POTATO 



699 



POTATO DISEASE 



with mould at a joint. For the main crops, moderate- 

 sized whole potatoes are the best. 



To obtain early crops where tubers are rapidly formed, 

 large sets must be employed. In these one or two eyes 

 at most should be allowed to remain. If the sets are 

 placed with their leading buds upwards, few and very 

 strong early stems will be produced ; but, if the position 

 is reversed, many weak and later shoots will arise, and 

 not only the earliness but the quality of the produce be 

 depreciated. For the earliest crops there are, likewise, 

 several modes of assisting the forward vegetation of the 

 sets. These should be prepared by removing every eye 

 but one or two ; and being placed in a layer in a warm 

 room, where air and light can be freely admitted, with a 

 covering of straw, chaff, or sand, they soon emit shoots, 

 which must be strengthened by exposure to the air and 

 light as much as possible, by taking off the cover without 

 injuring them. During cold weather, and at night, it 

 must always be removed : the leaves soon become green 

 and tolerably hardy. In early spring they are planted 

 out, the leaves being left just above the surface, and a 

 covering of litter afforded every night until the danger 

 of frost is passed. 



Planting. Insert them with the dibble, in rows ; for 

 the early crops 12 inches apart each way, and for the 

 main ones 18 inches ; the sets 6 inches beneath the 

 surface. The potato dibble is the best instrument that 

 can be employed, the earth being afterwards raked or 

 struck in with the spade, and the soil not trampled 

 upon, but planted as sufficient is dug for receiving a 

 row ; for the looser the soil the less does frost penetrate, 

 and the more readily does superfluous moisture escape. 



The compartment may be laid. out level and undivided 

 if the soil is light ; but if heavy soil is necessarily em- 

 ployed, it is best disposed in beds 6 or 8 feet wide. If 

 the" staple of the soil be good throughout, the alleys 

 may be 2 feet wide, and dug deep, otherwise they must 

 be made broader, and only one spit taken out, the earth 

 removed being employed to raise the beds, which should 

 be in four parallel ridges, and the sets inserted along 

 their summits. 



Hoeing. As soon as the plants are well to be distin- 

 guished, they should be perfectly freed from weeds, and 

 of the early crops the earth drawn round each plant, so 

 as to form a cup as a shelter from the cold winds, which 

 are their chief enemy at that season ; but the main 

 crops should not be earthed up, for earthing up diminishes 

 the crop one-fourth. Throughout their growth they 

 should be kept perfectly clear of weeds. 



It is very injurious to mow off the tops of the plants. 

 The foliage ought to be kept as uninjured as possible, 

 unless, as sometimes occurs on fresh ground, the plants 

 are of gigantic luxuriance, and even then the stems 

 should be only moderately shortened. It is, however, of 

 considerable advantage to remove the fruit-stalks and 

 immature flowers as soon as they appear, unless the 

 stems are very luxuriant. A potato-plant continues to 

 form tubers until the flowers appear, after which it is 

 employed in ripening those already formed. 



The very earliest crops will be in production in June, 

 or, perhaps, towards the end of May, and may thence 

 be taken up as wanted until October, at the close of 

 which month, or during November, they may be entirely 

 dug up and stored. In storing, the best mode is to place 

 them in layers, alternately with dry coal-ashes, earth, 

 or sand, in a shed. The best instrument with which 

 they can be dug up is a three-flat-pronged fork, each 

 row being cleared regularly awa\. In modern times, 

 4-5 pronged steel forks are considered the best, 

 because easier to work, and not so destructive to the 

 tubers, when accidentally pierced by the more slender 

 prongs. 



The tubers should be sorted at the time of taking them 

 up ; for, as the largest keep the best, they alone should 

 be stored, whilst the smaller ones are first made use of. 



Potatoes should not be stored until perfectly dry, and 

 must also be free from earth, refuse, and wounded tubers. 



To raise Varieties. A variety of the potato is generally 

 considered to continue about fourteen years in perfection, 

 after which period it gradually loses its good qualities, 

 becoming of inferior flavour and unproductive ; fresh 

 varieties must, therefore, be occasionally raised from 

 seed. The berries, or apples, of the old stock, having 

 hung in a warm room throughout the winter, the seed 

 must be obtained from them by washing away the pulp 

 during February. The seed is then thoroughly dried 



and kept until April, when it is sown in drills about 

 J inch deep, and 6 inches apart, in a rich, light soil. 

 The plants are weeded, and earth drawn up to their 

 steins, when an inch in height ; and as soon as the 

 height has increased to 3 inches, they are moved into a 

 similar soil, in rows 16 inches apart each way. Being 

 finally taken up in the course of October, they must be 

 preserved until the following spring, to be then re- 

 planted and treated as for store crops. 



The tubers of every seedling should be kept separate, 

 as scarcely two will be of a similar habit and quality, 

 whilst many will be comparatively worthless, and but 

 few of particular excellence. If the seed is obtained 

 from a red potato that flowered in the neighbourhood of a 

 white-tubered variety, the seedlings, in all probability, 

 will in part resemble both their parents ; but seldom 

 or never does a seedling resemble exactly the original 

 stock. At all events, only such should be preserved as 

 are recommended by their superior earliness, size, flavour, 

 or fertility. 



The early varieties, if planted on little heaps of earth, 

 with a stake in the middle, and when the plants are 

 about 4 inches high, being secured to the stakes with 

 shreds and nails, and the earth washed away from the 

 bases of the stems by means of a strong current of water, 

 so that the fibrous roots only enter the soil, will blossom 

 and perfect seed. 



Forcing. The season of forcing is from the close of 

 December to the middle of February, in a hotbed, and 

 at the close of this last month on a warm border, with 

 the temporary shelter of a frame. The hotbed is only 

 required to produce a moderate heat. The earth should 

 be 6 inches deep, and the sets planted in rows 6 or 

 8 inches apart, as the tubers are not required to be large. 

 The temperature ought never to sink below 65, nor rise 

 above 80. 



The rank steam arising from fermenting dung is un- 

 doubtedly injurious to the roots of potatoes; and to 

 obviate this they may be planted in narrow beds, and 

 the dung applied in trenches on each side ; or all the 

 earth from an old cucumber or other hotbed being re- 

 moved, and an inch in depth of fresh being added, put 

 on the sets, and cover them with 4 inches of mould. At 

 the end of five days the sides of the old dung may be 

 cut away in an inward slanting direction, about 15 inches 

 from the perpendicular, and strong linings of hot dung 

 applied. 



If the tubers are desired to be brought to maturity 

 as speedily as possible, instead of being planted in the 

 earth of the bed, each set should be placed in a pot 

 about 6 inches in diameter, though the produce in pots 

 is smaller. But young potatoes may be obtained in 

 the winter, by the following plan, without forcing : 

 Plant some late kinds, unsprouted, in a dry, rich border, 

 in July, and again in August, in rows 2 feet apart. They 

 will produce new potatoes in October, and in succession 

 until April, if covered with leaves or straw to exclude 

 frost. If old potatoes are placed in dry earth, in a shed 

 during August, they will emit young tubers in December. 



Preparation of Sets for Forcing. They should be of 

 the early varieties. To assist their forward vegetation, 

 plant a single potato in each of the pots intended for 

 forcing during January. Then place in the ground, and 

 protect with Utter from the frost. This renders them 

 very excitable by heat ; and, consequently, when plunged 

 in a hotbed, they vegetate rapidly and generate tubers. 

 The seed potatoes are equally assisted, and with less 

 trouble, if placed in a cellar just in contact with each 

 other ; and as soon as the germs are 4 inches long, they 

 are removed to the hotbed. 



Management. More than one stem should never be 

 allowed, otherwise the tubers are small, and not more 

 numerous. 



Water must be given whenever the soil appears dry, 

 and in quantity proportionate to the temperature of 

 the air. Linings must be applied as the temperature 

 declines, and air admitted as freely as the temperature 

 of the atmosphere will allow. Coverings must be 

 afforded with the same regard to temperature. 



From six to seven weeks usually elapse between the 

 time of planting and the fitness of the tubers for use. 



POTATO or COLORADO BEETLE. Doryophora 

 decemlineata. 



POTATO DISEASE or POTATO MURRAIN. Phyto'ph- 

 fhora inie'sians. This disease first attacked, very gene- 



