PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 81 



most perfect by selecting the finest individuals of 

 the species from which to breed. Away, then, with 

 such miserable economy ; and, instead of planting 

 skins, or slices, or dwarfs, take for seed the best 

 and largest potatoes, those having in them the most 

 aliment for the young 'plants;* place them in your 

 furrows ten or twelve inches apart, and cover them 

 carefully with earth. 



3d. Of the treatment of the growing crop. 



As soon as the potatoes begin to show themselves 

 weeds will also appear; a good harrowing will then 

 save much future labour, and the injury it does the 

 potato will be little or none. In a short time an- 

 other weeding will become necessary; but your 

 crop having now obtained some inches in height, 

 you can no longer safely use the common harrow ; 

 but, instead of this, the small one of triangular form, 

 so made as to accommodate itself to the width of 

 the intervals. This labour may be occasionally re- 

 peated, if necessary, until the potatoes begin to 

 flower, when the horse-hoe must be substituted for 

 the harrow. The effects of this instrument (the 

 horse-hoe) are to extirpate the weeds, to divide and 

 loosen the soil, and to throw over the potatoes an 

 additional covering of earth. 



The harvesting and preserving of potato crops 

 are processes well known in this country. With 

 regard to the latter, however, we would suggest 

 whether stacking potatoes on the surface of the soil, 

 and with a narrow base, is not a better mode than 

 burying them in the ground. Fifteen bushels will 

 be enough for one stack, which must be well cov- 

 ered with straw and earth, and trenched around its 

 whole circumference, to carry off dissolving snows 

 and rain-water. 



II. Of rye. 



* The interior of the potato forms the fecvla, which subsists 

 the young plants. 



