106 GROW YOUR OWN VEGETABLES 



any decaying vegetable matter which may be available, 

 such as decayed leaves of trees, the outside leaves of 

 cabbages, hedge clippings, and the refuse from the lawn 

 mower. 



Manures. Fresh animal manure should be employed 

 with caution, and most authorities claim that it is unwise 

 to place it on the ground later than the previous autumn, 

 for such dressings tend to produce long straggling haulms 

 and disappointing tubers. This is the plan which we 

 have always adopted, but, quoting from a Board of 

 Agriculture leaflet, we read : 



" In manuring potatoes a certain amount of dung is 

 always beneficial. It may be applied at different periods 

 of the year, but most experiments show that spring applica- 

 tions give the best results. A dressing of 20 tons of dung 

 per acre is not uncommon, and with such treatment alone 

 good crops may often be obtained. It frequently happens, 

 however, that the foliage is encouraged at the expense of 

 the tubers, especially when artificials are also applied, and 

 actually heavier and more profitable crops can be grown by 

 using half the above quantity of dung with artificials." 



Without a doubt, the use of animal manure has an 

 important effect on the cooking quality of a potato. A 

 heavy spring dressing gives a poor-flavoured tuber ; a 

 moderate dressing produces a better tuber, but the best, in 

 our opinion, is grown on land that has been treated with 

 animal manure in the autumn and artificials in the spring. 



The Board of Agriculture advises the use of sulphate of 

 ammonia applied to the surface just before the first 

 earthing up, in cases where the crop is grown on the flat. 

 When the potatoes are planted in drills, the sulphate 

 should be applied in the drills at the time of planting. 



