POTATO. 



" They do better on a grass ley 

 than on stubble ; and better with long 

 or unfermontcd manure than witli 

 short muck. 



" The medium-sized whole tubers 

 give a better crop than sets or very 

 large tubers. 



«• Drills or rows should be adapted 

 to the growth of the tops, and the 

 condition of the soil — the small grow- 

 ing tops nearer, and those having 

 larger tops, farther apart, so that 

 the sun may not be excluded from 

 the intervals ; and where the soil is 

 stitr, or the sod tough, hills are con- 

 sidered preferable to drills. 



" If the ground is well prepared, 

 and the seed well covered, they are 

 not benefited by heavy earthing ; 

 ploughing among them, or earthing 

 them, after they come in bloom, is 

 prejudicial. 



"The kinds best for the table are 

 also best for farm stock, containing a 

 larger portion of nutriment than in- 

 ferior kinds." 



" Those who are curious about ob- 

 taining new' varieties can almost in- 

 definitely pursue their object ; for 

 the seed of a species, the red apple, 

 for example, will sport, and this, too, 

 without hybridizing (that is, without 

 the admixture of its pollen with that 

 of any other species, the produce of 

 wiiich would be hybrids), into num- 

 berless varieties of form and colour 

 — round, flat, oblong, red, pink, black, 

 W'hite, mixed, and purple, of every 

 shade and colour. These, wheth- 

 er hybrids or not, are reproduced 

 through successive seasons by the 

 tubers alone, irthey possess those 

 qualities which render them desirable 

 for continued cultivation, on account 

 of peculiar adaptation to early or late 

 seasons, size, predominance of fari- 

 na, &c. 



" This mode of propagation by tu- 

 bers either improves those qualities 

 or gradually develops objectionable 

 properties ; some varieties are there- 

 fore permanently established, while 

 the culture of others is either aban- 

 doned, or, if continued, it is known 

 that those varieties revert, in the 

 course of a few generations, to the 

 612 



nature of their parent kind, and there- 

 fore cease to constitute a variety. 



" In the vegetable kingdom, hybrid 

 plants have not the power of projja- 

 gation by seed ; but they can be ren- 

 dered reproductive by budding and 

 grafting, or by means of cuttings, 

 slips, and tubers, and an origmal 

 stock, comparatively worthless, may 

 be highly improved by such modes of 

 multiplication. But when a farmer 

 possesses two or three kinds of de- 

 cided excellence, he will act wisely 

 by not encumbering his stores with 

 too many varieties, which always oc- 

 casion trouble and confusion in the 

 field management. 



" In order to obtain seed, properly 

 so called, the potato-apple, when per- 

 fectly ripe, should be dried, and then 

 disengaged from its seed by rubbing 

 with the hand. The seed should be 

 preserved in a dry place, in paper or 

 cloth bags, until the middle of Alarch 

 or beginning of April, when it may be 

 sown in wooden boxes or earthen 

 pans, with a covering of less than 

 half an inch of well-pulverized earth; 

 the vessels ought then to be placed 

 in hot-beds of mild heat, such as is 

 suited to the raising of half-liardy an- 

 nuals. The plants, when an inch 

 high, should be pricked out into oth- 

 er vessels, and placed in a tempera- 

 ture somewhat lower than before, to 

 inure them to the external air, to 

 which they should be exposed after 

 frosts have ceased. These plants 

 should be put out in drills 16 inches 

 apart, and with the interval of six 

 inches between the plants in the 

 rows ; they will produce tubers in the 

 first year, and these may be planted 

 in the following season in the ordi- 

 nary way. 



" For very early crops, such as 

 those which the ash-leaved and wal- 

 nut-leaved kinds, in particular, yield, 

 the most successful treatment was 

 that practised by the late iMr. Knight, 

 president of the London Horticultu- 

 ral Society, from the course of whose 

 practice we give the following de- 

 tails of instruction : Drills may be 

 formed in a warm and sheltered sit- 

 uation (and in the direction of north 



