336 ON THE CULTURE OF THE POTATOE. 



better calculated for culture with the plough ; and therefore, perhaps, 

 their produce may be raised at as little or less cost per bushel, though 

 that is, I think, very questionable. Much time and much labour of the 

 plant must be expended in raising the nutriment absorbed from the soil 

 into the leaves upon the top of a very tall stem, and down again to the 

 roots and tubers. 



The potatoes, in the extraordinary crop of which I have above spoken, 

 were not washed, and therefore a deduction must be made for a portion 

 of soil which adhered to them : but that was small, owing to the dryness 

 and nature of the soil. Supposing a deduction of one hundred and sixty- 

 four bushels be made in the above-mentioned account, and to afford 

 potatoes sufficient to plant the acre of ground again, eight hundred 

 bushels would still remain ; and these, if judiciously given to proper 

 animals, would certainly give twelve hundred pounds of animal food. 



For this purpose early varieties of potatoes possess great advantages ; 

 because all our domesticated animals thrive most on potatoes after these 

 have begun to germinate : and if those of early, and of course of very 

 excitable habits, be taken up and collected into heaps, as soon as they 

 have acquired maturity, they will germinate in autumn, and be fit for 

 use, without being boiled, through the winter. Potatoes of such varieties 

 are, however, wholly unfit for human food late in the spring ; and for 

 such purpose those of later and less excitable habits must be cultivated. 

 Of such kinds in the last season, which was not favourable, owing to the 

 plants having suffered injury from drought, I obtained a produce varying 

 from twenty to twenty-four tons per acre, the soil being naturally light 

 and poor, and not more highly manured than would have been necessary 

 for a crop of Swedish turnips. 



LXXVI. UPON THE CAUSES OF THE PREMATURE DEATH OF PARTS 

 OF THE BRANCHES OF THE MOOR-PARK APRICOT, AND SOME OTHER 

 WALL FRUIT-TREES. 



[Read before the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, June 2nd, 1835.] 



THE branches of all trees, during much the larger portion of the 

 periods in which they continue to live, are in their natural situations 

 kept in continual motion, by the action of wind upon them; and of 

 this motion their stems and superficial roots partake, whenever the 

 gales of wind are even moderately strong: and I have shown, in the 



