ON THE CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 301 



in every direction till they meet those of the contiguous rows, which they 

 do not overshadow, on account of the width of the intervals. 



The stems being abundantly fed, owing to the size of the old tubers, 

 rise from the ground with great strength and luxuriance, support well 

 their foliage, and a larger breadth of this is thus, I think, exposed to the 

 light during the whole season than under any other mode of culture 

 which I have seen ; and as the plants acquire a very large size early in 

 the summer, the tubers, of even very late varieties, arrive at a state of 

 perfect maturity early in the autumn. 



Having found my crops of potatoes to be in the last three years, 

 during which alone I have accurately adopted the mode of culture above 

 described, much greater than they had ever previously been, as well as 

 of excellent quality, I was led to ascertain the amount in weight which 

 an acre of ground such as I have described, the soil of which was 

 naturally poor and shallow, would produce. A colony of rabbits had, 

 however, in the last year done a good deal of damage, and pheasants 

 had eaten many of the tubers which the rabbits had exposed to view ; 

 but the remaining produce per acre exceeded five hundred and thirty-nine 

 bushels of eighty-two pounds each, two pounds being allowed in every 

 bushel on account of a very small quantity of earth which adhered to 

 them. 



The preceding experiments were made with a large and productive 

 variety of potato only ; but I am much inclined to think that I have 

 raised, and shall raise in the present year, 1828, nearly as large a 

 produce per acre of a very well-known small early variety, the ash-leaved 

 kidney potato. Of this variety I selected in the present spring the 

 largest tubers which I could cause to be produced in the last year ; and 

 I have planted them nearly in contact with each other in the rows, and 

 with intervals, on account of the shortness of their stems, of only two feet 

 between the rows. The plants at present display an unusual degree of 

 strength and vigour of growth, arising from the very large size (for that 

 variety) of the planted tubers ; and as large a breadth of foliage is exposed 

 to the light by the small, as could be exposed by a large variety ; and as I 

 have always found the amount of the produce, under any given external 

 circumstance, to be regulated by the extent of foliage which was exposed 

 to light, I think it probable that I shall obtain as large, or very nearly 

 as large, a crop from the small variety in the present year as I obtained 

 from the large variety in the last. I have uniformly found that, to 

 obtain crops of potatoes of great weight and excellence, the period of 

 planting should never be later than the beginning of March. 



