1082 



Gardening for Amateurs 



Preparing Potatoes for planting 



A Potato cutting. 



The bud and piece 

 of tuber potted. 



Frequent watering is neces- 

 sary in very dry weather while 

 the Peas are in pod, or the 

 supply will soon be over. But 

 in ordinary seasons, if the hoe 

 is frequently plied and a mulch 

 of manure added, watering is 

 not required. 



Potato. Some old-fashioned 

 gardeners decry the system of 

 manuring land for Potatoes, 

 preferring to grow them in soil 

 that was enriched for a crop 

 the previous year ; but the best 

 yield of tubers is obtained from 

 ground deeply dug and manured, 

 as advised for Peas. It is pos- 

 sible to grow the Potato with 

 moderately good results on any 

 well-cultivated soil, but in verv 

 heavy ground the quality of 

 the tubers is not always satis- 

 factory. It will scarcely be 

 believed that the fact of obtain- 

 ing seed Potatoes from a fresh 

 district (especially from Scotland 

 or Ireland) may increase the 

 weight of crop by 50 per cent, 

 the following season, though 

 this advantage diminishes dur- 

 ing the second and third years, 

 while in the fourth season it 

 has disappeared. Select the 

 tubers for seed when the crop 

 is lifted in autumn ; the best 

 are those rather larger than a 

 hen's egg. They should be 

 exposed to the weather for 

 eight or ten days to become 

 thoroughly ripened, and are 

 then placed in single layers on 

 the floor of a cool, light room 

 from which frost is excluded, 

 there to remain until the eyes 

 or buds have started into 

 growth and planting time has 

 arrived. It answers equally 

 well to store them in single 

 layers in shallow boxes in a 

 cool room. To throw them into 

 heaps, in which they " heat " 

 and start into growth in winter, 

 is to court failure. 



