8 Cultevation of the Potatoe. 
treated it in various ways at that time, merely with a view to 
vegetable physiology, my object being to discover whether 
the distmguishing characters of these varieties were due to 
the nature of the soil, or the mode of fertilizing it. Since 
that time I have, in raising the potatoe, tried all the methods 
proposed by others, as well as those which I have myself 
devised. As far as the quantity of produce is concerned, the 
results of various modes of planting and cultivation have 
shown but little difference, unless, indeed, the cultivation 
were altogether neglected or badly arranged. The quantity 
of produce was found to depend upon the soil, when the spe- 
cies cultivated was the same. But the manual labor, and, 
consequently, the net profit, varied considerably. I have 
done my utmost to reduce this manual labor to the smallest 
possible amount, without sensibly diminishing the produce, 
for, in the raising of potatoes the rent of land is much less 
considerable than the expenses of cultivation. 
“J will venture to say, that I have attained this object more 
nearly than any one else, and that I have found myself near- 
er and nearer to it at the end of almost every successive 
year. I therefore beg those persons who have read my for- 
mer works,* and the observations which I have made on the 
culture of the potatoe, to consider such observations as the 
result of my apprenticeship, and those which I am now about 
to make, as more coraplete and matured.” 
In order to make some sort of classification of the innumer- 
able varieties of the potatoe, we must confine our attention to 
the most useful part, —the tuber. It is true that the leaves 
and the flowers appear to bear some relation to the form of 
the tuber, but the particular examination of them belongs 
more properly to the botanical cultivator. 
The skin of the potatoe is, in some varieties, of a dark 
eolor, approaching almost to blackness; in others of a red- 
nla eaiennn aia eeneencnteeeee atime eeniadiaeniemeiennedammmannnimmm nama emerennenenenanan ene TT 
* Thaer's English Agriculture, vols. 1 and 2. 
