ioo THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES 



crop is lifted. However, it scarcely needs to be said that Potatoes 

 planted in the open ground may have frames put over them, to help 

 them along in the early stages, and it would pay well in any garden 

 to have portable frames for the purpose, as these could be used to 

 assist Cucumbers and Marrows when the Potatoes no longer needed 

 them, and to protect Celery and other crops during hard winter 

 weather. 



THE MAIN CROP, as the source of supply for fully nine months 

 out of twelve, deserves every proper attention. And this brings us 

 to the consideration of a few important matters. Potatoes are grown 

 with advantage on so many diverse soils, and in such unlikely cli- 

 mates, that the plant appears, on a first casual consideration, to be 

 altogether indifferent to conditions. It is an immense advantage that 

 it has this universal character, for even in Iceland, where the brief 

 cold summer barely affords grass for the stunted cattle, the people 

 occasionally secure useful crops of Potatoes. But the truth must be 

 told that for the profitable cultivation of this crop certain conditions 

 are absolutely essential. Amongst these an open situation and a 

 well-drained soil are perhaps the most important. To this might be 

 added favourable weather, because a bad season frustrates every hope 

 and labour. But on this point the less said the better, seeing that 

 we must take the weather as it comes, knowing that good cultivation 

 will in a great degree mitigate the effects of unfavourable atmospheric 

 conditions. Having an open situation and a well-drained soil, it is 

 much to be preferred that the soil be of a deep, friable, loamy 

 nature ; in other words, a good medium soil, suitable for deep tillage, 

 but neither a decided clay, chalk, nor sand. A fertile sandy loam, 

 lying well as regards sunshine and drainage, may generally be con- 

 sidered a first-rate Potato soil, and none can say it is not so until 

 experience has supplied the proof. The comparative indifference of 

 the Potato to conditions is seen in the fact that excellent crops are 

 grown on thin soils overlying chalk and limestone. So again, grand 

 crops are often taken from poor sandy soils, and from newly broken 

 bog and moss, as well as from clay lands that have had some amount 

 of tillage to form a friable top crust. But when all is said and done, 

 we shall always prefer, in the first instance, a deep mellow loam, and 

 all the better if it contains a reasonable proportion of sand and cal- 

 careous matters, as good loams generally do. The Potato is too 

 important a crop to be lightly dealt with in respect of the conditions 

 that are most favourable for its production, and therefore we advise 

 those who propose to speculate largely to look for loamy lands, and 



