CHAP. iv. CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 961 



year so that it may become available for the crop the same season. 

 Similar quantities of kainit are used, and should be put on the previous 

 autumn, where the soil is deficient in potash, whilst soot is very 

 popular, as, though the buyer pays heavily for the nitrogen, it has a 

 beneficial effect on the soil and checks the ravages of slug and wire- 

 worm. There need be no fear of overdoing the land as is the case 

 with corn crops, and any extra dressing will be well repaid. 



The three main systems of planting are the flat, the ridge, and the 

 lazy bed. The lazy bed is not seen to any great extent in Great Britain, 

 and is only adopted where as in parts of Ireland there is a heavy 

 annual rainfall, and an excessive amount of moisture in the soil. It is 

 far more expensive than the other systems, as the labour is chiefly 

 manual. It consists in marking out beds from 3 to 6 feet wide by 

 trenches that are dug between them from 1J to 2 feet wide. The 

 potatoes are then planted on the beds, the soil from the trenches being 

 thrown over them to cover the sets, and, instead of moulding them up, 

 the trenches are dug deeper and the soil is continually thrown over the 

 beds. The two popular methods are the flat and the ridge. The earlier 

 preparation for each of these systems is similar, the object being to 

 form a fine, deep tilth, though in the case of the ridge the manure is 

 not applied till just previous to planting, when it is spread along the 

 bottom of the trench made by a double-breasted or ridging plough. 

 The potatoes are then placed on the dung, and the same plough is again 

 used to split back the previously formed ridge, so as to cover both manure 

 and potatoes to a considerable depth. As a general rule the sets are 

 placed nearer together in this system than when planted on the flat, and 

 a greater distance is left between the rows, the potatoes being usually 

 planted 12 in. to 15 in. apart by 2 ft. 4 in. between the rows. The flat 

 system permits of more variety, and there are four different methods, 

 placing in the furrow behind the plough, spading behind the plough, 

 dibbling behind the plough, and spading in the drill row after a marker. 

 The result of a considerable experience of all these methods is that under 

 ordinary circumstances we have discarded all the other ways in favour of 

 spading in behind a marker, as by that we find less hindrance, and have 

 the sets in much straighter rows, so that we can horse-hoe much nearer 

 without fear of disturbing them. Having prepared the land we mark out 

 with a lightly-constructed marker, drawn by a couple of light nags, care 

 being taken that they do not walk in the line which the drills are follow- 

 ing. The drills are generally set 2 feet apart, a gang of men each with 

 his potato-dropper, a woman often his wife or b#y, follow down the 

 rows in the order of a gang of mowers. The first man sets the dis- 

 tances, of course under our orders, by shovelling out a hole into which 

 his dropper places a potato, the man following down the second row 

 makes his holes at the same distances, emptying his spade into the hole 

 made by his leader, thus covering the potato, and so on right down the 

 gang. Spading behind the plough is done by a man walking down the 

 furrow directly behind the plough and spading over in the line of the 

 plough, a dropper following as under our plan ; about six men spading 

 will be required to two plough teams, the ploughs taking foot furrows 



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