RECOMMENDED. 223 



February or the beginning of March, the potatoes are to be 

 planted. Women are to lay the fets in every other furrow, at the 

 diftance of 1 2 inches from let to fet dole to the unploughed 

 land, in order that the horfes may tread the lefs on them. 

 There fhould be women enough to plant one furrow in the 

 time the ploughman is turning another, the furrows fhould 

 be not more than 5 inches deeep, nor broader than 9 inches, 

 becaufe when the potatoes come up they fhould be in rows 18 

 inches afunder. The furrows fhould alfo be ftraight, that 

 the rows may be fo for horfe hoeing. Having finifhed the 

 field, harrow it well to lay the furface fmooth, and break all 

 the clods, and if the weather be quite dry any time in a fort- 

 night after planting run a light roller over it followed by a 

 light harrow. About a fortnight before the potatoes appear, 

 (him over the whole furface of the field with one whofe cutting 

 edge is 2 feet long, going not more than 2 inches deep ; this 

 loofens the furface mould, and cuts off all the young weeds 

 that may be juft coming up. When the potatoes are three 

 inches high horfe hoe them with a fhim as directed for beans 

 that cuts 1 2 inches wide, and go 3 inches deep, and immedi- 

 ately after hand hoe the row* cutting the furface well be- 

 tween plant and plant, and alfo the fpace miffed by the fhim. 

 Repeat both thefe operations when the plants are fix or feven 

 inches high ; and in about three weeks after give a hand hoe- 

 ing, directing the men gently to earth up the plants, but not 

 to lay the mould higher to their ftems than three inches. 

 After this nothing more is to be done than fending women in 

 to draw out any weeds that may appear by hand. Take them 

 up the beginning of October, firfl carrying away all the ftalks 

 to the farm yard to make dung : then plough them up acrofs 

 the field ; making thefe new lands very wide, that is 4, 5, or 

 6 perch over, in order to leave as few furrows that way as 

 poffible. Provide to every plough from ten to fifteen men with 

 three pronged forks, and a boy or girl with a balket to every 

 man, and difpofe eight or ten cars along the land to receive the 

 crop, I ufed three wheeled carts, as they do not require a 

 horfe while they are idle. Have your wheat feed ready brined, 

 and limed, and the feedfman with his bafket in the field ; as 

 foon as the ploughman turns a furrow, the feeds man follows 

 himclofe, fpraining the feed not into the furrow juft opened, 

 but into the land thrown over by the plough, the fork men 

 then divide themfelves at equal diftances along it, and fhaking 

 the mould which the ploughman turned over with their forks, 

 the boys pick'up the potatoes. In ufing their forks they mult 

 attend to leaving the land regular and handfome without holes 

 or inequalities, as there is to be no other tillage for the wheat. 

 They are alfo always toftand and move on the part unploughed, 

 and never to tread on the other ; they are alfo to break all the 

 land in pieces which the ploughman turns over, not only for 

 getting all the potatoes, but *lfo for covering the wheat. And 



thus 



