POT 



[ 660] 



POT 



the leaves soon become green and tole- 

 rably hardy. I nearly spring they are 

 planted out, the leaves being left just 

 above the surface, and a covering of 

 litter afforded every night until the 

 danger of frost is passed. 



Planting. Insert them with the dibble, 

 in rows ; for the early crops twelve inches 

 apart each way, and for the main ones 

 eighteen inches ; the sets six inches 

 beneath the surface. The potato dibble 

 is the best instrument that can be em- 

 ployed, the earth being afterwards raked 

 or struck in with the spade, and the soil 

 not trampled upon, but planted as suffi- 

 cient is dug for receiving a row; for 

 the looser the soil the less does frost 

 penetrate, and the more readily does 

 superfluous moisture escape. 



The compartment may be laid out 

 level and undivided if the soil is light ; 

 but if heavy soil is necessarily employed ; 

 it is best disposed in beds six or eight 

 feet wide. If the staple of the soil be 

 good throughout, the alleys may be two 

 feet wide, and dug deep, otherwise they 

 must be made broader, and only one spit 

 taken out, the earth removed being em- 

 ployed to raise the beds, which should 

 be in four parallel ridges, and the sets 

 inserted along their summits. 



Hoeing. As soon as the plants are 

 well to be distinguished, they should be 

 perfectly freed from weeds, and of the 

 early crops the earth drawn round each 

 plant, so as to form a cup as a shelter 

 from the cold winds, which are their chief 

 enemy at that season; but the main 

 crops should not be earthed up, for earth- 

 ing up diminishes the crop one-fourth. 

 Throughout their growth they should be 

 kept perfectly clear of weeds. 



It is very injurious to mow off the tops 

 of the plants. The foliage ought to be 

 kept as uninjured as possible, unless, as 

 sometimes occurs on fresh ground, the 

 plants are of gigantic luxuriance, and 

 even then the stems should be only 

 moderately shortened. It is, however, of 

 considerable advantage to remove the 

 fruit-stalks and immature flowers as soon 

 as they appear, unless the stems are very 

 luxuriant. A potato-plant continues to 

 form tubers until the flowers appear, after 

 which it is employed in ripening those 

 already formed. 



The very earliest crops will be in pro- 

 duction in June, or, perhaps, towards the 

 end of May* and may thence be taken up 



as wanted until October, at the close of 

 which month, or during November, they 

 may be entirely dug up and stored. In 

 storing, the best mode is to place them 

 in layers, alternately with dry coal-ashes, 

 earth, or sand, in a shed. The best in- 

 strument with which they can be dug up 

 is a three-flat-pronged fork, each row 

 being cleared regularly away. 



The tubers should be sorted at the 

 time of taking them up ; for, as the 

 largest keep the best, they alone should 

 be stored, whilst the smaller ones are 

 first made use of. 



Potatoes should not be stored until 

 perfectly dry, and must also be free from 

 earth, refuse, and wounded tubers. 



To raise Varieties. A variety of the 

 potato is generally considered to con- 

 tinue about fourteen years in perfection, 

 after which period it gradually loses its 

 good qualities, becoming of inferior fla- 

 vour and unproductive; fresh varieties 

 must, therefore, be occasionally raised 

 from seed. The berries, or apples, of 

 the old stock, having hung in a warm 

 room throughout the winter, the seed 

 must be obtained from them by washing 

 away the pulp during February. The 

 seed is then thoroughly dried and kept 

 until April, when it is sown in drills 

 about a quarter of an inch deep, and six 

 inches apart, in a rich, light soil. The 

 plants are weeded, and earth drawn up 

 to their stems, when an inch in height ; 

 and as soon as the height has increased 

 to three inches, they are moved into a 

 similar soil, in rows sixteen inches apart 

 each way. Being finally taken up in the 

 course of October, they must be pre- 

 served untill the Mowing spring, to be 

 then replanted and treated as for store 

 crops. 



The tubers of every seedling should be 

 kept separate, as scarcely two will be 

 of a similar habit and quality, whilst 

 many will be comparatively worthless, 

 and but few of particular excellence. If 

 the seed is obtained from a red potato 

 that flowered in the neighbourhood of a 

 white-tubered variety, the seedlings, in 

 all probability, will in part resemble both 

 their parents ; but seldom or never does 

 a seedling resemble exactly the original 

 stock. At all events, only such should 

 be preserved as are recommended by 

 their superior earliness, size, flavour, or 

 fertility. 



The early varieties, if planted on little 



