THE DAILY LIFE OF OUE FAEM. 175 



a heap under straw very thickly strewn, awaiting their 

 turn for conversion into a mash with meal for the 

 fattening fowls. Everyone upon the farm was against 

 me, and thought me simply soft, when I proceeded to 

 give directions and superintend, as I felt I must 

 personally, the planting. 



It was all I could do to get the furrows opened deep 

 enough, and the sets covered to a gauge of over nine 

 inches. They were planted, without manure of any 

 sort, upon a wheat stubble, the wheat having followed 

 an old ley well manured before ploughing. The spring- 

 sown potatoes I put in about five inches deep, the soil 

 having been limed for their reception. The autumn- 

 sown were so long in making their appearance after 

 the spring-sown were up, that I was almost afraid they 

 would never show, and that I should be beaten after 

 all ; eventually they came, with many gaps I must 

 allow, but then the seed was very far gone in rotten- 

 ness, and diminutive into the bargain. They were 

 dead-ripe a fortnight since, and we have used a great 

 quantity of them. Mr. Melon is very pleased, and says 

 that he has not found a single bad potato at any root : 

 the only thing is, that they are beginning to throw out 

 little ones ; but this is the pretty universal complaint 

 of all growers this anomalous season. I requested him 

 to bring me the bunch off a fair average plant ; he did 

 so, and I weighed them (they numbered fourteen 

 potatoes, four being remarkably fine) the morning after 

 drawing, for he had kept them (not seeing me) in the 

 tool-house : they weighed 21b. 5oz., good. The parent 

 had mouldered away into dust. I got him then to 

 raise me as good a sample as he could find of the 

 spring-planted. The produce I kept the same number 



