HORTICULTURE. 



Garden. 



from the fields, as already mentioned. Potatoes are taken 

 up with a fork made for the purpose, and which con- 

 guts of three or four short flat tines, fixed on a sjwule 

 handle. The winter store is carefully housed ; or, what 

 it better, it is lodged under ground, in pits covered 

 with earth, and with straw during frost. 



509. The late or field potatoes, it may te remarked, 

 Afford in most places a great part -of the supply for spring 

 and summer; and any improvement in the mod* of 

 keeping them, is deserving of attention. The Rev. Dr 

 Dow M Kilspindie (in the first volume of Scottish Hor- 

 ticultural Memoirs) has described a mode, the advan- 

 tages of which have in various places been confirmed 

 by experience. The potatoes destined for long keep- 

 ing he pots into small pits, holding about two bolls 

 each ; these are formed under the shade of a tree, wall, 

 or stack of hay, and are covered with earth and straw 

 in the usual way. In the following spring, about May, 

 when warmth begins, the potatoes are examined ; all 

 shoots or buds are jrubbed off, and such as shew any 

 tendency to spoil, are laid aside. The pits being clean- 

 ed oat, are nearly filled with water ; and when this is 

 absorbed, the potatoes are returned into it, every par- 

 cel or half-boll being watered as it is laid in. A layer 

 of turf is placed with the grass next to the potatoes; a 

 plentiful watering is then given ; and the whole is cover- 

 ed with earth to the depth of two feet, and well beaten 

 together with the spade. This operation is repeated 

 once a mouth, at long as the potatoes are wished to be 

 preserved. l>r Dow states, that he ha* thin kept them 

 tiO September, note plump and unimpaired hi taste ; 

 and .ifthoogh, from the liberal supplies of water, we 

 might expect then to be drenched with moisture, he 

 aaiiii 1 1 as that they continue as mealy as ever. 



The potato, although it most fortunately produces its 

 tubers freely in our climate, must be considered as ra- 

 ther a delicate plant. Its leaves are blackened by the 

 Ant approaches of frost in the autumn. Kvery body 

 knows how apt potatoes kept in the house or cellar are 

 to be injured by frost. The best means of guarding 

 against this evil in thaw places are, to bring in po- 

 tatoes m a* rJean and dry a state as possible, and, when 

 risk of frost is apprehended, to place over them a co- 

 vering of straw at feast a foot thick. 



well known, that if any of the larger aorta of 

 potatoes of the former Mar's growth be kept in the cel- 

 lar till May or June, they never fail to shoot, 



Kitchea 

 Garden. 



producing 



but it is not perhaps generally 

 be carefully placed in boxes 

 or other very light vege- 



!.,: i r .,.'- I 



known, that if these 

 among decayed 



Me mould, and still kept in the cellar, they "will yield 

 a crop of small potatoes about mid- winter. A small sup- 

 ply may thus be procured by way of curiosity ; but the 

 potatoes are rather watery, and quite deficient in fla- 

 vour. 



In private gardens of a superior order, the first early 

 poutoe* are in some measure forced. In February two 

 or three slight hot-bed* are formed, and the potatoes are 

 planted thickly on these. They are hooped over, and 

 covered with mala at night and in bad weather. The 

 more air they have the better, provided frost do not 

 get leave to nip them. 'I hey require moderate but regu- 

 lar watering, particularly in March, when there is gene- 

 rally ..ov: dry weather. The young tuben are gathered 

 in April and May in aeecession a* they are formed. 



310. Many persons amuse themselves with raising 

 em. Some of the largest, first prodnced, 

 . ripened berries are gathered from seve- 

 ral different good varieties ; these may be preserved in 



dry sand till spring ; or the seeds may be immediately 

 separated from the pulp, and kept in paper-bags over 



winter. In April the seed is sown, in any fine light a ~7. y ~ m 

 i - i -11 I i.. * Potatoes. 



soil, in drills half an inch deep, and perhaps a foot 



asunder, keeping the kinds carefully separate, and 

 marking them with tallies. When the plants rise, they 

 are thinned out to six inches apart. They are kept 

 clear of weeds, and once or twice earthed up. When 

 the haulm decays, the tubers are taken up ; they are 

 carefully preserved from frost during the winter ; and 

 being planted next spring, the crop which results will 

 determine the qualities of the different kinds. They 

 should lie boiled separately, and regard had to their 

 flavour, mealiness or waxiness, size, shape and colour. 

 When the seed of early varieties can be procured, it i*. 

 for different reasons, to be preferred. Mr Knight sus- 

 pected the cause of these early varieties not producing 

 flowers, to be the pretematurally early formation of the 

 tuben, drawing off for their support that portion of 

 nap which should have gone to the production of the 

 blossom. He therefore devised means for preventing 

 the formation of tubers ; and when this was accompli-h- 

 ed, h found no deficiency in the production of flowers 

 and berries. The means were simple: having fixed 

 strong stakes in the ground, he raised the mould in a 

 heap round the bases of them ; on the south side he 

 planted the potatoes. When the plants were about 

 four inches high, they were secured to the stakes with 

 shreds and nails, and the mould was then washed away 

 with a strong current of water from the bases of their 

 stems, so that the fibrous roots only entered the soil, 

 and no runners or tuben could be produced. 



511. The disease called curl has in many places pro- CurL 

 ved extremely troublesome and injurious. It has given 

 rise to much discussion, and to detail all the various 

 opinions would be a useless task. It may, however, 

 be remarked, that the experiments of Mr Thomas Dick- 

 son (Scottiih Horticultural Memoirs, i. 55.) shew, that 

 it arises from the vegetative powers in the tuber plant- 

 ed having been exhausted by over-ripening. That ex- 

 cellent horticulturist observed, in 1S08 and 18fX), that 

 cuts taken from the waxy, wet, or least ripened i ml of 

 a long flat potato, that is, the end nearest the roots, 

 produced healthy plant* ; while those from the dry and 

 beat ripened end, farthest from the root*, cither did 

 not vegetate at all, or produced curled plants. This 

 view is supported by the observations of a very good 

 practical gardener, Mr Daniel C richton nt Mir.:<>, who, 

 from many yean experience, found (/,/. p. 4K>.) that 

 tubers pimrnJ as much as possible in the wet and im- 

 mature state, and not exposed to the air, were not sub- 

 ject to curl. And Mr Knight (in Load. Hurt. Trout, for 

 1814) has clearly shewn the beneficial results of using, 

 as seed-stock, potatoes which have grown late, or been 

 imperfectly ripened, in the preceding year. Mr Dick- 

 son lays down some rules, attention to which, he thinks, 

 would prevent the many disappointments occasioned by 

 the curl. He recommends, 1. The procuring nf .1 

 sound healthy tted-ttock (stock of tubers tor planting) 

 from a high part of the country, where the tubers nrc 

 never ovcr-njvntd. 2. The planting of such potatoes 

 as are intended to supply seed stock for the ensuing 

 season, at least a fortnight later than those pLmtt 

 a crop, and to take them up whenever the stems be- 

 come of a yellow green colour, at which time tli 

 title of the tubers may be easily rubbed off between the 

 finger nnd thumb. 3. The preventing those p\jffg 

 are destined to yield seed-stock for tbe.4ti*ing year* 

 from producing flowers or berries, by cutting off the 



