324 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



one of the best soils for potatoes. With a little well-rotted 

 compost harrowed in thoroughly upon such a sod to give the 

 plants a good start, we have raised good crops upon compara- 

 tively poor soil. An old pasture contains much vegetable mat- 

 ter, and the tubers delight in the mellow bed which such a soil 

 affords, a)id come out in the fall clean and healthy. We have 

 also raised good potatoes in a mucky soil apparently having 

 little but vegetable matter in it. This can only be done in a 

 dry season. In a wet summer the muck retains too much 

 water, and has the same influence on the tubers as compact 

 clay. Leached ashes should always be put in the hill with 

 potatoes, when planted on muck, to furnish the inorganic mat- 

 ter in which muck is deficient. A compost made of. muck and 

 leached ashes is one of the best possible manures for the potato. 

 The muck makes the soil porous, and furnishes a bed in which 

 the potato delights as much as our mothers formerly did in a 

 feather-bed. Sufficient potash is left in the leached ashes to 

 furnish this essential ing^redient of the potato. 



Sandy soils are often as much too open to atmospheric influ- 

 ences as clay soils are closed against them. Sand both cools 

 and heats too rapidly, and feels the sudden changes of tempera- 

 ture which are so trying to the potato. Still, on poor, sandy 

 soils good crops of potatoes can be raised by the aid of muck 

 and ashes. The perfect drainage and the slow growth secure 

 this result. The seed should be planted deeply and cultivated 

 on a level, so that the tubers may be less affected by the sudden 

 changes of temperature. We have known potatoes to rot as 

 badly on sand as on clay when planted superficially and hilled 

 up in contracted hills. Hilling was formerly universally prac- 

 tised : but hills heat and cool more rapidly than a level surface, 

 feel the effect of drought more, and are now discarded in light, 

 dry soils. It was supposed that the tubers felt the influence of 

 air more in the hills, and had a lighter bed in which to expand ; 

 but potatoes should not be planted anywhere till a good bed is 

 first prepared for them. The only good reason for hilling in 

 a dry soil is that the potatoes are more easily dug. Diseased 

 tubers will generally be found nearest the surfiice of the ground, 

 and if tlie soil is washed off so as to expose them to the sun and 

 air they are ruined, if they do not rot. 



