KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. CHAP. 



ridge, the intervals should be well dug with a spade, and 

 the earth well broken. After this, a little more earth 

 should be drawn up to the plants, the heads of which 

 would begin to fall down and spread about, and, all that 

 will be wanted in future, will be to pull out any weeds 

 that appear. In the fall of the year, the leaves will drop 

 off and the haulm will die j and, when this death of the 

 haulm takes place, the potatoes should be dug up. I am 

 now speaking of the kidney potatoes which are to be 

 kept for winter use ; and they should not be planted too 

 early ; because they will be ripe too early in the fall, 

 and will not keep so well through the winter, and until 

 the spring. The last week in April, or the first, or even 

 the second, week in May is quite soon enough to plant. 

 The crop will then be fit to take up in the latter end of 

 October, which is quite soon enough. When taken up, 

 they should, if the weather will permit, be suffered to 

 dry in the sun 5 all the dirt should be rubbed clean from 

 them j they should then be placed in a cellar, in a barn, 

 or in some place to which no frost can approach : if you 

 can ascertain the degree of warmth just necessary to 

 keep a baby from perishing from cold, you know pre- 

 cisely the precautions required to preserve a potatoe 

 above-ground ; for, under ground, they will lie safe and 

 sound during the whole winter, if placed individually, if 

 the frost do not actually reach them. I know of no other seed 

 or root - } I know of no apple even ; I know of no loaved 

 cabbage, that will not bear freezing, if covered over with the 

 ground. I have, this year, had a piece of ground, in which 

 potatoes (planted by my predecessor) grew last year, cover- 

 ed over twenty times by the over-flowings of the Thames, 

 and when this piece of ground was dug up in the spring, 





