268 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXII. 



Each inclines in whatever direction it receives the greatest quantity of 

 that fluid, and consequently each avoids, and appears to shun, the shade 

 of every contiguous plant. The old tubers being large, and, under the 

 mode of culture recommended, rather deeply buried in the ground, the 

 young plants in the early part of the summer never suffer from want of 

 moisture ; and, being abundantly nourished, they soon extend themselves in 

 every direction till they meet those of contiguous rows, which they do not 

 overshadow on account of the width of the intervals. 



" The stems being abundantly fed, owing to the size of the old tubers, 

 rise from the ground with great strength and luxuriance, support well 

 their foliage, and a larger breadth of this is thus, I think, exposed to the 

 light during the whole season, than under any other mode of culture which 

 I have seen ; and, as the plants acquire a very large size early in the 

 summer, the tubers, of even very late varieties, arrive at a state of perfect 

 maturity early in the autumn. 



" Having found my crops of potatoes to be in the last three years, 

 during which alone 1 have accurately adopted the mode of culture above 

 described, much greater than they had ever previously been, as well as of 

 excellent quality, I was led to ascertain the amount in weight which an 

 acre of ground, such as I have described — the soil of which was naturally 

 poor and shallow — would produce. A colony of rabbits had, however, in 

 the last year done a good deal of damage, and pheasants had eaten many 

 of the tubers which the rabbits had exposed to view; but the remaining 

 produce per acre exceeded 539 bushels of 82 lbs. each * : Slbs. being 

 allowed in every bushel on account of a very small quantity of earth which 

 adhered to them." 



" The preceding experiments were made w'ith a large and productive 

 variety of potato only ; but I am much inclined to think that I have 

 raised, and shall raise in the present year, nearly as large a produce per 

 acre of a very well-known small early variety — the 'ash-leaved kidney 

 potato.' Of this I selected in the present spring the largest tubers wliich 

 I could cause to be produced in the last year ; and I have planted them 

 nearly in contact with each other in the rows, and with intervals, on 

 account of the shortness of their stems, of only two feet between the rows. 

 The plants at present display an unusual degree of strength and vigour of 

 growth, arising from the verv large size — for that variety — of the pdanted 

 tuljers ; and as large a breadth of foliage is exposed to the light by the 

 small, as could be ex])osed by a large variety; for I have always found the 

 amount of the produce, under any given external circumstance, to be 

 regulated by the extent of foliage which was exposed to light ; and I have 

 uniformly found that to obtain crops of potatoes of great weight and excel- 

 lence, the period of planting should never be later than the beginning of 

 March.t" 



The produce of this small early variety, in fact, very considerably exceeded 

 that of the large one first mentioned — being per acre 665 bushels of 82 lbs. 

 — and both so far exceeded the ordinarv crops which had been previously 

 raised, except in very rare cases, that doubts were entertained of the exact- 

 ness of Mr. Knight's conclusions, and experiments, it will be seen, were 

 made in the garden of the Society in order to obtain further evidence. 



* The London salesmen allow TOlbs. as the weight of a bushel of potatoes ; but it 

 varies, according to the size and quality of diflevent species, from (iS ILs. to 7- lbs. per 

 bushel. 



-|- Transactions of the Hoiticult. Soc. vol. vii. 



