Cultivation of Arable Land Potatoes Methods of plan ting of. 103 



may be taken from the fame land, eve.t where manure is not made ufe of, with 

 out its being exhaufted in any great degree.* It may therefore be had re- 

 courfe to with advantage where manure cannot be eafily procured. And from 

 its being well fuited to the keeping of the foil dry, it may be well adapted to 

 fuch lands as are too much inclined to the retention of moifturc for the p crfecl 

 growth of potatoe crops. 



But from the great quantity of hand labour, it muft be a practice attended 

 with too much expence to be generally employed. 



Where this fort of crop is planted upon fward-Iand, it has been recommended 

 by an intelligent cultivator, after the land has been prepared by the ufe of a 

 plough that juft pares off the furface and depofits it in the furrow, to place 

 the fets upon the inverted fod, and cover them with the loofe mould from be 

 low by means of a common plough.-j- In this cafe the fets may alfo be put in 

 by a dibble where that method is preferred ; but the former is probably the 

 better practice : as the turfy material on which the fets are put, in this method 

 of planting, foon begins to decay, the purpofe of manure is in Tome meafure 

 anfwered. It is therefore a plan that may be advantageous where manure is 

 fcarce, as in bringing wafte and other coarfe grafs lands into the (late of tillage. 



Thcfe are the principal modes of planting that are employed where the 

 plough is had recourfe to; but where labour is cheap, crops of this fort are 

 frequently fet by the fpade. 



Where this is the cafe, after the lands have been once well dug over from the 

 Hate of fward, it is frequently a practice to form a trench acrofs the end of 

 the ridge to the width of about three feet, and from ten to fifteen inches in 

 depth, according to the ftaple of the land. After this another trench of the 

 fame dimenfions is made on the fide of the former, the furface materials, to the 

 depth of fix or feven inches, being thrown into the bottom of the preceding 

 trench upon which the proper fupply of manure is laid, and the potatoe fets 

 put in at the diftance of eight or ten inches from each other, after which the 

 neccflary quantity of earth is raifed from the bottom of this trench to cover the 

 fets in the firft, and bring it to its proper level. This, though a laborious me 

 thod of proceeding, and not by any means calculated for the extenfive culti 

 vator, provides an excellent bed for the reception of the feed, and leaves the land 

 in a high ftate of preparation for fuch crops as may be afterwards grown. Befides, 

 as the graffy material anfwers the purpofe of manure by its gradual decay, it 

 may probably be had recourfe to where that article cannot be eafily obtained. 



* Commercial and Agricultural Magazine, vol. I. p. 76. i Mr. Somerville* 



