POT 



[ 730 ] 



POT 



being employed to raise the beds, 

 which should be in four parallel ridges, 

 and the sets inserted along their 

 summits. 



Hoclntj. 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 earthing 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 luxu- 

 riance, 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 

 production 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, alter- 

 nately with dry coal-ashes, earth, or 

 sand, in a shed. The best instrument 

 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 

 flavour and unproductive ; fresh va- 

 rieties 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 Feb- 

 ruary. 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 tip 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 Octo- 

 ber, they must be preserved until the 

 following 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 neighbour- 

 hood of a white tubered variety, the 

 seedlings, in all probability, will in part 

 resemble both their parents ; but sel- 

 dom or never does a seedling resemble 

 exactly the original stock. At all events, 

 only such should be preserved as are 

 recommended by their superior earli- 

 ness, size, flavour, or fertility. 



The early varieties if planted on 

 little heaps of earth, with a stake in 

 the middle, and when the plants are 

 about four inches high, being secured 

 to the stakes with shreds and nails, 

 and the earth washed away from the 

 bases of the stems by means of a strong 

 current of water, so that the fibrous 

 roots only enter the soil will blossom 

 and perfect seed. 



Forcing. The season of forcing is 

 from the close of December to the 

 middle of February, in a hotbed, and 

 at the close of this last month on a 

 warm border, with the temporary shelter 

 of a frame. The hotbed is only required 

 to produce a moderate heat. The earth 

 should be six inches deep, and the sets 

 planted in rows six or eight inches 



