Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 419 



Art. VIII. Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management, iti a Series 

 of Letters to the Conductor. By James Barnes, Gardener to the 

 Right Honourable Lady Rolle. 



{Continued from p. 368.) 



Letter XVI. Culture of the Potato. Mismanagement it is subject to. 

 Cause of Curl and Dry Rot. 



I WILL now give you my opinion on the culture and growth of 

 that invaluable vegetable the potato ; the abuse and mismanage- 

 ment it is subject to ; the cause of curl, and of that enemy the 

 dry rot, &c. &c. It may be thought by some that I know more 

 about eating a potato than about the proper method of grow- 

 ing them ; and certainly the art of cooking them is a greater 

 trouble than growing them, about which I mean to say no more 

 than I have myself observed. I hope it may be useful to some. 

 I shall give my honest opinion, and facts are stubborn things. 

 I have had considerable practice in growing potatoes in pots, in 

 cellars, in sheds, in pits, in frames, in hothouses, hooped and 

 matted in the open ground, in borders in the open garden, and in 

 the open field. I have practised in all these ways for several years ; 

 but I do not pretend to say that my methods are superior to any 

 other person's ; one thing I can say, that no person has ever 

 beat me yet at any exhibition of early frame potatoes ; but I 

 do not wish to boast. 



Now the greatest fault I have always observed is in pre- 

 paring the seed ; how can you expect to have a good crop of 

 potatoes if the seed is bad and has lost its virtue? For in- 

 stance, I have often seen, at this time of the year, potatoes 

 hurried out of the ground, chucked together in large heaps, or 

 clamps as they are called in some places, wet and dirty as it 

 may be. I have many times seen those heaps allowed to heat, 

 and the steam passing from them as if from a dunghill ; of 

 course that must be wrong. I have thought, for many years, 

 that the steam, or reek, which passes off must be so much 

 virtue lost. I have seen these very heaps kept for seed, and 

 allowed, in the spring of the year, to grow all together in one 

 mass of shoots and roots, and to become so hot in the middle of 

 the heap that you could scarcely bear your hand in it : the 

 hotter they get, the faster they grow ; and the faster they grow, 

 the hotter they get : then perchance they get moved, and the 

 shoots are pulled off to give a check, to keep them from grow- 

 ing. Can such potatoes as these be either fit to eat, or in a 

 proper state to plant ? My opinion has always been that the 

 principal virtue is thus lost. But, notwithstanding, they are 

 planted again, and if cut, which is the usual practice, they per- 

 haps lie about for several days after, sometimes for weeks ; and 



E E 4 



