No. 144. j 205 



peared upon the new growing stem, that no others should be in- 

 duced, so that all the pabulum collected by the roots may be re- 

 served for the use of the first formed tubers. If this rule be strictly 

 adhered to, all the potatoes will be of full size, and we shall not 

 have assorted crops, part large, part small, part ripe, and part un- 

 ripe. I have found by practical experience that where the crop 

 was cultivated so that all the potatoes produced should mature at 

 the same time, that the disease is not so likely to appear among 

 them. It always appears first upon those stalks or stems which 

 have late formed tubers upon them, caused by the hilling up af- 

 ter the original f^^rmations from the covering of the stems to a 

 higher point. General Beatson, of the iiritish army, who com- 

 manded at St. Helena, at the suggestion of the Royal Agricultu- 

 ral Society, tried a great number of well-directed experiments in 

 relation to the culture of the potato. He found that the proper 

 depth to which the potato should be covered was six inches ; that 

 at a greater or less depth of covering the crop was less and of in- 

 ferior quality. He also found that the largest and most perfect 

 potatoes, when used for seed, would give a larger yield from the 

 same number of pounds than any other size. He tried them of 

 every size, at every depth, whole, cut in various sized pieces, the 

 different portions of the potato planted by itself, the removal of 

 the eyes from the potato, and their separate planting, and the re- 

 sult of all these experiments was that the largest sized potatoes 

 covered to the full depth of six inches, with flat cultivation, and 

 continued disturbance of the surface of the soil would yield the 

 largest crop. Each of these experiments, even in its subdivisions, 

 occupied a space of not less than one acre. All these experi- 

 ments I have since repeated carefully, and the results invariably 

 have agreed with those published by General Beatson. It will 

 be remembered that a few years since, when potatoes were high 

 in price, our President, Mr Pell, suggested the propriety of cut- 

 ting out the eyes for planting, and this was done with an ordinary 

 chairmaker's gouge, which would remove a half sphere of the 

 flesh of the potato behind each eye. The eyes should then be 

 planted after being rolled in plaster, or partially dried, and the 

 potatoes themselves used as food. I tried this experiment along- 

 side of a similar weight of potatoes to those from which the eyes 



