2St> OF ESCULEKT.5, SCT. XV. 



many good sorts there are: the^ most productive is 

 the ox -noble. 



The coarse, kinds of potatoes are given to hogs ; 

 but whether even for them, quality ought not to be 

 preferred to quantity, should be considered. The 

 clustered American potatoe is reckoned excellent for 

 cattle, yielding great increase ; but the goodness of 

 a. potatoe as./00</, is to be estimated by the quantity 

 ofjlour it produces. The 'early, potatoes are small, 

 and by common culture are produced in June, when . 

 soon after their tops change yellow, which betokens 

 maturity : they will keep better in the ground (it 

 being summer) than if taken up. 



The cultivation of potatoes is various, as experi- 

 ment and opinions have led : It would be too much 

 here to take particular notice of each method ; and 

 to say every thing that might be advanced on this 

 subject. 



l ? or sets, or cuttings, prefer^ middle sized, well 

 shaped potatoes,' and let each piece have one good 

 eye in its middle, or at the most two. They should 

 be set in rows, eighteen inches asunder in a poor soil, f 

 twenty-one in a middling, and two feet in a rich one, j 

 In the former, the sets may be six or seven inches 

 apart, and in the latter eight or nine : the American 

 potatoe should however have more room each way. 

 In a light soil, plant them five or six inches deep, j 

 and in a heavy one only three or four. When planted ' 

 deep, they wiirnot need earthing up above once, but 

 when shallow, two or three times. In a light soil, 

 they may be put in with a blunt dibble, but in a 

 heavy one should be laid in trenches and if the 

 trenches of a strong soil were dug widely deep, and 

 first filled with long' dung, old thatch, or short straw, 

 laying on it the sets, it would be a great advantage ; 

 covering them up in ridges, and drawing mould to 

 them as they seltle. Cold moist ground should be 



