1353 ] THE P HILAD ELPHIA FLORIST. 307 



Lr- thickly with straw and mould, and even thatched with a still heavier p* 

 q° great coat, stopping all perspiration from escaping. The consequences 

 / of such management soon showed themselves ; the Potatoes heated, 

 sweated, and afterwards began to grow; so that when the spring ar- 

 rives they are found all matted together, their very life's-blood being 

 extracted from them ; they are taken out and pulled to pieces, and 

 what nature has placed inside them for their own support is extracted 

 and pul ed away from them before planting ; they are then cut into 

 eyes, and if the Potato be a large one we have the inside left; this 

 is given to the pigs, not even allowing a fair proportion to the eye; 

 we dust the wounded and exhausted parts over with lime ; we have 

 our land prepared at great expense and much care, to receive this 

 already half killed tuber, or part of or.e ; it is planted, but before it 

 can grow it must fill its empty ceils with water, the starch, gluten, and 

 other mattei having been sweated and grown out of it. It grows; 

 but how \ Why with a water}', Balsam-like stem, that when it is 

 squeezed the water run* out of it. Can people wonder, then, when 

 unfavourable weather conies on, that such a plant cannot stand it ! 

 When the plant his grown for a time, and produced tubers — some 

 perhaps nearly ripe, while others are in a rapid state of growth — dull 

 rainv weather prevails for a week or so : after this the sun breaks o\it 

 in all its vigour upon the earth ; the plant is so full of water that 

 evaporation and elaboration is stopped, the stomates or breathing 

 pores— small hary vessels which admit the gases and the air to elabo- 

 rate the sap — get stopped, so that the moisture which the plant does 

 not want cannot evaporate. This being the case, the whole plant gets 

 confused, the poisonous sap ferments, the circulation still continues, 

 away go the tubers that are not ripe, those that happen to be nearly 

 ripe suffer less, on account of the flow of sap being finished. The 

 Potato, like all other plants, it mismanaged, must suffer less or more, 

 and the more especially if the weather is favourable to such diseases. 

 All plants are liable to mildew, according to their kind. 



In order to bring back this much abused, but most useful and splen- 

 did vegetable to its orginal health, we must consider the climate from 

 which it comes (and like the Lisnnthus Russellianus, which has baffled 

 the skill of the best gardeners to keep and grow, we must look into 

 its natural and native treatment.) The Potato, then, being a native 

 of the sea coasts of Peru and Mexico, where a large amount of salt 

 spray must be deposited at all times, the air much impregnated with 

 the saline gases, if this is so, then we ought to use much salt and no 

 strong manures whatever. Much has been said and written about 

 1 autumn-planting in this country. If the system which I have practised 

 r ' r for the last 22 years cannot be followed out, then let autumn-planting ^ 

 % be strictly followed out, only let the Potatoes be well greened until M 



I ;->_ ^Qim 



