CULTIVATION OP PLANTS. 



which need not exceed sixteen or eighteen inches in width, the labourer should 

 stretch two lines the proper distance on each side the alley, and throw upon 

 the beds with a shovel the earth necessary to be removed. 



The use oflines may be by some considered a useless expenditure of labour. 

 Not so the regularity and neatness of appearance will be an abundant remu- 

 neration for the trifling time occupied in stretching the lines. 



After the land is prepared for planting, strike it out in drills or trenches, as 



directed, twelve inches asunder; in these drills drop the potatoes twelve 



inches apart, (diagonally,) to be covered, hoed, dressed, and managed in the 



same manner as in field culture, with the exception of making a drain in the 



spaces between the drills, which ; s unnecessary, and should be avoided. In 



the trenches, dressing, &c., the horse-cart must be dispensed with, and a 

 ha mi-cart or wheel-barrow substituted. 



In recommending the drills north and south in field planting, I did not wish 

 to be understood that other more valuable considerations should be abandoned 

 for this practice; it is desirable it should be so where the level or moderate de- 

 scent of the land will admit of it, but if too steep and liable to wash, care 

 should be taken to avoid this evil by running the drills in such direction as 

 may be required to maintain a proper descent, even if it should be necessary 

 them in curved lines, or wind around a steep hill to preserve the re- 

 quired descent to admit the surplus water to pass off. 



lu communicating my experiments to some of my neighbouring farmers, 

 who are always in a hurry, and run over with the plough two acres of land in 

 half the time required to 'do justice to one, their reply generally is, that my 

 tedious modi* of cultivating has too much piddling and small labour for their 

 patience, and persist in their accustomed manner of half ploughing, half plant- 

 ing and half hoeing five acres of good land, and not obtain more potatoes than 

 one, properly cultivated, would produce, thereby losing half their labour and 

 seed, besides the use of four acres of their best land, which might be convert- 

 ed to other valuable purposes. 



I should think that intelligent farmers, by a little reflection, would perceive 

 the folly of pursuing the usual wasteful practice of planting potatoes in rows 

 and hills four feet asunder, leaving four fifths of their land unimproved, and 

 subject to a rapid waste of its most fertilizing qualities, by being nakedly ex- 

 posed to the washing of drenching rains, and the evaporation of the atmo- 

 sphere; and after all their labour, may consider themselves fortunate if they 

 obtain two hundred bushels to the acre, which exceeds the average yield in 

 ction of country. By pursuing the course I have recommended, in 

 ordinary seasons, on a good soil, you may rationally calculate on a crop of 

 from eight to twelve hundred bushes to the acre. 



To such farmers as complain of my tedious and piddling mode of culture, 

 I have only to remark, if they will piddle their land in the same manner, even 

 if they waste half their crop, they will find themselves richly rewarded for 

 their whole labour in the benefits they derive by this preparation in succeed- 

 ing crops. I would also add, that I believe it is generally acknowledged, that 

 rotation in most kinds of crops is desirable, but none more necessary than 

 potatoes; even a second crop on the same ground well prepared, will be found 

 to degenerate in quality and quantity. 



'< on. The district of country in North America best adapted to their 

 growth, taking into consideration quantity and quality, is situated between the 

 2nd and 10th degrees of east longitude, (from Washington,) and between the 

 42nd and 50th degrees of north latitude. They are grown to a very consider- 

 able extent much farther north, south and west, but in diminished quantities 

 and inferior qualities. 



Soil. A rich marl or clay is perhaps the most productive; a strong moist 

 loamy soil, (the newer or less it has been cultivated the better,) is the most con- 

 venient and least expensive soil to grow them on. Most soils common to our 

 country will produce them in great abundance and perfection; the more rapid 

 toe growth, the better the quality. 



n and Planting. In this respect they are a most accommodating crop, 



ving the farmer in the southern and central part of the designated district 



twenty or thirty days to perform the operation. The particular time depends 



