206 



CULINARY OR KITCHEN GARDEN. 



" In warm dry land we regard 9 inches 

 as not too deep, provided the sets are 

 large and strong; in cold stiff soil 4 inches 

 would be better : 6 inches is a good depth 

 in average soils, and indeed may be con- 

 sidered the best depth in most soils. 

 Weak sets do not come up well at 9 inches 

 deep ; but, on the contrary, 4 inches is too 

 shallow, occasioning the tubers to be par- 

 tially exposed to the light, and hence to 

 become green. If, however, the land is 

 so shallow as to admit of no greater depth, 

 then more space must be allowed between 

 the rows for earthing up. In one of the 

 experiments above alluded to, different 

 depths were also inquired into, when the 

 rates of produce were nearly as follows : 

 3 inches deep gave 13 tonsj 4 inches, 

 14 tons; 6 inches, 14^ tons ; and 9 inches, 

 13 tons. At so great a depth as 9 inches, 

 sets are apt to perish, unless the soil is dry, 

 light, and warm. The deeper, however, 

 the sets can be safely inserted the better, 

 for the following reason : Potatoes are 

 formed on underground branches ; the 

 deeper set, the more branches wiU be 

 formed before the shoots emerge from the 

 soil, and consequently the more ample 

 wiU be the means possessed by the potato 

 plant for forming tubers. The important 

 practice of earthing up is designed to effect 

 the same end by compeUing the potato 

 stem to grow as much as possible under- 

 ground." Subsequent experience has 

 proved that earthing up is of little conse- 

 quence, if the potato has been planted from 

 6 to 8 inches deep in the first instance. 



Size and choice of sets. — Since the pre- 

 vailing malady has been so destructive to 

 the potato, sets — that is, cut sections of the 

 tuber, having one eye or bud each — are 

 much seldomer used than formerly. The 

 larger the set is, the stronger we would 

 naturally expect the plant to be, on ac- 

 count of the greater amount of elaborated 

 matter it contains compared with a smaller 

 one j but this does not appear to be the 

 case ; no one set need have more than one 

 eye or bud. Some have placed much im- 

 portance on the end of the potato from 

 which the set is cut, and recommend the 

 rejection of the watery or less ripened end 

 of the tuber, as well as the root end, or 

 more ripened portion also, assigning as a 

 reason that the former has too many small 

 eyes, and that plants produced from it are 

 apt to run too much to haulm ; and to the 



root end they object, fancying that it is 

 tardy in growth, and more liable to dis- 

 ease. They say, Make choice of the middle 

 of the potato, which, if cut in two, will 

 afford two sets, having one eye each. This 

 appears to us to be merely the shadow of 

 the well-known fact that fully-matured 

 potatoes, fit for food, are less proper for 

 seed than those that are much less per- 

 fectly ripened, and hence the demand for 

 seed-potatoes from upland and late loca- 

 lities, where, in fact, the potato seldom 

 ripens to full perfection. Physiologically, 

 there is a difference between the two ends 

 of a potato; practically viewed, it is so 

 small that it may be little regarded. The 

 late Mr Main was quite of this opinion, and 

 set the whole down as a mere matter of 

 speculation. In the present condition of the 

 potato, whole tubers are preferred to cut 

 sets, and these are usually selected from 

 the medium-sized ones. The only objec- 

 tion that can be started against the em- 

 ployment of whole tubers is the number 

 of eyes they have, compared with a mere 

 section, which may be cut with only one. 

 This objection is, however, easily remedied 

 by the careful destruction, by the touch of 

 a red-hot wire, of all the eyes but one ; 

 but this should be done with as little in- 

 jury to the skin of the potato as possible, 

 else the escape of its juices may be as great 

 as in a section cut from a larger specimen. 

 Mr George Lindley was of opinion that sets 

 with only one eye in each, produced the 

 crop ten days or a fortnight earlier than 

 those having two or more eyes left on. 



We have not planted sets for years, but 

 use the medium-sized tubers whole. The 

 late Mr Knight was of opinion that very 

 small potatoes produced a much later crop 

 than when large ones were used for seed : 

 this is to a certain extent true, because 

 they are too imperfectly matured, and 

 therefore we never plant them. He also 

 placed considerable importance on the 

 position the sets are placed in at planting. 

 In " Trans. Hort. Soc.,"vol. iv. p. 448, he 

 says, " When the planter is anxious to 

 obtain a crop within the least possible 

 time, he will find the position in which 

 the tubers are placed to vegetate by no 

 means a point of indifference ; for these 

 being shoots or branches which have 

 grown thick instead of elongating, retain 

 the disposition of branches to propel their 

 sap to their leading buds, or points most 



