438 Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



seed, and in growing crops in different soils and situations. 

 He raises new varieties from seeds, chiefly by the aid of arti- 

 ficial heat, by which means he obtains, within the first year, a 

 specimen of the produce. 



" In raising varieties of the potato from seeds, it is always expedient to 

 use artificial heat. I have trained up a young seedling plant in a some- 

 what shaded situation in the stove, till it has been between 4 ft. and 5 ft. 

 high, and then removed it to the open ground in the beginning of May, 

 covering its stem, during almost its whole length, lightly with mould; and 

 by such means I have obtained, within the first year, nearly a peck of 

 potatoes from a single plant. But I usually sow the seeds in a hot-bed 

 early in March, and, after having given them one transplantation in the 

 hot-bed, I have gradually exposed them to the open air, and planted them 

 out in the middle of May : and, by immersing their stems rather deeply 

 into the ground, I have within the same season usually seen each variety in 

 such a state of maturity, as has enabled me to judge, with a good deal of 

 accuracy, respecting its future merits. I stated, in a former communication, 

 two years ago, that I had obtained from a small plantation of the early 

 ash-leaved kidney potato, a produce equivalent to that of 665 bushels, 

 of 80 pounds each, per acre ; and my crop of that variety, in the pre- 

 sent year, was to a small extent greater. By a mistake of my workmen, 

 I was prevented ascertaining, with accuracy, the produce, per acre, of 

 a plantation of Lankman's potato : but one of my friends having made 

 a plantation of that variety, precisely in conformity with the instructions 

 given in my former communication to this Society, I requested that he 

 would send me an accurate account of the produce ; which I have 

 reason to believe he did, for its amount very nearly agreed with my calcu- 

 lation upon viewing the growing crop about six weeks before it was col- 

 lected. The situation in which this crop grew was high and cold, and the 

 ground was not rich ; but the part where the potatoes to be weighed were 

 selected was perfectly dry, and afforded a much better crop than the 

 remainder of the field, which was planted with several different varieties* 

 I calculated the produce of the selected part to be 600 bushels per 

 acre ; and the report I received, and which I believe to have been per-* 

 fectly accurate, stated it to be 628. If this produce be eaten by hogs, 

 or cows, or sheep (for all are equally fond of potatoes), I entertain 

 no doubt whatever that it will afford twenty times as much animal food 

 as the same extent of the same ground would have yielded in permanent 

 pasture j and I am perfectly satisfied, upon the evidence of facts, which 

 I have recently ascertained, that if the whole of the manure afforded 

 by the crops of potatoes above mentioned be returned to the field, it will 

 be capable of affording as good, and even a better, crop, in the present 

 year, than it did in the last; and that as long a succession of at least 

 equally good crops might be obtained as the cultivator might choose, and 

 with benefit to the soil of the field. Should this conclusion prove correct, 

 a very interesting question arises, viz., whether the spade husbandry might 

 not be introduced upon a few acres of ground surrounding, on all sides, 

 the cottages of day-labourers, to and from every part of which the manure 

 and the produce might be conveyed, without the necessity of a horse being 

 ever employed. A single man might easily manage four statute acres thus 

 situated, with the assistance of his family : and if nothing were taken away 

 from the ground, except animal food, I feel confident that the ground 

 might be made to become gradually more and more productive, with great 

 benefit to the possessor of the soil, and to the labouring classes, wherever 

 the supply is found to exceed the demand for labour." 



