^48 



POTATO. 



the above-mentioned disease, heading down at «, c, cf, 

 or /, according to the size of the tr^s ; if any of the ulcers 

 should remain after pruning or heading down, they must be 

 entirely removed from the tree, and then apply the compo- 

 sition." — N, E, Fanner^ vol. vi. p. 274. 



POTATO.— Sir Joseph Banks {HorL Trans, i. 8) consid- 

 ers that the potato was first brought to Spain from the moun- 

 tainous parts of South America, in the neighbourhood of 

 Quito. To England, however, this root found its way by 

 a diflferent route, being brought from Virginia by the colo- 

 nists sent out by Sir Waiter Raleigh, in 1586. 



Varieties, — These are very numerous, not only from the 

 facility of procuring new sorts by raising them from seed, 

 but because any variety cultivated for a few years, in the 

 same soil and situation, as in the same garden or farm, ac- 

 quires a peculiarity of character and habit, which distin- 

 guishes it from the same variety in a different soil and situ- 

 ation. Dr. Hunter, in his Georgical Essays, has supposed 

 the duration of a variety is limited to fourteen years ; and 

 Knight concurs with him in opinion. Potatoes, which are 

 excellent in Ireland, Nova Scotia, and other high northern 

 latitudes, do not answer a good purpose in New England. 

 The potato taken from the south prospers better, such as the 

 River Plate, or long red potato, which has succeeded well in 

 Massachusetts. Loudon asserts, that the best mode to or- 

 der potatoes for seed is, to give a general description of 

 the size, colour, form, and quality wanted, and whether for 

 an early or late crop, without being guided by the names 

 attached to any varieties. 



Propagation, — The potato may be propagated from seed, 

 cuttings, or layers of the green shoots, sprouts from the eyes 

 of the tubers, [roots,] or portions of the tubers containing a 

 bud or eye, or by planting the tubers whole. The object 

 of the first method is to procure a new or improved varie- 

 ty ; of the second, little more than curiosity, or to multiply, 

 as quickly as possible, a rare sort ; and of the third, to save 

 the tubers for food. The methods, hy portions of the 

 tubers, [the roots cut in pieces,] or whole potatoes, are the 

 best, and almost universally practised, for the general pur- 

 poses both of field and garden culture. 



By seed. — " Take the apples, in the beginning of Octo- 

 ber, [or whenever they are ripe,] before the frost has hurt 

 them ; hang them up by the foot stalks, in a dry closet, 

 where they will not freeze ; let them hang till March, or 

 April ; then mash the apples, wash the seeds from the pulp. 



