124 



KITCHEN-GARDEN PLANTS. 



[ C U A P . 



high. As the plants advance in height, more earth should be 

 drawn up to them, and when they are about a foot iiigh above the 

 top of the ridge, the intervals should be well dug with a spade, 

 and the earth well broken. After this, a little more earth shoulJ 

 be drawn up to the plants, the heads of which w ould begin to fall 

 down and spread about, and all that will be wanted, in future, will 

 be to pull out any weeds that appear. In the fall of the year the 

 leaves will drop off and the haulm will die ; and when this death 

 of the haulm take place, the potatoes should be dug up. I am 

 now speaking of the kidney potatoes which are to be kept for win- 

 ter use : and they should not be planted too early : because they w ill 

 be ripe too early in the fall, and will not keep so well through the 

 winter, and until the spring. The. last week in April, or the tirst or 

 even the second week, in jNlay, is quite soon enough to plant. The 

 crop will then be tit to take up in the latter end of October, w hich 

 is quite soon enough. When taken up, they should, if the weather 

 will permit, be suffered to dry in the sun : all the dirt should be 

 rubbed clean from tliem ; they should then be placed in a cellar, 

 in a barn, or in some place to \\hich no frost can approach ; if vou 

 can ascertain the degree of warmth just necessaiy to keep a babv 

 fiom perishing from cold, you know^ precisely the precautions 

 required to preserve a potato above-ground ; for, under-ground, 

 they will lie safe and sound during the whole winter, if placed 

 individually, if the frost do not actually reach them. I know of 

 no other seed or root ; I know of no apple even ; I know of no 

 loaved cabbage, that will not bear freezing, if covered over with 

 the ground. I have, this 3 ear, had a piece of ground in which 

 potatoes (planted by my predecessor) grew last year, covered over 

 tw^enty times by the overflowings of the Thames, and, when this 

 piece of ground w^as dug up in the spring, the potatoes were as 

 sound and as fresh as ever. We did not perceive one single rot- 

 ten potato in the whole piece. There was a great qua ntity, and 

 the men who dug the ground took them home to eat. But if above- 

 ground, your care must be great, especially if the heap be consi- 

 derable. There must be no rotten ones, and no cut or broken 

 ones. The heap may feriiieut. and then rottenness will come : 

 you must therefore be careful to turn it over frequently and pick 

 out every thing approaching towards rottenness. Potatoes are 

 frequently kept in heaps formed in a conical shape on the ground, 

 and covered over with straw and earth: but this i^ a tiling that 



