312 A METHOD OP OBTAINING EAKLY CROPS OF NEW POTATOES. 



exposure of such potatoes as are intended for planting to the sun, as soon 

 as they acquire their full growth, till they attain a green colour ; and I 

 am inclined to think the process may prove in some degree advantageous, 

 for the action of the sun and air certainly causes chemical changes to take 

 place in their component parts ; and chemical changes are the precursors 

 and concomitants of excitability, if not the cause and source of it. I am 

 also inclined to think that similar treatment would be beneficial in the 

 culture of all those varieties of the potatoe which do not naturally vegetate 

 till late in the spring. 



I am not prepared to say what weight of new potatoes may be obtained 

 from any given weight of old ; but I have reason to think that the young 

 will be equal to the weight of one-third at least of the old ; and as I 

 have shown, in a communication two years ago,* that more than thirty- 

 five thousand pounds of our best and earliest variety of potatoe now 

 cultivated may be obtained from an acre of ground, the mode of culture 

 recommended will not be found expensive, (where artificial heat is not 

 employed,) comparatively with the usual price of new potatoes early in 

 the season. Hogs, if hungry, will eat the old tubers, when the young 

 have been taken away ; but those probably contain little nutriment, and 

 their value therefore may not be worth calculating. 



Two early varieties only of potatoe have been the subjects of the above- 

 stated experiments : but there does not appear any reason to doubt that 

 similar success may be obtained with all other early kinds. 



LXVIII. AN ACCOUNT OF A METHOD OF OBTAINING VERY EARLY 

 CROPS OF GREEN PEAS. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, May \&th, 1830.] 



THERE is scarcely any vegetable which is so much sought after as the 

 pea in its green state early in the season, nor probably any one, in the 

 culture of which so much labour is usually expended in vain. For a very 

 small portion only of the plants obtained from seeds sown early in the 

 autumn survive the winter and early spring, and many of those which 

 survive exist in a feeble and unhealthy state, and consequently afford but 

 a very small produce. Much more certain and abundant, and generally 

 as early, crops of green peas, may be obtained by raising the plants under 

 glass early in the spring, and transferring them to the open border when 



* Seep. 301. 



