178 Cottage Gardens, live Stock of the Cottager, 



But, if the ground is wet, and much sheltered, they will bear better by 

 allowing them to run 7 or 8 ft. Seeds are always abundant. 



Early Potatoes. — To have a crop of potatoes very early, plant ash-leaved 

 kidneys, whole, about the middle or beginning of October, in chills 9 in, 

 deep, well covered with muck, 8 in. apart, and 14 in. between the rows : 

 they will be full a fortnight earlier than if the planting be delayed until Fe- 

 bruary, and will be quite ready by the middle of June. An excellent crop 

 of radishes may be grown on the same ground, for the mould should be left 

 as light as possible above the potatoes ; and, if radish seed be sown in the 

 beginning of January, and covered over with some straw or long litter, to 

 preserve the seeds and plants, as they come up, from the birds (protecting 

 them, of course, in severe weather), he may, by a little extra-diligence, sell 

 from 105. to 20s. worth of radishes out of this small plot of ground. * 



In the middle of June he will begin to dig a few potatoes daily, always 

 remembering to bury the tops ; and as soon as half a rod is cleared, let it be 

 sown immediately with some Dutch or six-week turnip seed : let the same 

 be done with the next half rod. -J- The middle of July will now approach, 

 and this is the time to sow Fulham cabbage seed ; for which there will 

 be plenty of ground, not only for sowing but for pricking out ; and, finally, 

 the whole three remaining rods may be planted with the cabbage plants, 

 which will finish cropping the ground from which the early ash-leaved kid- 

 neys have been dug. However, in this piece of ground, when the first 



* By the Lancashire mode of raising early potatoes, which seems parti- 

 cularly suitable for the colder parts of Britain, they are generally ready 

 about the beginning of May. Mr. Saul of Lancaster says, " Put the pota- 

 toes in a room, or other convenient warm place, in January ; about the 2d 

 of February, cover them with a woollen cloth for about four weeks ; then 

 take it off, and by so doing you will make the sprouts much stronger. To- 

 wards the latter end of March set them, covering the sprouts about 2 in. 

 deep. If the sprouts be about 2 in. long when set, the potatoes will be 

 ready in 7 or 8 weeks afterwards." (Gard. Mag., vol. ii. p. 48.) The sets 

 of the extreme end of the potato are found to grow faster, and ripen about 

 a fortnight earlier, than those from the root end. In Lancashire, therefore, 

 the sets from the two ends are separated ; and, if planted at the same time, 

 form an early and succession crop. (Gard. Mag., vol. i. p. 406.) In Den- 

 bighshire, the potatoes intended for seed for the following year are taken up 

 before they are ripe, just when the outer skin peels off, and before the stalk 

 or stem begins to wither ; they are then laid upon a gravel-walk, fully ex- 

 posed-to the sun, for a month or six weeks, when they become quite green and 

 soft, as if roasted, and often much shrivelled : they are then put away, and 

 protected as other potatoes are. In February they are examined, when 

 every eye is generally found full of long sprouts fit to be planted. Only 

 two sets are made of each potato, the eye or top part, and the root or bot- 

 tom part. They are separated as in Lancashire ; and, when planted in the 

 common ground, the eye or top sets are earlier by a fortnight than the 

 others. They are generally fit to gather before the middle of May. (Gard. 

 Mag., vol. ii. p. 172.) 



-f- The fly is very hurtful to this crop. I have tried common soot dusted 

 over the plants infested, and afterwards given a good watering, which banished 

 every vestige of fly from them in a very few days. — B. R. The cottager 

 may consider the appearance of the turnip fly as the appearance of a crop of 

 weeds ; let him, therefore, dig down the whole, and sow again immediately. 

 Before a second crop of flies can appear, the seed must be sown, that is, the 

 eggs deposited ; and this is not very likely to be the case. — Cond. 



