Potato 



Potato to conditions is seen in the fact that excellent crops are 

 grown on thin soils overlying chalk and limestone. So again, grand 

 crops are often taken from poor sandy soils, and from newly-broken 

 bog and moss, as well as from clay lands that have had some amount 

 of tillage to form a friable top crust. But when all is said the fact 

 remains that in the first instance a deep mellow loam is always to be 

 preferred, especially if it contains a reasonable proportion of sand 

 and calcareous matters, as good loams generally do. The Potato is 

 too important a crop to be lightly dealt with in respect of the con- 

 ditions that are most favourable for its production, and therefore we 

 advise those who propose to plant largely to look for loamy lands, 

 and, failing to find them, to give preference to calcareous and sandy- 

 soils rather than to clays or retentive soils of any kind. 



Much prejudice prevails against manuring land for Potatoes, and 

 where the soil is good enough to yield a paying crop, it will be 

 prudent to do without manure, and to dress generously for the next 

 crop to restore the land to a reasonable condition. Still it is the 

 practice of many of the most successful growers for the early market 

 to manure for this crop, and in some instances the manure is laid in the 

 trenches at the time of planting. The sets are laid on the manure, 

 and closed in with the earth from the sides; the work being done 

 with mechanical accuracy, so as to consume the least amount of time 

 possible, but leaving the field in an orderly state. Generally speak- 

 ing, land intended for Potatoes should be deeply dug, and, if needful, 

 manured in the autumn. About twenty to thirty cartloads of half- 

 rotten manure per acre may be dug or ploughed in to as great a 

 depth as possible, consistent with the nature of the subsoil and the 

 appliances at command. In breaking up pasture with the spade, bastard 

 trenching will as a rule prove advantageous. The land is lined off 

 in two-feet breadths, and the top spit of the first piece is removed 

 to the last piece, which will often be close at hand by the rule of 

 working a certain distance down and back again. The under spit 

 will then be well broken up, the manure thrown in, and the top spit 

 of the next piece will be turned in turf downwards, making a sand- 

 wich of the manure. If this is done in autumn, there will be a mellow 

 top crust produced by the spring, and the best way to plant will be 

 in trenches, unless the land is very light, in which case the dibber 

 may be used. 



As light lands are often profitably devoted to Potato culture, and 

 more especially to the production of first-class early Potatoes for the 

 markets, a few words on their management may be useful here. If 



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