88 



a number of labourers at command, more especially du- 

 ring a critical harvest. 



Attentive farmers do not neglect to cut off the tops of 

 potatoes and jams, if possible before the commencement 

 of frost, and at any rate before they take up the roots, 

 which is the means of saving food that otherwise would 

 be lost, and at any rate the tops make good dung. 



Mr Church of Hitchel states, that he has grown, with- 

 in these few years past, a variety of the potato, more 

 productive than even the Surinam potatoe or yam, and 

 they have also this advantage over the latter, that they 

 boil or steam readily, which the yam does not. He has 

 had from ten to twelve tons per Scotch acre of them, 

 which is a greater weight than he ever obtained of Swe- 

 dish turnips. These newly- introduced potatoes have a 

 dark green haulm, and no blossom or apple. Sheep stock 

 seem to thrive upon these potatoes, in even a raw state, 

 as he fed his breeding ewes for some weeks upon them 

 last spring, which he was under the necessity of doing by 

 he failure of his turnip crop. 



From the great size to which they attain, they have lately 

 been distinguished, in the county of Dumfries, by the name 

 of the Patagonian Potato. In Cumberland, they are called 

 the Bullock, being much used there for the purpose of 

 feeding cattle. Their cultivation is in all respects the 

 same as that of the common potato. Mr Church having 

 a considerable stock of them, can supply any person 

 with seed. 



II. Cabbages and Kale. 



It is said that cabbages, when properly cultivated, 

 yield more food for cattle than any other crop whatever. 

 Mr Waddell at Dockenyfauld, near Glasgow, raised cab- 

 bages on his farm, at the rate of 50 tons per acre, and 



