315 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Transactions of the Horticultural Society qf London. 

 Second Series. Vol. I. Part I. 4to. London, Hatchard. 



(Continued from p. 178.) 



2. An Account of an economical Method of obtaining very early 

 Crops qfneiv Potatoes. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. F.R S. 

 &c, President. Read May 4. 1830. 



This paper, Mr. Knight believes, will be found to point out 

 the means of obtaining new potatoes at much less expense 

 than by any method now practised, and in a state of great 

 perfection. 



Potatoes, which have been buried sufficiently deep in the 

 soil to render them secure from injury by frost, usually 

 vegetate very strongly in the succeeding spring; and Mr. 

 Knight was thence led to hope, that, by planting in Septem- 

 ber large tubers, which had ripened early in the preceding 

 summer, and had by a period of rest become excitable, he 

 should be able to cause roots and stems to be emitted, to some 

 extent, in the autumn ; and that these, by being well defended 

 from frost through winter, might operate so as to afford a 

 very early produce. The experiment was not successful. 

 The tubers vegetated almost immediately, and the stems just 

 reached the surface of the ground, when they were destroyed 

 by frost ; and, although the ground was immediately so well 

 covered as securely to exclude frost from it, not a single plant 

 appeared in the following spring. Mr. Knight, therefore, 

 concluded that the experiment had totally failed, and that the 

 tubers planted, after once vegetating, had perished. 



In the following summer, Mr. Knight found that the tubers 

 had not perished, but had formed young ones under the soil. 

 The experiment was, therefore, repeated in the autumn of 

 1828, and an excellent crop of young tubers was found to be 

 produced by them in the June following, without a single 

 plant appearing above the soil. The tubers planted were of 

 the largest size that Mr. Knight could obtain of the ash- 

 leaved kidney. 



Our readers will observe, that what Mr. Knight states to 

 have taken place, is precisely similar to what happens when 



