VEGETABLE GROWING 413 



Planting the Sets. A fairly light, deep soil suits the Potato well. It need not 

 necessarily be rich with fresh manure ; generally it is best to manure well for some pre- 

 vious vegetable crop, and then follow with Potatoes. But the soil should always be 

 deeply worked, and broken quite loose. Very early varieties may be planted on a warm 

 border during March, but some protection from frost must be furnished to the plants. 

 For all ordinary purposes and main crops, it is early enough to plant from the second to 

 the fourth weeks in April. Moderate growing varieties may be put into rows at 2 feet 

 apart, and strong late growers should be in rows 30 inches apart. A good depth to 

 plant is from 4 to 5 inches. In the rows the sets should be from 12 to 15 inches apart. 

 There is no gain in planting closer, and often much loss in doing so. As to methods of 

 planting, the tubers must be properly buried in the soil from 4 to 5 inches deep without 

 injuring the shoots on them. On light, loose soils a large dibble, shod with iron, 

 answers very well, but generally it is best to plant as the ground is being dug, or, if 

 previously dug, to throw out furrows of the above depth, setting the tubers into them 

 carefully. If any artificial manure be employed, it is a good plan to strew it into the 

 furrows with the tubers. 



Moulding the Plants. This treatment is given to Potatoes for some two or three 

 reasons, but chiefly because were soil not heaped over the tubers many would be exposed 

 to the air, and they would thus become green and unfit for food. A good ridge of soil 

 drawn about the plants also helps to keep the stems erect and protected from harm by 

 strong winds. Prior, however, to the moulding up, the soil should be very freely hoed 

 so as to destroy weeds, and render the surface loose and pulverised. The moulding up 

 is ordinarily done with the long-handled hoe, but the greatest care should be taken not 

 to bury leaves, rather to draw up the soil under them. A good moulding up to a sharp 

 ridge also helps to throw off heavy rains from the tubers, and also those fungus spores 

 which produce the disease. It is often, when the soil is rather poor, good practice to 

 sprinkle from 3 Ib. to 4 Ib. per rod of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia between 

 the rows of plants before the moulding up is performed. When lifting the crop, the 

 medium-sized tubers should be gathered up separately, and be exposed to the light and 

 air to harden them, whilst the larger ones intended for eating should be put into a dry 

 place, and secluded from light and air. 



The Potato Disease. This is a trouble our Potato crops are never free from. But they 

 surfer less in warm, dry seasons, and more in wet ones. The disease is a fungus propa- 

 gated by minute spores that become living and active germs during the summer, and, 

 lodging on the plants, are by moisture induced to root or grow into the leafage and stems, 

 as also in the newly-forming tubers in the soil, and thus produce those black spots with 

 which we have long been made familiar. Only one form of dressing seems so far to 

 have been capable of checking the growth of these spores on the plants, and that is 

 found in what is called the Bordeaux mixture, which consists of equal portions of sulphate 

 of copper, or bluestone, and of fresh lime, dissolved in water. If 5 Ib. of bluestone be 

 put into a bag and suspended in a wooden tub containing 5 gallons of boiling water, it 

 will dissolve in 24 hours ; and 5 Ib. of lime should be dissolved in a large pail hold- 

 ing 5 gallons of water until quite clear. The latter liquid should be mixed with the 

 copper solution, and to the whole add 40 gallons of water. It will be wise to add 5 Ib. 

 of soft soap, well dissolved, to the mixture, to render it more adhesive. This mixture is 

 then sprayed by the aid of a knapsack-distributer over the Potato plants, giving one 

 dressing early in July and a second towards the end of the month. Such dressings 

 usually suffice to keep the breadths quite free from harm by the Potato fungus. 



Varieties. These are very numerous, and, because new ones are annually introduced, 

 are constantly varying in popularity. 



First Earlies for frame, pot, or border culture: Ashleaf, Sir J. Llewelyn, May 

 Queen, kidneys ; Harbinger, and Laxton's First Crop, rounds. Earlies for open 

 ground: Puritan, Midlothian Early, Snowdrop, kidneys ; Early Regent, Snow- 

 ball, and Ninetyfold, rounds. Main Crop Varieties : Up-to-Date, Royalty, 

 and Reading Giant, kidneys ; Imperator, Windsor Castle, Balmoral Castle, and 

 The Factor, rounds. These are all whites. King Edward VII is a good Main 

 Crop Potato with red blotches on the skin. 



Radishes. These are very varied in character, as they include long tapering, oval, 

 and round roots, in diverse colours ; also for winter use, round and tapering large roots, 

 black, white, and red. Radishes are eaten raw as salading, the most favoured being 

 those oval or round rooted forms that come in early in the spring. Seed of those should 

 be sown evenly on ground that has been heavily manured, the dressing being just buried 

 with soil. The first sowing may be made in February, the rest, following at fortnightly 

 intervals, being small ones. When the seed is sown it should be very lightly covered 

 with fine soil, then patted down, watered, and covered with long litter or netting to keep 

 off birds. As growth follows, the covering may be removed. It is simply needful to 



