212 



Culture of Potatoes. — Disease of Pears. 



Vol. VIII. 



Now, to avoid all this, I make my potatoe- 

 pits for seed, in a shady, airy situation ; 1 

 place a very small quantity in each, at the 

 most from four to six bushels, though half 

 that quantity would be better if labour is 

 not spared. I cover them with straw in the 

 usual manner, and then cover them up with 

 soil to the depth of two or three feet, and I 

 find the growing process does not take place 

 to any serious extent until they are wanted 

 for planting. In the next place, I always 

 plant whole potatoes, which, in my mode ofj 

 planting, does not, as some might think,j 

 take so much more seed, that the advantage 

 is not equal to the cost. I also plant imme- 

 diately from the pit, with as little exposure 

 to the drying influence of the sun and air 

 as possible ; and lastly, I choose the time for 

 planting as near as possible to the moist 

 weather of early spring ; which brings me 

 to the last, and, in my opinion, most import- 

 ant cause of the failure of the crops, even 

 where every care is taken, and the best me- 

 thods are practised ; and this I consider to 

 be too late and too close planting. I have 

 had a remarkable illustration of the evils of| 

 late planting this last summer. The plot of 

 ground intended to produce our winter storei 

 of potatoes required trenching and jaising,; 

 and the materials to raise it had to co'me out 

 of the foundation of a new green-house we 

 were putting up. Owing to that, and some 

 other unavoidable circumstances, the ground 

 was not ready for planting until the middle 

 of June. Every possible care was taken to 

 counteract the evil of late plantuig, and for 

 a time apparently with success; but when 

 the bulbs should have been formed, the dry 

 weather came on, and the plants drooped ; 

 and when the rains of autumn did come, 

 they had not time or strength to perfect 

 their bulbs ; and the consequence was, that 

 they were small and nearly worthless, 

 whereas those I had planted in March, the 

 same year, were good, both as to quantity 

 and quality. 



It may be said, perhaps, that this was an 

 extreme experiment. I am willing to allow 

 this; but it proves sufficiently that late 

 planting, under the most favourable circum- 

 stances, is a drawback upon the certainty of 

 a crop. Now, these potatoes had neither 

 been heated, cut, nor exposed ; and yet late 

 planting ruined the crop, whilst those planted 

 early, with the same attention, were consi- 

 derably more than an average crop. Had 

 these been treated as they usually are, one 

 half of them at least would not have grown 

 at all ; and I have observed too many fields 

 this last season in that condition, where, if 

 the care in saving seed, and attention to 

 planting early had been taken, as I above 



have described, no doubt good crops would 

 have been obtained. 



Another evil in cultivating this vegetable, 

 is planting too close. Every plant, to pro- 

 duce its seeds or roots to the greatest per- 

 fection, .should have every leaf exposed to 

 the light. Acting upon this principle, I give 

 my potatoes more room than usual. The 

 Kidneys, mentioned below, and, in fact, all 

 early sorts with short tops, I planted fjjU 

 two feet distance from row to row, and nine 

 inches from plant to plant, in the row ; and 

 the consequence was, the full average crop, 

 from twenty to twenty-five tubers, fit for 

 the table, from each plant. Larger sorts, of 

 course, I give more room ; but sorts that re- 

 quire more than three feet between the 

 rows, 1 consider are not desirable to culti- 

 vate, as the produce will not equal the ex- 

 tent of surface required to grow them in. 



It has been argued that the causes of the 

 failure of the produce of potatoes, are not 

 owing to any mismanagement, but to the 

 age of the varieties cultivated. This, how- 

 ever, my experiment does not confirm, but 

 the contrary. The sort known as the Aid- 

 borough Kidney, or, in some places, as the 

 Ash-leaved Kidney, has been in cultivation 

 upwards of thirty years, and yet produces 

 as good crops as ever, with ordinary atten- 

 tion. The crops of this kind, that I pro- 

 duced whilst I was at Horsforth Hall, asto- 

 nished every one that saw them ; and I am 

 quite satisfied, that with due attejition to 

 what I have observed above, good crops may 

 be obtained from the oldest varieties. 



The essentials of my mode of culture are, 

 to save the seed before it is ripe, to keep 

 them in small quantities, in pits made in a 

 place shaded from the heat of the sun, to 

 plant them whole, and to plant them earl)', 

 not later than March, and give room in pro- 

 portion to the expected size of the plants. — ■ | 

 The Gardener and Practical Florist. 1 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Disease of Fears. 



A GENERAL complaint has oflen been re- 

 iterated that our finest kinds of pears burst 

 and become leathery when they are full 

 grown, and instead of ripening and furnish- 

 ing a tender, buttery fruit of delicious fla- 

 vour and delicate texture, they become 

 black, tough, and worthless. This disease 

 attacks only those of the finest and ?nost 

 delicate kinds; the coarse and inferior va- 

 rieties are free from it. It prevails only, so 

 far as my observation goes, with old, or the 

 older trees that are pretty well grown ; the 

 fruit of young trees that are in the vigour 

 of their growth and expansion, and whose 



