LECT. viii PROFITABLE CULTURE 113 



yielder and disease resister, and though the tubers are 

 large, they are of good quality. 



Varieties. For affording the first produce, the 

 earliest varieties of the Ash-leaf type should be chosen, 

 and the tubers carefully prepared for planting. 

 Sutton's Ringleader is one of the quickest in ripen- 

 ing, and when the newer Early Laxton becomes 

 plentiful it will be extensively grown. Sharpe's 

 Victor, Veitch's and Hyatt's Ash-leaf are popular 

 varieties. It is well to try different sorts, and 

 increase those which succeed the best in any par- 

 ticular soil, for potatoes, like their growers, have 

 individual preferences and peculiarities. 



Preparing the sets. The preparation of the seed 

 begins when the crop of the current year is lifted. 

 Sound tubers, of medium size, are then taken and set 

 on end the eyes kept upward either on portable 

 frames, trays (Fig. 29, next page), or shelves in a frost- 

 proof building, with such light as comes through an 

 ordinary cottage window. Gradually, during the 

 winter, a shoot as stout as one's little finger appears 

 on the upper end of the tuber : by the end of February 

 it is surmounted by a crown of leaflets, and rootlets 

 protrude from its base. When required for planting 

 the sets are carefully removed and placed in the ground 

 without the shoots being injured. Growth follows 

 with marvellous rapidity, none of the pristine vigour 

 of the tuber having been wasted. A full crop of fine 

 large tubers is a certainty, other conditions being 

 equal. This is very different to the old method of 

 placing the potatoes in a heap covered with straw 

 and soil ; or piled up in a dark room, or cellar. Yet 

 that was once the only way, the crowded tubers mak- 

 ing long white weakly growths which were rubbed 

 off, in some instances repeatedly, till planting came, 

 to be followed by a weakly uneven growth of hauln) 



H 



