404 



SOLANACEjE. I. SOLANUM. 



April and May, to be taken up in small portions as wanted for 

 present eating. During the growth of the plants, open the 

 lights fully in the middle of fine dry days, but shut at night, 

 to guard against frost. Water attentively, as the mould and 

 weather may require. Nicol's plan is the same as that of 

 Abercrombie. Mr. Hogg, a market-gardener in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, prepares an old cucumber or melon- 

 bed, by removing the earth from its surface, and laying on in- 

 stead an inch deep of fresh mould, on which he sets the pota- 

 toes, in rows 6 inches apart, and the potatoe sets the same dis- 

 tance from each other, which are then covered 4 inches deep 

 with mould, and the frames and glasses placed upon the bed, 

 and carefully protected from frost. At the end of the fifth day, 

 the outside of the old dung should be cut away close to the 

 frame, in a slanting direction inwards ; and strong linings of 

 hot dung applied instead, which should be renewed if necessary 

 at the end of three weeks. Air and water must be carefully 

 iven. The potatoes grown in this way are generally ready for 

 use seven weeks after planting. The variety thus cultivated by 

 Mr. Hogg is Foxes yellow seedling. Mr. Knight's mode is to 

 plant the potatoes in pots 6 inches in diameter, in January, one 

 set in each pot ; and the pots are then set in the ground and 

 covered with litter, to protect them from frost, and in this situa- 

 tion they remain till the hot-bed is ready to receive them, in 

 which the pots are afterwards plunged. 



Forcinir potatoes in pots or boxes. This is sometimes at- 

 tempted in stoves. One set is placed near the bottom of 

 a large pot, and gradually earthed up. When nearly full 

 grown, it is taken to the cherry or peach-house, for the sake of 

 more air. Another mode of planting in pans or boxes is thus 

 described by Abercrombie : " Plant potatoes of the growth 

 of the season before the last ; that is, the produce of 1816 to 

 be planted in December, 1817, or January, 1818. Potatoes so 

 kept will appear as if surrounded by a brood of new potatoes in 

 contact with the seed or parent potatoe. The leaf buds are re- 

 moved, and the potatoes planted in a circle, and in layers, in 

 earthen pans or wooden boxes, with alternations of fine loose 

 earth. Such pans or boxes may be put into sheds or in 

 shelves in the kitchen. By this treatment no leaves will 

 emerge above the soil, and young potatoes may be reared 

 at any required period. A similar mode has been described by 

 Mr. Sherbrook. The boxes, containing alternate layers of 

 light earth, and potatoes of the preceding year, are placed in 

 a dry, covered place, free from frost ; they receive no water, 

 and produce " good, fine, young potatoes in December." For 

 a succession, the process is to be repeated. 



Incidental forcing of potatoes. " Small young spring pota- 

 toes are likewise obtained from some of the winter store of old 

 potatoes, as they lie in the house ; especially where they have 

 been mixed with sand, and permitted to shoot as they lie, when 

 they produce a few small button potatoes in spring, some of 

 which are occasionally brought to market, but only for imme- 

 diate use. T. Moffat grows early potatoes thus : " A compost 

 consisting of equal quantities of loam, sand, and coal ashes, with 

 an addition of lime in powder, equal to about one-fifth of the 

 whole, was formed into a bed four feet wide, and four inches 

 deep, on the floor of a dark fruit room. Upon this bed, early 

 in September, large potatoes, of the preceding year's growth, 

 were laid, 3 inches apart every way, with their best eyes down- 

 wards ; these produced young potatoes, which became fit for 

 use about Christmas." 



Forwarding to raise a crop in the open garden. For this pur- 

 pose some spread a layer of sets on hot dung, or in boxes placed 

 in any warm situation, whether in the light or in the dark. 

 After they have sprung 3 or 4 inches, they are to be trans- 

 planted into the open ground, which should not be sooner than 



May, unless they have some protection at night ; such as fronds 

 of fern, spruce-fir branches, &c. But the best method is to 

 grow the sets one in each pot, and to plant them out with the 

 balls entire, in May. 



Substitutes for forcing potatoes. Dr. Nochden describes the 

 mode by leaves and layers of earth at length (in Hort. trans. 3. 

 p. 48.), and subjoins a method of preserving young potatoes as 

 such for winter use ; but this method we consider not worth far- 

 ther notice, as it appears of no practical utility. 



Field culture of the potatoe.- Notwithstanding the value of the 

 potatoe as an article of human food, it is doubtful whether they 

 can be placed so high in the scale as several other articles of pro- 

 duce, when the profit and loss account of the agriculturist is to 

 be ascertained. They require a great deal of manure from the 

 farmer, while, generally speaking, little is returned by them ; 

 they are a bulky unhandy article, troublesome in the lifting and 

 carrying processes, and interfering with the seed season of 

 wheat, the most important one to the farmer. After all, from 

 particular circumstances they cannot be vended unless when 

 raised in the vicinity of large towns ; hence they are, in most re- 

 spects, an unprofitable article to the agriculturist. To him the 

 real criterion is the profit which potatoes will return in feeding 

 beasts ; and here we apprehend the result will be altogether in 

 favour of turnips and ruta-baga, or Swedish turnip, as the most 

 profitable articles for that purpose, although potatoes are ad- 

 mitted to be more nutritious, and to fatten cattle much 

 quicker. 



The varieties of potatoes cultivated in fields are innumerable. 

 The early field varieties are : 1 . The early kidney. 2. The 

 nonsuch. 3. The early straw. 4. The early Champion. The 

 last is the most generally cultivated round London. Early va- 

 rieties with local names are cultivated near most large towns. 

 The late field varieties in most repute are : ] . The red-nose 

 kidney. 2. Large kidney. 3. Bread-fruit, an excellent white, 

 mealy, good-tasted sort, raised from seed in 1810. 4. The 

 Lancashire pink-eye, good. 5. The black-skin, white interior, 

 and good. 6. Purple, very mealy, productive, and keeps well. 

 7. The red apple, mealy, keeps the longest of any. 8. The 

 Tartan, or purple and white-skinned, an esteemed Scotch pota- 

 toe, prolific, mealy, exceedingly well tasted, and keeps well. 

 The varieties grown exclusively as food for live stock are: 1. 

 The Yam or Surinam potatoe, large, red and white-skinned, and 

 the interior veined with red ; flavour disagreeable, and not such 

 as to admit of its being used as human food. It succeeds best 

 on heavy lands. This is a most valuable sort for the farmer; as 

 with this variety he has an excellent assistant to his turnip crop, 

 or rather a succedaneum, which is of material benefit when tur- 

 nips are consumed, in feeding live stock ; its produce is 12-15 

 tons per acre. 2. The oxnoble ; large, yellow without and 

 within, very prolific, unfit for human food. 3. The late Cham- 

 pion ; large and prolific, white-skinned, and may be used as 

 human food. 



The soil in which the potatoe thrives best is a light loam, nei- 

 ther too dry nor too moist ; but if rich it is so much the better. 

 They are, however, grown on many other kinds of soil, where 

 they are free from stagnant moisture, with a reasonable portion 

 of manure added. The best flavoured table potatoes are almost 

 always produced from a newly broken-tip pasture ground, not 

 manured, or from any new light soil. Repeated on the same 

 soil, they very generally lose their flavour. 



In preparing the soil for field potatoes, it is of much import- 

 ance to free the soil as much as possible from weed roots ; both 

 because the horse-hoe must be excluded altogether when the 

 vegetation is vigorous, and because at no period of their growth 

 is it safe to work so near the plants, especially after they have 

 made some progress in growth. The first ploughing is given 



