Culture of the Potato. 423 



suit a potato by any means). Get some good, prepared, sweet, 

 oj^en earth, and put it all over the bed 12 or 14 inches deep ; have 

 your seed all ready hatched as before recommended ; turn them 

 all out as near of a size as possible, taking care to pull off every 

 shoot but the strongest one. With bestowing this care and 

 attention I have had as fine crops this way as I ever saw out of 

 doors. I always grow the Albion, or Dwarf ash-leaved Kidney, 

 for all early purposes ; having proved it to be the best sort for 

 that. I have now at this time my third crop planted : the first 

 is all up as strong as on May-day ; the second coming on ; the 

 third just planted ; and so I continue to plant again into the 

 sixties as fast as I turn the others out. 



I hatch the whole for all early work, likewise for hooping, 

 and the first turned out on the border ; they will stand in any 

 corner out of the Avay to hatch. In hooping or sheltering 

 potatoes with mats or canvass, I make it a rule to throw out 

 4 ft. in width across the garden where I take up my asparagus 

 for forcing, throwing the earth out right and left to sweeten, to 

 the depth of a foot ; then the dung and leaves which come away 

 at that season of the year from the sea-kale, that has been in use 

 all the winter, is put into this trench about 12 or 14 inches 

 thick, and the earth thrown back over it. I next take the 

 scarlet-runner sticks, and lay them on and across ; tie them to 

 the height of about 12 in. above the bed, and then turn the 

 potatoes out as above recommended, all ready hatched either in 

 pots, or any of the conveniences which at that season of the year 

 are plentiful, such as pine-stoves, vineries, cucumber and melon 

 beds, &c. It is astonishing what time you gain by having them 

 always ready hatched : not only that, but it requires so little of 

 any sort of fermenting materials ; only wanting a very slight 

 warmth, just to start them at first going off, for potatoes do not 

 like bottom heat. By hatching a few to turn out into a sheltered 

 situation in the borders or elsewhere, and by following the 

 practice I have recommended, I find I have always a plentiful 

 supply of good new potatoes all the season, until such time as 

 they come naturally out of doors. 



To prepare for the out-of-door potatoes, it is only necessary 

 to do as I have before stated. Get the ground well-worked, 

 sweetened, and manured, and planted in the proper season with 

 whole seed that has neither been heated nor allowed to grow 

 before planted. If what I have recommended is attended to, 

 the curl, dry rot, or sloping, will never trouble you ; but 

 you will be satisfactorily repaid for all the labour and expense 

 you have been at to bring them to perfection. 



To grow them in cellars or sheds is nothing more than pro- 

 curing a quantity of last year's old potatoes in August and 

 September, and stacking them in rows on shelves, or on the 



