Book VI. 



THE POTATO. 



849 



748 



Some lay the potatoes intended for plants early in the year, before they are wanted to be cut, loose and 



separate in straw, or on warm boarded floors ; and others put 

 them on flakes or frames, in warm situations near the fire, for 

 the same purpose, in order that they may sprout; and when so 

 sprouted to the length of half an inch or an inch, they are then 

 carefully cut as described, assorted, and planted. {Gard. Mag. 

 vol. i. p. 407.) 



5323. In the north of Lancashire the potatoes are removed 

 from their winter quarters in the last week of January, and 

 spread out on a floor or placed on shelves in a room where a 

 fire is kept, or in an upper room of a warm house. On the 2d 

 of February they are covered with a blanket or woollen cloth for 

 about four weeks, which is then taken off' in onler to harden the 

 sprouts. Towards the latter end of March the sprouts will be 

 found about two inches long, and, if they are carefully set, the 

 potatoes will be ready in seven or eight weeks afterwards. Some 

 bring the sets forward by spreading them out and slightly cover- 

 ing them with light mould under the stage or on the shelves of 

 a greenhouse, or in a cucumber frame, or in a loft over a stable 

 or cow-house. (Gard. Mag. vol. ii. p. 48.) 



5324. In Denbighshire the early potatoes cultivated are the Foxley, the Nelson, and the Rufford kidney. 

 Potatoes intended for sets the following year are taken up before they are ripe, just when the outer skin 

 peels off", and before the stalk or stem begins to wither ; they are then laid upon a gravel walk, or any dry 

 surface fully exposed to the sun : they remain in that situation for a month or six weeks, when they 

 become quite green and soft, as if roasted, and often much shrivelled ; they are then put away in a cellar 

 or pit, where they will remain dry, and neither invaded by frost nor much heat. In February they are 

 examined, and every eye being then generally found full of long sprouts, they are fit to be planted. The 

 tubers are therefore cut, seldom into more than two sets, viz. the eye or top part, which is planted by itself, 

 and found to come a fortnight earlier; and the root or bottom part, which succeed them. {Gard. Mag. 

 vol. ii. p. 172.) 



5325. In gardens in the south of England potatoes are planted in a warm border from the first week 

 of October, till the latter end of November. They are placed nine or ten inches under the surface, and 

 well covered with dung. About the latter end of March they begin to appear above the surface, when 

 the ground is deeply hacked with a mattock, and made very loose about the plants ; then in a fortnight 

 or three.weeks move the surface again, but the plants need not be earthed up unless they are very much 

 exposed to the wind, when a little may be drawn about them to keep them steady. By this method fine 

 ash-leaved kidney potatoes may be gathered by the 12th or 15th of May, even in situations not very 

 favourable for early crops, and nearly three weeks earlier than they can be gathered from sets planted in 

 the same situation in the latter end of February ; and if ordinary care is taken in planting, no danger 

 need be apprehended from the frost {Gard. Mag. vol. vi. p. 59.) Every farmer knows that, among the 

 corn raised after a crop of potatoes, potato plants will be found which can only have sprung from tubers 

 preserved there all the winter, in consequence of having been buried by the plough deeper than the frost 

 could reach. It is evident, therefore, that this garden mode of raising a crop of early potatoes might be 

 adopted in the field, more especially where the soil was dry ; but the success would depend entirely on the 

 deep pronging or grubbing of the soil between the rows early in spring. This might be done to the same 

 degree of perfection as in the garden by the excellent implements of Wilkie or Kirkwood. (2656. and 

 4955.) 



5326. In Cornwall early potatoes are planted in October, spring up a few weeks afterwards, are ready 

 before the autumnal frost stops their growth, and the soil being covered with litter to exclude the frost, 

 they are begun to be used about the end of December, and continue in use till May, when they are suc- 

 ceeded by the spring planted crops. Of late years Covent Garden market has received supplies of early 

 potatoes from Cornwall, treated in the above manner. {Gard. Mag. vols. ii. v. vi.) Early potatoes, when 

 they first come through the ground, are liable to be injured by spring frosts ; but there is an easy and 

 effectual remedy to every cultivator who will take the trouble and that is to water them, so as to thaw 

 off" the frost before sunrise. In Ayrshire, where even late potatoes are liable to this injury, acres are 

 sometimes so watered on a single farm; all the hands being called to business by the break of day, and 

 the water being sprinkled on the young sprouts, from vessels of any sort, by means of a handful of straw. 

 A garden-pot and rose would of course answer better. 



5327. The after culture of potatoes consists in harrowing, hoeing, weeding, and 

 earthing up. 



5328. All potatoes require to be earthed up, that is, to have at least one inch in depth of earth heaped on 

 their roots, and extending six or eight inches round their stem. The reason of this is, that the tubers do 

 not, properly speaking, grow under the soil, but rather on, or just partially bedded in, its surface. A 

 coating of earth, therefore, is found, by preserving a congenial moisture, greatly to promote their growth 

 and magnitude, as well as to improve their quality, by preventing the potatoes from becoming green on 

 the side next the hght. The earth may be thrown up from the trenches between the beds by the spade ; 

 or, where the potatoes are planted in rows, the operation may be performed with a small plough, drawn 

 by one horse, or by the hoe. In Scotland, where the potato is extensively cultivated by the farmer, as 

 food for cattle as well as man, the plough is universally used. In Ireland, where the bed, or lazy-bed, 

 manner is adopted, the earth is thrown up from the intervening trenches. The hoe is generally used by 

 market-gardeners. 



5329. The after-cvlture, where potatoes are planted in ridgelets, as above described (5319.), commences 

 when the plants begin to rise above the surface. They are then harrowed across, and afterwards the 

 horse hoe, or small hoeing plough, and the hand-hoe are repeatedly employed in the intervals, and be- 

 tween the plants, as long as the progress of the crop will permit, or the state of the soil may require. The 

 earth is then gathered once, or oftener, from the middle of the intervals towards the roots of the plants, 

 after which any weeds that may be left must be drawn out by hand ; for when the radicles have extended 

 far in search of food, and the young roots begin to form, neither the horse nor hand-hoe can be admitted 

 without injury. 



5330. The after-culture adopted in some parts of Devonshire is somewhat singular, and deserves to be 

 noticed. The sets are there generally cut with three eyes, and deposited at the depth of three inches 

 with the spade or dibber : when the first shoot is three inches high, prepare a harrow with thorns inter, 

 woven between the tines, and harrow the ground over till all the weeds are destroyed, and not a shoot of 

 the potatoes left. It may seem strange that such an apparent destruction of a crop should cause an 

 increase ; but it may be affirmed as an incontestable fact, that by this means the produce becomes more 

 abundant. The reason appears to be this : although three eyes are left to a piece of potato, one always 

 vegetates before the others, and the first shoot is always single ; that being broken off", there is for the 

 present a cessation of vegetation. The other eyes then begin to vegetate, and there appear fresh shoots 

 from the broken eye ; so that the vegetation is trebled, the earth made loose, and the lateral shoots more 

 freely expanded. If these hints are observed, the produce of potatoes, it is said, will exceed a fifth of the 

 crop obtained by the usual mode of cultivation. 



3 I 



