624 RADICACEOUS ESCULENTS. 



Goodrich, American Red, Bresee's Prolific, King of Earlies, and Climax 

 have been recommended either for form, size, earliness, or lateness. 

 But it has been remarked that most of them are coarser in the grain 

 than our own established sorts. As Mr. Dean, I think, puts it in the 



* Gardener's Chronicle,' they smack of the backwoods, and the British 

 grower had better confine himself to such sorts as have proved their 

 qualities in our own climate. Floury early ripeners, late keepers, and 

 good croppers only should be grown. 



Round Early Potatoes. Among Round Early potatoes the Wands- 

 worth, Frame, Early Oxford, Early Coldstream, and Paterson's Victoria, 

 are good varieties. 



As intermediate kinds, there are the Huntingdon, Prince of Wales, 

 and Milky White, among kidneys, and the Dalmahoy and Shaws among 

 rounds. Among late sorts the following should be generally grown : 

 The Fluke, Lapstone, Yorkshire Hero, Taylor's Yorkshire Hybrid, 

 The King of Potatoes, Gryff Castle, Webb's Imperial, and others. 

 Among rounds, the Yorkshire and Scotch Regents, Red Forty-fold, 

 Snowball, Royal Albert, Scotch Blue, and Emperor are good. 



Culture. The potato is propagated by cuttings of the tuber, tech- 

 nically termed " sets ;" and, where new sorts are wanted, by seed. A 

 quarter of a peck of tubers will produce from 120 to 150 sets, according 

 to the size of the tuber ; and as these should be planted at from six 

 inches to nine inches apart in the drill, according to the kind of potato, 

 a calculation may readily be made of the quantity of any particular 

 kind wanted for sets. The result of many experiments in the culture 

 of the potato by sets, made by the late Mr. Knight, the Horticultural 

 Society, Sir G. S. Mackenzie, and others, is thus given by Dr. Lindley 

 in the ' Gardener's Chronicle' : 



" Good sets with single eyes, taken from partially ripe tubers, or 

 small tubers undivided, furnish the best means of multiplying the 

 potato. Large tubers have been recommended, but it has been proved 

 experimentally that no advantage is derived from employing them, while 

 there is a great disadvantage in consequence of the large quantity re- 

 quired. It has been found, too, that if the tubers are over-ripe, that 

 is to say, have acquired all the mealiness and solidity possible, they are 

 apt to produce the curl. It is, therefore, the practice with some 

 growers of potatoes to take up in the autumn what they want for 



* seed ' before the general crop is ripe, or to select for sets the worst 

 ripened potatoes they can pick out. 



" The period of planting should be as soon after the 1st of March 

 as circumstances will permit. * I have uniformly found,' says Mr. 

 Knight, 'that to obtain crops of potatoes of great weight and excellence, 

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

 March.' This is in order to give the potato as long a summer as possible. 

 From experiments made some years ago in the garden of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, it appeared that a crop planted in the first week 

 of March exceeded that planted in the first week of April by about 

 a ton and a quarter per acre. It must be obvious, however, that 

 the propriety of planting thus early will depend upon the nature 



