274 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



process of earthing-up gradually, in several operations, going 

 a little deeper each time, and by this means destroy weeds and 

 prevent the earth from getting caked on the sides of the ridges. 

 In Lincolnshire and other districts where the soil is easy to 

 work, some growers favour the practice of covering the sets 

 with large Potato hoes or Canterbury hoes, instead of the 

 the moulding plough. Two men work on opposite sides of a 

 row, and each pulls sufficient earth over the sets to keep them 

 moist. The work is done by the piece and proceeds rapidly, as 

 the men take a stroke with each stride. As the shoot is 

 appearing the work is repeated, this time sufficient earth being 

 drawn to the plants to mould them up. By this system hoeing 

 is rendered unnecessary and trampling by horses avoided. Its 

 cost -differs very little from that of the usual methods employed. 

 In any case, it is essential that all such work between the rows 

 is completed early in the season. As soon as the tops are likely 

 to be bruised, work amongst them must stop. 



Some of the earliest open-air crops of Potatoes are grown 

 in localities where the ameliorating influence of the sea is 

 felt, and severe or inopportune frosts are rarely experienced, 

 such as the west coast of England and Scotland, the south- 

 west of Ireland, and the island of Jersey. Districts farther 

 away from the sea, although they may have greater sun-heat, 

 are very liable to sharp frosts in the nights of May, and some- 

 times early in June, when early crops are partially or even 

 completely destroyed, and sometimes even the second earlies 

 do not escape serious damage. In some of districts in Scot- 

 land suited to the production of early crops a system is followed 

 which enables the grower to take two crops of Potatoes from the 

 same field in one season. The land having been well prepared, a 

 heavy dressing of short manure is put in the furrows, and on 

 this well-sprouted sets are laid and the ridges split to cover 

 them, about the beginning of March. As soon as the trays are 

 emptied of the early variety they are again filled with main- 

 crop sets, which are sprouting while the earlies are growing. 

 The first crop is lifted by the end of May, whilst prices are 

 high, and the ground is at once ploughed again into ridge and 

 furrow, care being taken that the furrows are this time exactly 

 between where two rows of Potatoes stood before. These 



