418 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



The first communication is that of a writer who relates in the London Gardea- 

 er's Chronicle : 



" For the last three years, during which time the Potato crop has been so extensively af- 

 fected by the prevailing disease, iny attention has been drawn to a method of cultivating that 

 plant, practiced by a gentleman whom I huve known for the last 20 years to have been a 

 large and successful grower. His unvarying success can evidently be attributed to notliing 

 more than the strict observance of a few simple rules of cultivation. In the iirst place, he 

 has been very particular in selecting and retaining only such .sorts as arrive at early maturity, 

 and are of superior quality ; also such as are not liable to rot after cidting (for he divides his 

 sets), thereby planting double the breadth of land with an equal measure of tubers. They 

 are planted in i-ows which are 26 inches apart ; the sets 1 foot distant from each other. The 

 time preferred lor planting is from the second week in February to the last week in March. 

 They are deposited 3 inclies deep from the surface of the land, and then immediately earthed 

 lip on one side to the hight of 4 inches, leaving the sets 7 inches buried (by this method the 

 wet is drained off from the sets, which are also well secured from frost). At the end of April 

 or beginning of May, according to the variations of the seasons, the rows are leveled down 

 by means of a harrow or rake, and, after the potatoes become sufficiently strong, they are 

 moulded up in the usual way. I may add that he is not an advocate for early digging ; ho 

 generally leaves them in the ground till late in autumn. His plan of storing is to have them 

 placed in very naiTow ridges on the surface of the ground, banked up with earth, and well 

 covered with straw or fern ; and by this plan fermentation is in a great measure obviated. — 

 By the observance of the above rides this gentleman has been enabled to obtain, during the 

 last three seasons, crops as abundunt and tine as the same land, on an average, ever before 

 produced ; and this present season he has produced a ci-op of 1,400 sacks of sound potatoes 

 from 21 acres of land ; his usual quantity of seed is 4 sacks per acre. Martin Mayks. 



Durdliam-down Nursery, Bristol." 



There is one objection to drawing inferences from English accounts, to influ- 

 ence American practice, Avhich floats on the surface and is so apparent that the 

 dullest vision may see it — arising from (iiffcre?ice of climate. Now, though that 

 may teach us that Carolina is not much better adapted to turnips than England 

 to sweet potatoes, yet it does not warrant the conclusion that the same causes 

 which produce the Potato rot in England would not produce it, where they are 

 present, in the United States, nor forbid us believe that a remedy or preventive 

 in one country would prove equally effectual in the other. 



The objection we should make, or the doubt which arises to the suggestion of 

 this writer, is, in our judgment, to the gentleman's practice in cutting his pota- 

 toes in sets or slips. Although experience has proved, it seems, that they do 

 well, may it not be reasonably believed that whole potatoes would do better, to 

 at least the amount in the diff'erence in the expense of seed ? 



Here, in this extract, we encounter again a perplexity (which it has been our 

 aim as much as possible to obviate), arising from the difference in our and in 

 English loeights and measures. On this point of uniformity in weights and 

 measures, as well as in simplicity and uniformity cf language, and freedom from 

 provincialisms, we seem to have made more progress than the " mother coun- 

 try," where the greatest diversity and confusion prevail. — How much is a 

 '^ sack" ? says the reader, wishing to see how many bushels are considered a fair 

 crop of potatoes in England. 



Turning, then, to a little book of reference, much of which will be copied in 

 our journal, we find the following Table. By a late act of Parliament, the legal 

 stone is in all cases to consist of 14 pounds avoirdupois ; 8 such stone 1 cwt. ; 20 

 cwt. 1 ton. In wheat measure a sack is four bushels. 



Cwt. qrs. lbs. I Cwt. qrs. lbs. 



8 pounds 1 .Stone.* 6J tods 1 wcyt 1 2 14 



14 pounds 1 stone t 14 2 weys 1 .sac/ft 3 10 



2stoneltodt 1 | 12 Backs 1 lastt 39 



At this rate, 1,400 sacks were equal to 509,600 pounds of potatoes — which, 



divided by 21, the number of acres, and that again by, say, 50, for the pounds in a 



* Used for meat. t Used in the wool trade. 



(818) 



