CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 135 



times. It is now almost universally exploded as absurd, un- 

 philosophical and mischievous to the crop.* 



On the selection of seed. Great care should be taken to 

 select the largest, best, and fairest, for seeding. It is a rule 

 alike applicable to the vegetable as the animal tribe, the more 

 perfect the parent, the more perfect you may expect the pro- 

 geny to be. The best varieties should be carefully sought 

 after and as the very best are in reach of every culturist, no 

 one is in the least degree excusable for planting an inferior 

 kind. 



The after culture is simple and easily effected. When the 

 plants have appeared above ground, the cultivator or horse hoe 

 is to be passed along the intervals. The object of this is, to 

 remove the weeds and pulverize the soil. The work should 

 therefore be efficient and well done. As it is advisable for a 

 hand to follow the cultivator with the common hoe, the loosen- 

 ed earth may be lightly drawn around such plants as appear to 

 require it. In the course of two or three weeks the same ope- 

 ration is performed, which most generally completes the cul- 

 ture of the potato, as they grow with great rapidity, their 

 stems spreading over the intervals and covering the entire 

 ground. 



Time of gathering. This ought to be done when the pota- 

 toes are ripe, and not before. On the small scale the operation 

 is performed by digging them with the potato-hoe, a pronged 

 fork; but on the large scale it is performed by the plough. 

 The plough, from which the coulter has been previously taken, 

 is to pass with a deep furrow along the centre of the drill; it 

 then returns by the same drill, reversing the other half so that 

 all the tubers are turned up. The potatoes thus turned up, 

 should be instantly collected into baskets, &c. 



One matter of vast importance is to be observed in the 

 gathering of potatoes. Immediately on being taken from the 

 earth, they should be placed in a situation in which they are 

 completely protected from the action or influence of the sun, 

 air or light; and they should be housed with as little delay as 

 possible. The old practice of suffering them to remain in 

 small heaps in the field, was highly injurious, and cannot be 

 too strongly reprobated. It was the fruitful source of great 

 complaints against this valuable root. Potatoes thus exposed, 

 are invariably watery. 



The uses to which the potato is applied, are various as an 

 article of food it is deemed indispensable. It is found alike on 

 the tables of the rich and poor. For years past the attention 



* Letters from a Father to a Son No. xiii. 



