84 CONTINUOUS CROPPING 



This can be best accomplished by sprouting some in 

 boxes, and the balance, in the case of the " earUes," on 

 the floor of a loft, where they may be spread 4 or 

 5 inches deep, and the " lates " on cheaply-constructed 

 shelves, which can be erected in any convenient house 

 and removed when not required for potato sprouting. 



These shelves should be about 2J feet wide, with 

 about II inches between every two shelves. They may 

 be continued to any convenient height, say, about 

 8 feet. All that one requires are four or six uprights 

 about 8 feet long and 3 inches by 3. These may be 

 joined together by i X 2-inch laths, upon which light 

 scantlings are laid across to form the shelves. 



Where 120 sprouting-boxes, or sufficient to plant a 

 statute acre, will cost 35s. to 45s., a pound's worth of 

 timber will make sufficient shelves to plant three acres 

 of potatoes. 



Another advantage is that the shelves can be taken 

 down in the summer, leaving the room available for 

 other purposes. 



MANURING THE POTATO CROP 



The method of manuring the potato crop will depend 

 upon whether the previous winter-green crop is fed 

 entirely or partially on the land, or is cut, carted home, 

 and consumed indoors. 



• It is scarcely necessary to point out what great 

 economy of labour is effected by feeding the crop on the 

 land. In practice I find that this can be done in the 

 months of October and November, and again from 

 about the middle of February until the middle of April, 

 although in these periods there are times when, through 

 the heavy fall of snow or very wet weather, other feed- 

 ing (roots or ensilage) has to be resorted to in the former 

 case, and the crop carted or roots also used in the latter. 

 Farmers with no experience of eating crops off the 



