difficult to account for the fact that sets from 

 the same heap planted at one part of the day have totally failed, while 

 others put into the ground at another have pushed forth healthy 

 shoots. As to decay in the land from the contiguity of fermenting 

 manure, " How is it to be proved that the gases evolved by fern- 

 manure can injure the sets? Fermenting manures would rather 

 stimulate by their warmth, and excite their growth by the aliment 

 which their essential qualities, carbon and ammonia, supply to plants. 

 Why do not the gaseous exhalations from rank and fermenting hot- 

 beds destroy the tender plants which are raised in them ? " ( 1 > 

 ' Cycloptedia of Practical Husbandry.') 



A partial remedy for dry rot is to be found in the planting of entire 

 tubers. When the cut set* have failed, the entire tubers have resisted 

 premature decay; whether it arises from atmospheric influence, or 

 debility of constitution, or from any of the conjectured causes, the 

 entire tubera resist these noxious influences, and germinate healthily 

 and freely. All reports agree on this point : there U no risk in this 

 case, if the tubers be sound when planted ; and it may be added, that 

 in all stages of their growth, the uncut tubers maintain a <! 

 superiority, and yield a corresponding produce. 



The farina of the potato, properly granulated and dried, is sold in 

 our shops as arrowroot, or mixed with gum as tapioca, to which it 

 bears the closest resemblance, both in appearance and essential pro- 

 perties. For confectionary the flour is so delicately white, and 

 digestible and nutritious, that it ought to be in more general use, 

 among the children of the poor especially, in the winter season, when 

 they so rarely enjoy the luxury of milk ; and the cost is not more than 

 a sixth or seventh of the price of tapioca or arrowroot, if it be made 

 at home. Few housewives are ignorant of the method of obtaining it 

 by the use of a common hand-grater and sieve ; but for yielding larger 

 supplies Dome machinery is necessary. 



POTIN, a name given by numismatist* to an alloy of brass and other 

 metals, from a French word signifying pot-metal. The term is gene- 

 rally applied to a base metal substituted in the ancient currency for 

 silver, consisting of brass, lead, and tin, with an admixture of a fifth 

 part of silver ; the presence of tin constitutes potin, as without this 

 metal the alloy is called billim. The coins of the Roman cm; 

 minted in Egypt, some of the early coins of Gaul and Britain. 

 the later days of the Roman Empire, are in this metal. [Xr.Misv 

 POTTERY. The word pottery, derived from the 'French , 

 the Latin poterium, and the Greek poUrion, or drinking- vessel, has been 

 applied to all descriptions of dried or baked clay. The worker or 

 manufacturer is styled potter, and the place or establishment where 

 made, pottery ; besides which, the term ceramic, from the Greek 

 signifying earthenware, and fictile from the Latin, has been applied to 

 objects produced in baked or dried clay. The art of working in < 

 of such high antiquity that it appears long prior to the historic period 

 of the human race, and was attributed by all nations to gods or 

 mythical personages. In Egypt, the cradle of the earliest arts and 

 sciences, this art is attributed to god Chnum, and iU early invention is 

 proved by the bricks of sun-dried clay, of which some of the 

 pyramids were built (PYRAMID]; the vases of red earthenware found 

 in contemporary sepulchres of the 4th or 5th dynasty, and the repre- 

 sentation of potters engaged at their occupation on the wall par 

 of tombs of the 4th and 12th dynasties. The brick, the oldest 

 pottery, called by the Egyptians irli, or " box," and at the earliest 

 period made of sun-dried clay mixed with straw, fragments of red 

 pottery, and other materials, was of the shape of those at present, but 

 of l.uger proportions, about 5 inches thick, 8 inches wide, and IS i 

 long, stamped out of a mould, and impre lie common' 



"i the 18th dynasty, with the names of monarchs, const: 

 other inscriptions, made by a wooden block on its upper surface. Such 

 bricks were extensively used for pyramids, walls, tombs, and other 

 constructions. The carjy- invention of the wheel, and the manufacture 



