52 Various Modes of Planting the Potato, 
information required with regard to each crop; and, in order 
that this may be done in a manner the most likely to 
elicit information, power should be given to the members to 
associate with themselves practical farmers or others whose 
experience may be likely to prove useful. 
V. On Various Modes of Planting the Potato, with a 
View to the most Profitable Crop. By Sir W. DENISON, 
F.R.S., de. [Read 9th April, 1851.] 
It may be interesting to the Society to have a record of the 
results of certain experiments recently carried on under my 
directions within the Domain in a paddock which has been 
under cultivation for several years. 
The object of these experiments was, in the first place, to 
ascertain the effect produced by under-draining the land ; 
and, in the second, to decide upon the best mode of planting 
potatoes,—that is, the mode by which any given area of 
Jand could be made to produce the most profitable crop. 
The field upon a portion of which these experiments have 
been made is that opposite the Powder Magazine, having 
some rows of oak-trees along its east and west sides: the 
ground slopes gradually to the south east,—while it has 
a more rapid fall towards a water-course or drain running 
diagonally across it from west to east, or thereabouts. 
The soil varies a good deal in character ; but in that por- 
tion upon which the experiments were made it may be called 
a sandy loam: in the upper part the clay may be said to 
predominate, and in the lower the sand. ‘There is also a 
ridge or bank where the broken surface of the sandstone 
substratum 1s intermingled with the soil. 
