214 PLANT POTATOES. [API. 



should consider several circumstances ; as the num- 

 ber of acres of carrots he has sown ; for if his soil 

 be suitable to that crop, they are greatly to be 

 preferred to this root, being cheaper, not requir- 

 ing dung, and being applicable to all the uses to 

 which potatoes are applicable. They do not at all 

 impoverish the land, whereas potatoes scourge it, 

 if the expression be permitted, more than any other 

 crop the farmer puts in. These are very material 

 motives to influence a preference. But if the soil 

 will not suit carrots, then it will be necessary to 

 plant so much the more potatoes. The same ob- 

 servation may be applied to cabbages, which also, 

 in a great measure, answer the purposes of pota- 

 toes. If he deals largely in that crop, it lessens 

 the necessity of having this root ; and ruta baga is 

 as useful to hogs as the potatoe itself; but bein 

 far more uncertain, and the difficulty of securing 

 a crop of it being greater, it cannot be depended 

 on, like potatoes. The fly and drought, &c. are 

 so fatal to it, that many farmers in Norfolk have 

 sowed in vain for several years together. 



PLANT POTATi 



The end of April is the best season for plan* 

 potatoes, but it ought to be regulated by l: 

 finishing of other work, because this should be the 

 last of the great spring operations of planting or 

 sowing. When all others are clone, then is the 

 time to begin this. It will, some years, be in 

 May : and I know several potatoe planters of 

 great experience, and on an extensive scale, that 



prefer 



