402 



SOLANACE^E. I. SOLANUM. 



The common white kidney, of a peculiar flavour, esteemed by 

 many. 2. The red kidney, reckoned somewhat more hardy. 

 3. The black kidney. 



In size the early sorts are the least, and the oxnoble and 

 late champion the largest. In colour the earlier sorts are in 

 general white, the oblong sorts red, and the latest sorts purple. 



In quality potatoes are either watery, as the very early sorts ; 

 waxy, as the American and Irish reds ; or mealy, as the ash- 

 leaved early, the champion, the kidney, &c. 



The following sorts for forcing in frames, or for the first crop 

 in the open garden are recommended by London nurserymen. 



1. Foxe's seedling. 2. Early manly. 3. Early mule. 4. 

 Broughton dwarf. 



For general cultivation in the open garden or field. 



1. Early kidney, good flavour and very early, keeps well. 

 2. Nonsuch, early, prolific. 3. Early straw, good early sort for 

 general use. 4. Small American, small white, much esteemed. 



For main crops the following sorts are arranged in order of 

 their ripening. 



1. Early champion, very generally cultivated, prolific and 

 mealy. 2. Red-nose-kidney. 3. Large kidney. 4. Bread- 

 fruit, prolific, white, and mealy. 5. Lancashire pink-eye, good. 

 6. Black skin, mealy, white, and good. 7. Purple, very mealy, 

 productive, and keeps well. 8. Red apple, keeping the long- 

 est of any. 9. Red American, keeps well. 



In general every town and district has its peculiar and 

 favourite varieties, so that, excepting as to the best early kinds, 

 and the best for a general crop in all soils, any list, however 

 extended, could be of little use. Dr. Hunter, in his geological 

 essays, has limited the duration of a variety to fourteen years, 

 and Knight, Hort. trans, vol. 1, concurs with him in opinion. 

 There are some excellent sorts of party coloured potatoes in 

 Scotland, which degenerate when removed from one district to 

 another ; and most of the Scotch and Irish varieties degenerate 

 in England. The best mode, therefore, to order potatoes for 

 seed is to give a general description of the size, colour, form, 

 and quality wanted, and whether for an early or late crop. 



Propagation. The potatoe may be propagated from seed, 

 cuttings or layers of the green shoots, sprouts from the eyes of 

 the tubers, or portions of the tubers containing a bud or eye. 

 The object of the first method is new, or improved varieties ; 

 of the second little more than curiosity, or to multiply as quickly 

 as possible a rare and excellent sort ; and of the third to save 

 the tubers for food. The method by portions of the tubers is 

 the best, and that almost universally practised for the general 

 purposes both of field and garden culture. One good eye to 

 each set is sufficient, and in making the sets reject the extreme 

 watery end of the tuber, as apt to run too much to haulm ; 

 reject also the extreme portion of the dry end, as more likely 

 to be tardy in growth, and produce the curl. The middle 

 portion is therefore the best. 



When grown from seed the quality of the kinds cannot be 

 ascertained till the end of the second summer. The earliest 

 varieties of potatoes, it has been already remarked, do not 

 produce flowers or seed. T. A. Knight, desirous of saving seed 

 from one of these sorts took a very ingenious method of in- 

 ducing the plants to produce flowers. "I suspected the cause," 

 he says, " of the constant failure of the early potatoe to produce 

 seeds to be the preternaturally early formation of the tuberous 

 root, which draws off 1 for its support that portion of the sap 

 which in other varieties of the same species affords nutriment to 

 the blossoms and seeds, and experiment soon satisfied me that 

 my conjectures were perfectly well founded. I took several 

 methods of placing the plants to grow in such a situation as 

 enabled me readily to prevent the formation of the tuberous 

 roots, but the following appeared the best. Having fixed 



strong stakes in the ground I raised the mould in a heap round 

 the bases of them, and in contact with the stakes : on their 

 south sides I planted the potatoes from which I wished to obtain 

 seeds. When the young plants were about 4 inches high, they 

 were secured to the stakes with shreds and nails, and the mould 

 was then washed away by a strong current of water from the 

 bases of their stems, so that the fibrous roots only of the 

 plants entered into the soil. The fibrous roots of this plant are 

 perfectly distinct organs from the runners which give existence, 

 and subsequently convey nutriment to the tuberous roots ; and 

 as the runners spring from the stems only of the plants, which 

 are, in the mode of culture I have described, placed wholly out 

 of the soil, the formation of tuberous roots is easily prevented; 

 and whenever this is done numerous blossoms will soon appear, 

 and almost every blossom will afford fruit and seeds." Knight 

 considering that the above facts, which are more fully explained 

 in the philosophical transactions for 1806, were sufficient to 

 prove that the same fluid or sap gives existence alike to the 

 tuber, and the blossom, and seeds, and that, whenever a plant of 

 the potatoe affords either seeds or blossoms, a diminution of the 

 crop of tubers, or an increased expenditure of the riches of 

 the soil, must necessarily take place, succeeded in producing 

 varieties of sufficiently luxuriant growth and large produce 

 for general culture which never produced blossoms. The paper 

 from which we quote is concluded by some excellent observa- 

 tions on this subject, chiefly relative to field culture, and which 

 ought to be studied carefully by whoever intends to attempt 

 producing new varieties from seed. 



Quantity of sets. Abercrombie directs " for a plot of early 

 and secondary crops 8 feet wide by 16 in length, planted in 

 rows 15 inches asunder by 9 inches in the row, a quarter of a 

 peck of roots or cuttings. For full-timed sorts, and main 

 crops, a compartment 12 feet wide by 32 in length, planted 

 in rows 2 feet distant, by 12 inches in the row, half a peck of 

 roots or cuttings will be required." 



Soil and Manure. The best soil for the potatoe is light, fresh, 

 unmixed loam, where they can be grown without manure. 

 Here they have always the best flavour. In a wet soil they 

 grow sickly, and produce watery tubers, infected with worms 

 and other vermin. To a poor soil dung must be applied ; littery 

 dung will produce 'the earliest and largest crop, but mellow 

 dung, rotten leaves, or vegetable earth, will least affect the 

 flavour of the tubers. 



Season for Planting. " The last fortnight of March, and 

 the first fortnight of April, is the most proper time for planting 

 the main crops, a little earlier or later as the spring may be 

 forward, the ground dry or wet. Occasional plantings may be 

 made in May, or even the beginning of June." Abercrombie. 



Methods of Planting. The sets of whatever kind, or the 

 plants forwarded in pots to be turned out with their balls entire 

 for producing an early crop in the open air, should always be 

 inserted in regular rows, the object of which is to admit with 

 greater facility the stirring the earth between, and the earthing 

 up of the plants. The rows may be 15 inches apart for the 

 small early sorts, and for the larger 20 inches, or 2 feet, accord- 

 ing to the poorness or richness of the soil. In the lines traced 

 make holes for the sets at 8, 12, or 15 inches distance, letting 

 their depth not be less than 3, nor exceeding 5 inches. In 

 light soil it is performed by a dibble with a blunt end, and a 

 short cross iron shoulder, about 4 or 5 inches from the bottom, 

 as a guide to make the holes of an equal depth ; one person 

 making the holes, and another dropping a set into each hole. 

 Strike the earth in upon them fully with a dibble, hoe, or rake, 

 either as each row is planted, or when the whole planting is 

 finished. On strong heavy land the planting ought to be on 

 raised beds, with alleys, or in drills on the crown or parallel 



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