Culture of the Potato. 433 



Mr. Waterton has contributed an excellent communication on the habits 

 of the pheasant to the Magazine of Natural History, vi. 308 — 314. We quote 

 Mr. Waterton's remarks on providing this bird with food: — " Food and a 

 quiet retreat are the two best offers that man can make to the feathered race, 

 to induce them to take up their abode on his domain; and they are absolutely 

 necessary to the successful propagation of the pheasant. This bird has a 

 capacious stomach, and requires much nutriment ,• while its timidity soon 

 causes it to abandon those places which are disturbed. It is fond of acorns, 

 beech mast, the berries of the hawthorn, the seeds of the wild rose, and the 

 tubers of the Jerusalem artichoke. As long as these, and the corn dropped 

 in the harvest, can be procured, the pheasant will do very well. In the spring, 

 it finds abundance of nourishment in the sprouting leaves of young clover; 

 but, from the commencement of the new year till the vernal period, their wild 

 food affords a very scanty supply; and the bird will be exposed to all the 

 evils of the vagrant act, unless you can contrive to keep it at home by an 

 artificial supply of food. Boiled potatoes (which the pheasant prefers much 

 to those in the raw state) and beans are, perhaps, the two most nourishing 

 things that can be offered in the depth of winter. Beans, in the end, are 

 cheaper than all the smaller kinds of grain ; because the little birds, which 

 usually swarm at the place where the pheasants are fed, cannot swallow them ; 

 and if you conceal the beans under yew or holly bushes, or under the lower 

 branches of the spruce fir tree, they will be out of the way of the rooks and 

 ringdoves. About two roods of the thousand-headed cabbage are a most 

 valuable acquisition to the pheasant preserve. You sow a few ounces of seed 

 in April, and transplant the young plants, two feet asunder, in the month of 

 June. By the time that the harvest is all in, these cabbages will afford a most 

 excellent aliment to the pheasants, and are particularly serviceable when the 

 ground is deeply covered with snow." — J. D. 



Art. V. On the Cultivation of Potatoes, the Cause of the Curl, and 

 the Manner of keeping and preparing the Sets. By W. M. 



On reading the observations on planting potatoes, by J. Hart 

 of Dublin (IX. 589.), it struck me that, if every one would com- 

 municate the results of his own practice as a potato-grower, 

 it would elicit facts from which correct data might be obtained 

 that would enable horticulturists to determine generally what 

 are the real causes of failure in the cultivation of that valuable 

 vegetable. 



Much has been said on the curl in potatoes, and many reasons 

 have been assigned as to the cause of it ; but most of them are 

 unsatisfactory, being often directly opposed to every day's experi- 

 ence. Perhaps my ideas on the subject may be as vague as 

 those of my predecessors ; but, be that as it may, I have the 

 satisfaction of knowing that, by attention to the rules here laid 

 down, I have never failed of success. 



I shall begin with the most prevailing idea, that the curl is 

 occasioned by the over-matured state of the tubers from which 

 the plants were taken. This is a point on which I differ from 

 some who rank high as vegetable physiologists ; but, always 

 judging for myself according as circumstances have occurred, I 



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