58 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



The potato being very apt to degenerate, farmers 

 sometimes raise them from the seed contained in the 

 apples which grow upon the stalk. Ripe apples from 

 a healthy plant are for this purpose chosen, and set 

 apart in sand during winter. In April the seed is 

 picked out, and sown in rich garden ground, or it is 

 sown in a hot-bed early in March, and planted out in 

 May. In October these seedlings will produce tubers, 

 the largest of which are to be gathered and planted out 

 in the following spring, at a few inches' distance from 

 each other. After this, they may be hoed and treated 

 as the old potato. But it takes three years to bring 

 seedlings to maturity ; and after all, they sometimes 

 disappoint the expectations of the sower, and differ 

 materially from the crop they were intended to per- 

 petuate. 



From what has been already said, it is evident that 

 the round of employments belonging to the farmer's 

 calling is never-ending, and must demand a great 

 amount of diligence, patience, and good judgment, 

 to ensure success. Intervals of leisure are few and far 

 between, and must not be greatly sought after. The 

 yearly toil of agricultural men is well described in the 

 following passage : 



" When we set out with the husbandman ufter the 

 conclusion of his harvest labours, which may be aptly 

 styled the commencement of the agricultural year, and 

 follow him as he proceeds through the varied duties 

 of the whole cycle, till we arrive with him at the same 

 point in the following year, from which we had begun 

 in the preceding, we observe that there is a perpetual 

 alternation of employments, by which the amount of 

 labour required upon the farm at each period of the 

 year is pretty nearly equalized. One description of 

 agricultural produce requires a longer union with the 

 soil than another. Wheat, for example, should be 

 sown in autumn. Oats ought not to be committed to 

 the earth till March. Barley must be delayed still 



