v.] 



POTATO. 



cannot be required in a case like that which I have in view. The 

 ladies-fingers, which are certainly more delicate in taste than the 

 kidney-potatoes, may be planted at the same time, and treated in 

 the same manner ; and they will be better than the larger potatoes 

 all through the winter, though the crop will not be so large. Some 

 of these, however, if planted early in ]March, will be very good for 

 use from the end of June to the latter end of the summer. As to 

 the first sort, the little round white early potatoes, they may be 

 raised so as to be fit to eat in June, and even earlier. This sort 

 of potato has no blossom. It is a small round white potato, the 

 leaf of which is of a pale green, very thin, very smooth, and nearly 

 of the shape and size of the inside of a middle-sized lemon cut 

 asunder longways. This potato, if planted with other sorts in 

 March or April, \^ ill be ripe six weeks sooner than any other sort. 

 The ladies-fingers come much quicker than the kidneys ; but 

 the early potato comes much quicker still. If you once get this 

 sort, and wish to keep it true, you must take care that no other 

 sort grow near it ; for potatoes mix the breed more readily than 

 any thing else, though in this case there be no bloom. It is 

 very diiiicult, for this reason, to get this sort true aud unmixed. 

 If these potatoes be planted early in IMarch, or late in Februarv, 

 it should be in w arm and dry ground : and you must take care to 

 cover the ground where they are planted w ith litter or straw, if you 

 perceive that frosts are approaching, for if the root be once frosted 

 it immediately becomes v.ater. You may dig up some of these 

 potatoes in June as big as walnuts or bigger. They are not ripe 

 in June ; but they may be ripe by the latter end of July ; thev in- 

 crease in size as you go on, and the quantity need not be large, 

 for, by the time these are exhausted, the ladies-fingers come in for 

 use. A small quantity will be enough for seed for the next year. 

 You should pick out five or six of the truest plants to stand for 

 seed ; when the haulm dies, take up the roots ; put them bv care- 

 fully, and preserve them till spring. If you wish to have potatoes 

 still earlier than this, you must resort to artificial heat. One way 

 of doing this is as follows : dig out the earth in the border oppo- 

 site the south side of a w all, but at four or five feet from it in order 

 to give room for the operations to be performed. Take the earth 

 out to the depth of two feet, and make a hot-bed there of good 

 and rather long du ig, causing the bed to rise about a foot above 

 the level of the ground. Put part of the earth upon this bed, and 



