420 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



then are put into the ground after making what is considered a 

 good preparation for it. If it comes on very wet weather, a 

 great many of them slop away, as it is called in Devonshire, 

 and the remainder become weak, and look spindly and thin all 

 the summer. If it should be a hot and dry time when planted, 

 and the weather continues dry for some time after planting, of 

 course they get dry rot, which is plain for anybody to see. I 

 have seen this hundreds of times in different places, and have 

 often pointed it out ; but nobody would ever admit it was their 

 own fault : it was either the fault of the ground, or of the sea- 

 son ; they had done everything they could. According to my 

 observations, my opinion is that the curl is principally occa- 

 sioned by using imperfect seed that has not been sufficiently 

 ripened : such, for instance, as late-planted potatoes : many 

 select them because they are not fit to eat, and, therefore, think 

 they will do to plant. An early frost having come, and cut 

 them all down before they have got half their natural growth, 

 it makes them so watery and waxy that they are not eatable, 

 and, therefore, they bundle them close together somewhere to 

 give them a sweat ; and think they will then do for seed. 



In planting potatoes, I have for many years observed that 

 three parts out of four are planted too late, which is a very 

 great disadvantage in more ways than one. First, the seed 

 gets exhausted ; 2dly, a considerable portion of the most valuable 

 part of the season is lost ; 3dly, if it should set in a dry summer 

 a great portion of the seed is lost, and what does spring up is 

 only weak. If it should set in a wet summer they slop, and 

 what remains does not ripen. My system is to plant all seed 

 whole ; neither large nor small potatoes, but a middling size, 

 from the size of a pigeon's q,^^ to that of a bantam's. When 

 they are first dug up they ought to be sorted for that purpose ; 

 and they should be exposed to the sun and air to harden ; and, 

 when j)ut away, laid in lofts or on shelves, or in j)laces where 

 they will neither grow nor get heated. 



The greater part of the potatoes I have seen planted in 

 Devonshire has been done too late by six or eight weeks ; and, 

 if it were not for its beautiful climate and soil, what could they 

 expect to get, as the preparation they make is but poor. In the 

 first place, generally speaking, they plough the ground only to 

 the depth of 4 or 5 inches ; I think that is not doing much 

 towards it : 2dly, the earth between the rows does not get half- 

 hoed, nor stirred about enough, after the potatoes are up. My 

 own opinion is fully made up, that the ground should be broken 

 up deep, stirred and worked about in every possible way (par- 

 ticularly in dry weather), for every thing that is planted; 

 the best manure is that supplied by the atmosphere, without 

 which nothing can thrive. I do not mean where the subsoil is 



