

 CULTIVATION OP PLANTS. 



Under every system it is a beneficial object of culture and 

 to the settlers of new countries, it is, of all the cultivated plants, 

 the securest, the most easily produced, and the least liable to 

 the contingencies of the seasons. It rises with a branched and 

 succulent stem, bearing white or purplish flowers. The fruit 

 is a round berry, generally about the size of a plum, containing 

 numerous small seeds. The root has many tubers attached to 

 it, of a round or oblong fcrm. 



The potato may be propagated for its seeds, by which new 

 varieties are obtained or, by planting the tubers, in which 

 case plants, similar to the old, are produced. When raised 

 from the tubers, they yield their full produce in one season 

 that in which they are planted; but when propagated from their 

 seeds, several successive years are required to bring the tubers 

 to their full size. The tuber, therefore, though it is sometimes 

 planted entire, is, for the most part, cut into several pieces, as 

 each one generally contains many buds, (eyes,) or gumens, 

 from each of which a stem will arise. 



Obtaining new varieties. We have already observed that 

 new varieties are obtained by cultivating from the seed. Many 

 of the early varieties do not blossom at all. This difficulty has 

 been surmounted, and the habits of the plant illustrated, by an 

 expedient adopted by a scientific culturist, T. A. KNIGHT, Esq. 

 The tubers are removed by the hand as they are formed, in con- 

 ' sequence of which the vegetable juices are directed to the stem, 

 and thus blossoms and seeds are produced. 



The mode of procuring new varieties from seeds is simple, 

 but tedious. Some of the largest and best formed berries, 

 when fully ripe, which is denoted by the change of their 

 colour, and by the stalk having become withered, are plucked, 

 and the pulp separated from their seeds, which are then dried 

 in the sun. These seeds are to be sown in the following 

 spring, and the produce to be taken up early in October. They 

 will then have nearly obtained true size of small plums. The 

 best of these are to be selected and carefully preserved. In 

 the month of April following in some latitudes early in May 

 they are to be planted at a distance from one another of 

 from fifteen to eighteen inches; and when they rise about two 

 inches above the ground, the fresh earth should be drawn 

 lightly around them, and they must be kept free from weeds 

 throughout the season. 



When they have arrived at maturity, which will be denoted 

 by the decay of the several stems, they are to be taken up in 

 succession as they ripen keeping the early separate from the 

 late. The produce of each stalk is again to be planted in the 

 following spring. A judgment of the properties of the pota- 



