122 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[chap 



as a thing to be used merely in company with meat ; and not to 

 be used as a substitute for hread, having proved, in various parts 

 of my writings, and proved it beyond all contradiction, that, as a 

 substitute for bread it is the most wasteful thing that can possi- 

 bly be used. It has, too, now been acknowledged by various 

 writers, and it has been established by evidence taken before 

 Committees of the House of Commons, that to raise potatoes 

 for the purpose of being used instead of bread is a thing 

 mischievous to the nation. As a subsitude for bread, there- 

 fore, I speak not of the fruit of this plant. As food for cattle or 

 pigs, I know it to be inferior to cabbages, to Swedish turnips, to 

 mangel-wurzel, and to be much more expensive, weight for weight, 

 than either of those ai tides. I know of no animal that wall even 

 live for any length of time upon uncooked potatoes, while I know- 

 that sheep and horned cattle will live, and even fat, to a certain 

 extent, upon eithter cabbages, mangel-wurzel, or Swedish turnips ; 

 and while I know that pigs will live and thrive upon either of these 

 articles, neither of which, weight for weight, demand half the expease 

 that the potatoes demand. As a mere vegetable or sauce, as the 

 country people call it, it does very well to qualify the effects of fat 

 meat, or to assist in the swallowing of quantities of butter. There 

 appears to be nothing unwholesome about it, and when the sort is 

 good, it is preferred by many people to some other vegetables of 

 the coarser kind ; and though I never eat of it myself, finding so 

 many other things far preferable to it, I think it right to give direc- 

 tions for the cultivation of the plant upon a scale suitable to a 

 gentleman's garden. There are an infinite variety of sorts ; the skin 

 of some of which is red, that of others of a w hitish-yellow colour : 

 the first are denominated red potatoes, and the latter white. The red 

 potatoes are of the coarser kinds, as are also several of the white. 

 Those who plant these things in gardens and for their own use, 

 wi 1 not plant the coarse ones. I shall speak of only three sorts. 

 First, of a little round white potato, which comes very early, or 

 rather, is but a very short time in coming to perfection. The 

 second sort are called ladies-fingers, being long and about an inch 

 through when in their usual full size, and tiiese ako are white. 

 The other sort are called kidney-potatoes , which grow to a pretty 

 large size, are flat, and very much in the shape of a kidney. This is 

 the sort which is planted for the main crop to be preserved during 

 ^he winter. They have generally a small part at one end of them 



