122 CULTURE OF VEGETABLES [CH. 



perennial, and very little of it will run to seed during the 

 following year. It should be thinned to 6 inches. The 

 soil should be rich, deep, and well-drained. It is slow 

 in germinating. 



Potatoes. The vegetable most common, and at the 

 same time most carelessly treated, is the potato. It should 

 be remembered the potato is not a root, and cannot, there- 

 fore, get food for itself, nor can it germinate until it has 

 produced roots and shoots ; it cannot grow until the ground 

 is comparatively warm. There is nothing gained, therefore, 

 by planting very early. The object may best be obtained 

 by spreading the earlier kinds, such as Beauty of Hebron 

 or My atfs Ashleaf, on the floor of the potting-shed or 

 under the stage of the greenhouse, and so inducing the eyes 

 to sprout, so that much of the growth may proceed 

 without danger, and when favourable weather arrives, 

 and the ground is warm and dry, they may be planted 

 without fear of checks. 



Kidney tubers do not bear the knife. The later 

 kinds should be cut, and all but the vigorous, healthy 

 buds rubbed off, and planted in furrows of ridged-up 

 ground (previously trenched), 18 inches apart, the 

 tubers 12 inches. In light soils it may be well to 

 lay the manure above the tubers, covering in with the 

 fine mould between the furrows. Main Crop, Beauty 

 of Bute, Magnum Bonum, and Reading Russet are good 

 sorts for later sowing. 



At the opening meeting of a Potato Exhibition in 

 Ireland two or three years ago Lord Cadogan, in a speech 



