Cli.XXII.] 



ON POTATOES. 



261 



North of Ireland pink kidney 

 Dryden's white kidney . 

 American early white 

 Ash-leaf round wliite 



London particular 1 



Prince of Wales. ..... 2 



The qualities are, indeed, so various as almost to defy descriplion. One list, 

 latel}' published by Mr. Ilowden of Lawliead, East Lothian, contains an enu- 

 meration of experimenls upon no less than one hundred and thirty different 

 species, procured from the Continent, as well as from various pans of the 

 United Kingdom : some being of early and otliers of late growth ; white, 

 pale, yellow, or reddish ; dense and waxy, or large and mealy ; and varying 

 in produce from 77 to 493 bushels per acre, as well as in quantity of 

 starch, or nutritive matter, from 14 oz. to 2 lbs. per stone. Forty of the 

 most ]3roductive of these varieties were planted in 1834 in separate drills, 

 each 120 yards long and 27 inches wide : the manure being decomposed 

 farm-yard dung, at the rate of 16 tons per acre ; and the land a free soil, 

 about 100 feet above the level of the sea. Each variety occupied one drill, 

 and whole potatoes were planted ; the seed was covered by a single mould- 

 board plough, and the crops were kept clean and earthed up with the hand- 

 hoe. The varieties were divided into early and late species, and the result 

 of the estimated produce per acre of one half of the most productive, which 

 we select, was as follows ; — 



EARLY SPECIES. 



* Trans, of the High. Soc. N. S. No. xxx. p. 85. Added to these, and to the various 

 other accounts furnished by jiersons in this country, we have before us a report published 

 by Professor CanduUe, and submitted to the Agricultural Society of Geneva, of compara- 

 tive experiments made upon 154 different vaiieiies collected from many parts of the 

 Continent and America, as well as from the United Kuigdom, many of which are well 

 deserving of attention. 



An account has also appeared in a foreign journal, entitled "Le Cu^/ivafeui;'" for Januarj', 

 1835, of a very extraordinary species vbich has only latterly appeared in Switzeiland, 

 and is thus described by Prince Charles de Rohan, from wliom it has been called the 

 « Rohan Potato":— 



Three tubers chosen at random weighed each 13 11). 7 oz.. 1 1 lb. 9 oz., and 9 lb. 13 oz. ; 

 and a small tuber, having only four eyes, weighing, when planted, a few grains less than 

 half an ounce, produced 48i lbs. It is, however, not the largest tubers which succeed 

 the best as seed. The mode of planting is described as by tlie spade : the earth being 

 dug to the depth of 20 inches, and the distance between the holes four feet, two or three 

 eyes being diljbled into each. The plants should be earthed up frequently, for the stems 

 reach to six or seven feet in height. It is a late species, but very farinaceous and of 

 excellent flavour, and should not be taken up until about Martinmas, after the stalks 

 have withered. We believe the only nurseryman from whom they can be at present 

 obtained, is JVI. Jacquemont Bonncfont, at Annouey, iu the Ardecbe. 



