Ch. XXII.] ON POTATOES. 267 



2. Tlie otlier two parts were planted in drills ; one plot havin£f ten 

 single drills two feet asunder ; and the other having eight double 

 drills ; that is, a drill on each side of a line, so as to have two rows 

 about six inches asunder. The treatment of the two drills was pre- 

 cisely the same, and the quantity of manure in each of the three plots 

 was the same ; but the number of sets was in each different. The pro- 

 duce of each was as follows : 



Regarding the mode of spreading the dung — whether above or under the 

 sets — some diflFerence of opinion prevails ; for although the latter is the 

 method usually adopted, and it may be rationally supposed that, as the 

 roots shoot rather laterally than upwards, it is from the manure placed 

 underneath that they extract their nutriment, yet it is supposed by many 

 persons that, if the land be light and dry, it answers better to lay the ma- 

 nure in furrows above the plants ; and some farmers seem to think the 

 manner of its application immaterial*. According to an experiment made 

 with the utmost degree of attention, under the direction of the Board of 

 Agriculture, the former, however, appeared to have the advantage of five to 

 four in its favour : the produce of an equal weight of sets, and quantity 

 of manure, being — when laid over the dung, 105 lbs. 4 oz. 

 Under the dung, 84 ,, 3 „t 



Such are the ordinary modes of culture usually adopted throughout most 

 parts of the United Kingdom ; but a novel plan, which deviates in some 

 essential particulars from those generally employed, has lately been brought 

 into notice by Mr. Knight, the very intelligent President of the Horti- 

 cultural Society ; and, as the very interesting account which has been pub- 

 lished by the Society may yet be unknown to many of our readers, we 

 here transcribe it, and beg earnestly to call it to the serious attention of 

 every farmer who is engaged in that branch of husbandry. 



"The experiments were made upon different varieties of potatoes; but 

 as the results were in all cases nearly the same, I think that I shall most 

 readily cause the practice I recommend to be understood, by describing 

 minutelv the treatment of a single variety only, which I received from the 

 Horticultural Society, under the name of ' Lankman's Potato :' " a tall sort 

 raised some years since in Flanders. 



"The soil in which I proposed to plant being very shallow, and lying 

 upon a rock, I collected it with a plough into high ridges of four feet wide, 

 to give it an artificial depth. A deep furrow was then made along the 

 centre and highest part of each ridge ; and in the bottom of this, whole 

 potatoes, the lightest of which did not weigh less than four ounces, were 

 deposited, at only six inches distance from the centre of one to the centre of 

 another. Manure, in the ordinary quantity, was then introduced, and 

 mould was added, sufficient to cover the potatoes rather more deeply than 

 is generally done. 



" The stems of ])otatoes, as of other plants, rise perpendicularly under 

 the influence of their unerring guide, gravitation, so long as they continue 

 to be concealed beneath the soil ; but as soon as they rise above it, tliey 

 are, to a considerable extent, under the control of another agent, light. 



* Rep. of Cornwall, p. 73 ; Dickson's Lancash. p. 371. 

 f Trans, of the Board, p. 30. 



