372 



Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Parsnips. 



Vol. XI. 



Potatoes, Beets, Carrots, Parsnips. 



Of these several crops I see nothing pe- 

 culiar in the cultivation in Great Britain, 

 which would require me to treat them at 

 any great length. 



The potatoes brought upon the table are, 

 in general, of a much better quality, drier, 

 and more mealy, than those grown in the 

 United States. The potatoes grown on new 

 land, however, in the Northern States, are 

 excellent ; and the potatoes brought to mar- 

 ket from the northern parts of Maine, and 

 from Nova Scotia, are not excelled by any 

 which I have met with. Within my own 

 observation and experience, likewise, I have 

 found that the finest seed potatoes from this 

 country, planted in the United States, with 

 the exceptions above referred to, have, after 

 the first year, deteriorated, and become con- 

 formed to those usually planted in the coun- 

 try. It is demonstrated, therefore, to my 

 mind, that new lands yield potatoes of a 

 better quality than lands which have been 

 long under cultivation ; and that a low tem- 

 perature and damp climate, such as are found 

 in the northern parts of Maine and the Brit- 

 ish Atlantic provinces of North America, 

 are favourable to potatoes, while in hot and 

 dry climates the quality of the vegetable is 

 inferior. 



Potatoes are almost invariably planted 

 here in drills or furrows and thirty inches 

 apart. The furrow is first opened ; the ma- 

 nure laid in it; the potatoe planted; and the 

 land reversed by the plough, so as to cover 

 the seed. They are then, just after appear- 

 ing above ground, often harrowed ; and after 

 getting to some height, the harrow, or culti- 

 vator, is passed between the rows; and they 

 are earthed up with a double mould-board 

 plough, or by a single plough passing twice 

 in the furrow. When ready to be dug, or, 

 as it is here termed, lifted, a double mould- 

 board plough is passed down once, or a sin- 

 gle plough twice, through the row of pota- 

 toes ; those are picked up which are thrown 

 out ; and then the whole field is thoroughly 

 harrowed, which brings the remaining pota- 

 toes to the surface to be gathered. 



Two or three points seem to be well es- 

 tablished here ; first, that in planting, it is 

 better to use whole than cut sets; that, 

 when they are cut, the seed end of the po- 

 tatoe is more productive than the opposite 

 end, and while the former is used for plant- 

 ing, the latter may be saved for food ; and 

 lastly, that the crop is considerably increased 

 by early plucking off the blossoms. I have 

 already described the lazy-bed mode of cul- 

 tivation, and the large crops sometimes ob- 

 tained, in my account of the Agricultural 



School at Glasnevin. In general, however, 

 the crops are not large, not much exceeding 

 two hundred and fifty bushels to the acre, 

 which, though a respectable, is certainly not 

 a great yield. Potatoes are raised largely 

 for the market in some places ; but in pass- 

 ing through the country, the extent of land 

 under cultivation in potatoes appears com- 

 paratively small. 



I cannot join with Cobbett in his anathe- 

 mas upon potatoes, to which a learned agri- 

 cultural professor here has lately added the 

 force of his denunciations, which are likely 

 to fall harmless under the power of habit 

 and general taste. There certainly can be 

 found, as common consent seems to have es- 

 tablished, no more agreeable, and no more 

 nutritious esculent than a well cooked pota- 

 toe ; and under few crops will an acre of 

 ground yield more food for animals. The 

 disease which has prevailed in the potatoe — 

 the ravages of which have been so extensive 

 and alarming — will, it is hoped, prove only 

 a temporary evil, or some effectual remedy 

 against it be found.. In Ireland, a large 

 number of the population, amounting to mil- 

 lions, depend, almost exclusively, upon the 

 potatoe for subsistence. The ordinary allow- 

 ance to a working Irishman is, from fourteen 

 to sixteen pounds of potatoes per day. It 

 cannot be denied, however, in a moral view, 

 that potatoes to the Irish are an equivocal 

 good. In order to improvement, man re- 

 quires a constant and severe stimulus to ex- 

 ertion. The necessities of men are the 

 excitements to industry and enterprise, and 

 very often the foundation of their virtues. 

 But what hope can be entertained for the 

 improvement of persons content to live upon 

 the meanest fare, and in circumstances of 

 destitution barely compatible with existence, 

 and to go on and marry, and rear children, 

 with no expectation or ambition beyond that 

 of a mud cabin, a peat fire, and a potatoe 

 diet? 



Next to potatoes and turnips, beets occupy 

 a principal place in English cultivation. Of 

 beets, the field cultivation is limited to the 

 mangel-wurzel. These are cultivated in 

 rows, upon ridges, similar to the cultivation 

 of turnips, about thirty inches apart; and 

 though the seed is commonly dibbled in at 

 six inches distance in the rows, the plants 

 are thinned out to a distance of one foot. 

 Deep cultivation is always strongly recom- 

 mended for all tap-rooted plants. An emi- 

 nent farmer in Northamptonshire, after hav- 

 ing furrowed and manured the furrows for 

 his mangel-wurzel, as the wheels of the cart 

 and the trampling of the horses tend to 

 harden the bottom of the furrow, before the 

 land is turned back upon it in order to form 



