THE MANSE GARDEN. 177 



careful hiding will be no security, as the mouse has 

 an excellent nose; and it is better to meet its deli- 

 cate sense with that which it cannot relish. See the 

 harmless use of rosin for that purpose, as previously 

 stated under the article, Beans. 



Potato. The introduction of this invaluable root 

 to our island the prejudices which were long enter- 

 tained respecting it its culture carried on by the 

 most defective process for more than a century, and 

 the consequent slowness with which it reached the 

 families of the poor to enrich them, (whilst the im- 

 poverishing tobacco plant, brought from America at 

 the same time, spread with rapidity over Europe) 

 its now almost universal cultivation, affording the 

 chief subsistence of so many human beings, and pro- 

 ducing so great effects on the physical and moral 

 condition of the empire might constitute the mate- 

 rials of a history due to this plant more than to any 

 other production of the vegetable kingdom as yet 

 known in these realms or perhaps in the whole world. 

 But how to have the earliest and how to have the 

 best crops are the only objects at present in view. 

 The former is promoted by very early planting, as 

 may be judged by observing the appearance in spring 

 of such stray roots as have escaped the severity of 

 winter. But this advantage of an early start is not 

 without certain hinderances : when the leaves are 

 frost bitten, the plant is more than retarded the 

 nature of its growth is changed ; and again, the soil, 

 exposed after early planting to the spring rains, gets 

 too hard for the very delicate fibres of the roots, and 

 becomes also much colder by reason of its compactness. 

 To have, then, both the advantage of early growth 

 H 2 



