846 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



Tliey require a gi'eat deal of manure, while, generally speaking, little is returned by them ; they are a 

 bulky unhandy article, troublesome in the lifting and carrying processes, and interfering with the seed 

 season of wheat, the most important one to him; and, from particular circumstances, they cannot be 

 vended unless when raised in the vicinity of large towns : hence they are in most respects an unprofitable 

 article. To the farmer, the real criterion is the profit which potatoes will return in feeding beasts ; and 

 here, we apprehend, the result will altogether be in favour of turnips, and rutabaga, as the most profitable 

 articles for that purpose. 



5297. What is called the yam, or Surinam potato, was formerly considered of importance to the farmer, 

 as an assistant to his turnip crop, or rather a succedaneum, which is of material benefit when turnips are 

 consumed ; but as this variety cannot be used as human food, the extension of its culture cannot be 

 recommended. By cultivating any of the good eating sorts for the use of cattle, a succedaneum may be 

 had for the human species in years of scarcity. 



5298. The value of potatoes as afalloiv crop, and as an article of food for cattle com- 

 pared with turnips and cabbages for the same purposes, Marshal observes, may be con- 

 sidered thus : 



5299. Potatoes are more nutritious ; and, in the opinion of those who have used them, fatten cattle 

 much quicker than either turnips or cabbages. Potatoes, too, being secured from the severities of winter, 

 are a more certain article of fatting than turnips or cabbages ; both of which are liable to perish under 

 an alternation of frost and thaw ; and the turnip, more particularly, is locked up, or rendered more diffi. 

 cult to be come at, during a continuance of snow or frost. Turnips and cabbages, if they out- weather the 

 severities of winter, occui)y the soil in the spring when it should be prepared for the succeeding crop ; 

 while potatoes, if properly laid up, are a food which may be continued without inconveniency until the 

 cattle be finished, or the gra-^s has acquired the requisite bite for finishing them in the field. On the other 

 hand, potatoes are a disagreeable crop to cultivate: the planting is a tedious dirty business ; and taking 

 them up may be called the filthiest work of husbandry, especially in a wet autumn. A powerful argu- 

 ment for the extensive culture of potatoes as food for live stock is, that in seasons of scarcity they can be 

 adopted as human food. Here, as in many other points, the opinion of Marshal and other English agricul- 

 turists is rather at variance with that of the Northumberland and Berwickshire cultivators. In Berwick- 

 shire and Roxburghshire, a crop of potatoes is often taken before turnips, by means of which the land is 

 restored to a fertile state. 



5300. The varieties of the potato are innumerable : they differ in theii leaves and bulk 

 of haulm ; in the colour of the skin of the tubers ; in the colour of the interior com- 

 pared with that of the skin ; in the time of ripening ; in being farinaceous, glutinous, or 

 watery ; in tasting agreeably or disagreeably ; in cooking readily or tediously ; in the 

 length of the subterraneous stolones to which the tubers are attached ; in blossoming 

 or not blossoming ; and, finally, in the soil which they prefer. 



5301. The earliest varieties of the potato are chiefly cultivated in gardens, and therefore we shall only 

 notice such early sorts as are grown in the fields. These are 



The early kidney. The nonsuch. The early shaw, and The early champion. 



The last is the most generally cultivated round London ; it is very prolific, hardy, and mealy. Early 

 varieties, with local names, are cultivated near most large towns, especially Manchester, Liverpool, Glas- 

 gow, Edinburgh, and the metropolis. 



5302. The late field varieties in most repute are 



The red-nosed kidney. Black skin, white interior, and good. 



Large kidney. Purple, very mealy, productive, and keeps well. 



Bread fniit, raised in 1810, from seed, and esteemed one of Red apple, mealy,' keeps the longest of any. 



the best field potatoes, being white, mealy, well teisted. Tartan, or purp'e and white skinned, an esteemed Scotch 



and prolific. potato, prolific, mealy, exceedingly well tasted, and keeps 



Lancashire pink eye, good. well. 



5303. The varieties grown exclusively as food for live stock are 



The yam or Surinam potato ; large, red and white skinned. The ox noble ; large, yellow without and within, very prolific, 



and the interior veined with red ; flavour disagreeable, and not fit to eat. 



not such as to admit of its being used as human food. It The late champion; large and prolific, white skinned, and may 



succeeds best on heavy lands. be used as human food. 



5304'. Netn varieties of potatoes are procured with the greatest ea.se. The following directions are given 

 in a useful work on this plant : Pluck off the apples when the stalk has ceased to vegetate and is drying up. 

 The seed being then fully ripe, break the apple in a hair sieve, wash the pulp clean from the seeds, and 

 dry them in the sun ; then sow the seed in beds in March, and take the potatoes up in October. 'I'hey 

 will attain the size of nutmegs, or at most be no larger than walnuts. Select the fairest and best, and keep 

 them secure from frost by thoroughly drying, and intermixing, and covering them with sifted wood or 

 coal-ashes. Plant them in April following, at the distance of fifteen inches asunder; and when the plant 

 is two inches high, hill them with fresh earth. This may be done several times, constantly taking care to 

 keep them clean from weeds. Observe when the stalks decay ; some will be found decaying much sooner 

 than others ; these are the early kinds, but those that decay last are the sorts which come late. Take 

 them up in rotation as they ripen, and let the produce of each potato be kept separate till the next year. 

 Such as come early may be tried as soon as they are taken up, by dressing one or two : should they be 

 approved, the remainder may be preserved ; but those which are late should not be tried before January 

 or February, for it will be found that the late kind of potatoes, newly raised, are very soft, and cut like 

 soap, until they have been hoarded a certain time, when they become mealy. Under each stalk you may 

 expect to find a gallon of potatoes ; those planted the third year may, perhaps, produce two sacks ; and 

 their increase afterwards will be very considerably greater. Thus it takes full three years to form an ade- 

 quate judgment of potatoes raised from seed ; and, after all, if one in ten succeed so as to be worth pre- 

 serving, it is as much as can be reasonably expected. In general, the produce of the seed will resemble 

 the parent stock ; but red varieties will give both white and red offspring, and among the offspring of 

 kidneys will be found round-shaped tubers. One great advantage of raising varieties from seed is alleged 

 to be the invigoration of the vegetative principle. 



530.5. Some of the earlier sorts of potatoes do not blossom, and consequently do not, under ordinary 

 management, produce seeds. To procure blossoms and seeds from these, it is necessary, from time to 

 time, during the early part of the summer, to remove the earth from the roots of the plants, and pick off 

 the tubers or potatoes as they begin to form. By thus preventing the strength of the plant from being 

 employed in forming tubers at the root, it will flow into the leaves and herbage, and produce blossoms and 

 apples. Knight, the president of the Horticultural Society, by adopting this practice, succeeded in pro- 

 curing seeds from some sorts of potatoes which had never before produced blossoms ; and from these 

 seeds he raised excellent varieties, some hardy and less early, others small and very early. He farther 

 impregnated the blossoms produced by these early potatoes with other sorts, some early and some late (in 

 the way in which graziers cross the breeds of cattle to improve the offspring), and he succeeded in producing 

 varieties, more early than late sorts, and more hardy and prolific than any early potatoes he had seen. 



