BOOT CHOPS. 361 



thoroughly with half a bushel of Nova Scotia plaster or gypsum 

 (the plaster is the best) , and immediately after hoeing the potatoes 

 the second time, or just as the young potato begins to set, sprinkle 

 on the main vines, next to the ground, a tablespoon full of the 

 above mixture to each hill, and be sure to get it on the main vines, 

 as it is found that the rot proceeds from a sting of an insect in the 

 vine, and the mixture coining in contact with the vine, kills the 

 effect of it before it reaches the potato." I cannot but consider 

 Professor Bollrnan's as the most important of the two remedies 

 suggested. 



The potato crop of the United States exceeds 100 million 

 bushels, nearly all of which are consumed in the country ; the 

 average exports of the last eight years not having exceeded 

 160,000 bushels per annum. 



According to the census returns of 1840, the quantity of 

 potatoes of all sorts raised in the Union, was 108,298,060 

 bushels; of 1850, 104,055,989 bushels, of which 38,259,196 bushels 

 were sweet potatoes. 



Last year (1852) there was under cultivation with potatoes in 

 Canada, the following extent of land : 



Acres. Bushels. 



Upper Canada 77,672 Produce 498,747 



Lower Canada 73,244 Produce 456,111 



About 782,008 cwts. of potatoes are annually exported from 

 the Canary Islands. In Prussia, 153 million hectolitres of 

 potatoes were raised in 1849. In 1840 Van Diemen's Land 

 produced 15,000 tons of potatoes, on about 5,000 acres of land. 



The potato is not yet an article of so much importance in 

 "France, as in England or the Low Countries, but within the last 

 twenty years its cultivation has increased very rapidly. It is 

 mostly grown where corn is the least cultivated. The quantity 

 raised in 1818, was 29,231,867 hectolitres, which had increased in 

 1835 to 71,982,814 hectolitres. About 2,000,000 hectolitres of 

 chesuuts are also annually consumed in France, a portion of the 

 rural population in some of the Central and Southern Departments 

 living almost entirely on them for half the year. 



In Peru dried potatoes are thus prepared : Small potatoes 

 are boiled, peeled, and then dried in the sun, but the best 

 are those dried by the severe frosts on the mountains. In 

 the Cordilleras they are covered with ice, until they assume a 

 horny appearance. Powdered, it is called chimo. They will keep 

 for any length of time, and when used required to be bruised and 

 soaked. If introduced as a vegetable substance in long sea 

 voyages, the potato thus dried would be found wholesome and 

 nourishing. A large and profitable business is now carried on, in 

 what is called " preserved potatoes," for ships' use, prepared by 

 Messrs. Edwards and Co., which are found exceedingly useful in 

 the Royal Navy, in emigrant ships, for troops and other services, 

 from their portability, nutritious properties, and being uninjured 

 by climate. 



