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ridges. The beds may either be raised by previous digging, 

 throwing on good earth till the terrace rise to the desired 

 height, or in the different method described below. To plant in 

 drills trace them at the medium distance above specified ; form 

 them to a proper depth with a narrow spade, or large hoe ; in 

 these place the sets a foot, or 1 5 inches apart, and earth over. 

 In wet ground, however, potatoes are hardly word) growing. 



Subsequent culture. " From the March or April planting the 

 stems generally rise fully in May : after the plants have appeared, 

 give an effectual hoeing on dry days, cutting up all the weeds, 

 and stir the ground about the rising stalks of the plants. When 

 advanced from 6 to 12 inches high, hoe up some earth to the 

 bottom of the stems, to strengthen their growth, and promote 

 the increase below ; continue occasional hoeing to eradicate 

 weeds till the plants cover the ground, when but little farther 

 care will be required. Permit the stalks to run in full growth, 

 and by no means cut down, as is sometimes practised ; the 

 leaves being the organs for transmitting the beneficial influence 

 of the rain and air to the roots, which is most necessary to the 

 free and perfect growth of the tubers." Abercrombie. It is 

 now generally admitted, that a certain advantage in point of 

 produce is obtained by pinching off the blossoms as they ap- 

 pear on the plants. The fact has been repeatedly proved and 

 satisfactorily accounted for by Mr. Knight, who imagines that it 

 may add an ounce in weight to the tubers of each plant, or 

 considerably above a ton per acre. 



Taking the crop. Clusters of roots in the early planted 

 crops will sometimes by June or July be advanced to a sufficient 

 size for present eating, though still small. Only a small portion 

 should be taken up at a time, as wanted for immediate use, as they 

 will not keep good above a day or two. In August and Sep- 

 tember, however, they will be grown to a tolerable good size, 

 and may be taken up in larger supplies, though not in quantities 

 for keeping a length of time. Permit the main crops to conti- 

 nue in growth till towards the end of October or beginning of 

 November, when the stalks will begin to decay, an indication 

 that die potatoes are fully grown, then -wholly dig them up, and 

 house them for winter and spring use before severe frosts 

 set in. 



Housing and Preserving the Crop. Abercrombie recommends 

 " housing potatoes in a close, dry, subterranean apartment, laid 

 thickly together, and covered well with straw, so as to exclude 

 damps and frosts. There they are to be looked over, and any 

 that are decayed picked out. In spring, when they begin to 

 shoot, turn them over, and break off the sprouts or shoots from 

 each tuber perfectly close, in order to retard their future shoot- 

 ing as much as possible. Potatoes so stored will continue good 

 all the winter and spring till May and June. Pieing as it is 

 called in some places is a good method of preserving potatoes in 

 winter. They are piled on the surface of the ground in a 

 ridged form, of the width and length at pleasure, according to 

 the quantity, but commonly 5-6 feet wide. This is done by 

 digging a spit of earth, and laying it round the edge a foot wide, 

 (if turf the better,) filling the space up with straw, and then 

 laying on a course of potatoes ; dig earth on the outside, and 

 lay it upon the first earth. Put straw a few inches along the 

 inside edge, then put in more potatoes, and so on, keeping a 

 good coat of straw all the way up between the potatoes and the 

 mould, which should be about 6 inches thick all over ; beat it 

 close together, and the form it lies in with the trench all round 

 will preserve the potatoes dry, and the sharpest frost will hardly 

 affect them, in a severe time of which the whole may be covered 

 thickly with straw. In the spring look over the stock, and 

 break off the shoots of those designed for the table, and repeat 

 this business to preserve the potatoes the longer good." 



Curl Disease. The disease called curl has in many places 



proved extremely troublesome and injurious. It has given rise 

 to much discussion, and to detail all the various opinions would 

 be a useless task. It may, however, be remarked, that the 

 experiments of J. Dickson (Caled. hort. mem. 1. p. 55.) show, 

 that it arises from the vegetable powers in the parts of the tuber 

 planted having been exhausted by over ripening, he has shown 

 that cuts taken from the waxy end of the potatoe produce 

 healthy plants, while those from the dry or best ripened end 

 either did not vegetate at all, or produced curled plants. John 

 Shirreff (Caledon. hort. mem. 1. p. GO.) takes a general and 

 philosophical view of the subject, applying to the potatoe the 

 doctrine by which Mr. Knight had accounted for the disappear- 

 ance of the fine cedar fruits of the seventeenth century. " The 

 maximum of the duration of the life of every individual, vege- 

 table as well as animal, is pre-determined by nature, under 

 whatever circumstances the individual may be placed : the 

 minimum, on the other hand, is determined by these very cir- 

 cumstances. Admitting, then, that a potatoe might re-produce 

 itself from tubers for a great number of years in the shady 

 woods of Peru, it seems destined sooner to become abortive 

 in the cultivated champaign of Britain, insomuch that not a 

 single healthy plant of any sort of potatoe that yields berries, 

 and which was in culture 20 years ago, can now be produced." 

 Mr. Shirreff concludes, therefore, that the potatoe is to be 

 considered as a short-lived plant, and that though its health or 

 vigour may be prolonged by rearing it in elevated or in shady 

 situations, or by cropping the flowers, and thus preventing the 

 plants from exhausting themselves, the only sure way to obtain 

 vigorous plants, and to ensure productive crops, is to have 

 frequent recourse to new varieties raised from seed. The same 

 view, it may be remarked, had occurred to Dr. Hunter. The 

 fact ascertained by Mr. Knight deserves to be noticed, is that 

 by planting late in the season, perhaps in June, or even in July, 

 an exhausted good variety may in a great measure be restored ; 

 that is, the tubers resulting from the late planting when again 

 planted at the ordinary season produce the kind in its pristine 

 vigour, and of its former size. Mr. Crichton (Caled. mem. 1 . 

 p. 440.) who has made a variety of experiments on the effects 

 of exposure to the air in hampers and open floors, and on 

 exclusion of the air by covering with earth, concludes, " That 

 the curl in the potatoe may often be occasioned by the way the 

 potatoes are treated that are intended for seed. I have observed 

 wherever the seed stock is carefully pitted, and not exposed to 

 the air, in the spring the crop has seldom any curl, but where 

 the seed stock is put into barns and out-houses for months 

 together, such crop seldom escapes turning out in a great mea- 

 sure curled ; and if but few curl the first year, if they are 

 planted again it is more than probable the half of them will 

 curl next season." 



Forcing the Pofatoe. The potatoe is forced in a great variety 

 of ways ; but for a fair crop of tubers, which shall be somewhat 

 dry and floury, and of the size of hens' eggs, plant sets of the 

 ash-leaved variety in single pots, filled one-third with light 

 earth, in January. Place them in a hot-house or hot-bed, 

 earth them up as they appear, and about the middle or end of 

 February, transplant them, with their balls entire, into a pit 

 prepared as for asparagus. Distance from plant to plant 1 foot 

 each way. Give water occasionally, and admit as much air as 

 possible at all times. Potatoes so managed will produce a fair 

 crop the end of March or beginning of April. 



Forcing potatoes in hot-beds. Abercrombie says, " A young 

 crop is easily obtained soon in spring, by planting the early 

 dwarf, or the sort called mules, on a slight hot-bed. Put in the 

 sets pretty thickly, at 6 or 8 inches square distance, as the pota- 

 toes are not to grow large. If planted successively in January 

 and February, they will produce young crops for use early in 

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