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article of food should not be largfely, and profitably grown in the hills of Jamaica. At the higher 

 elevations this crop is liable to considerable variation in yield and quality of produce, but as a rule, 

 the potatoes grown near Cinchona, for instance, are excellent. The method of cultivation usually fol- 

 lowed by the settlers here is to open shallow trenches with the hoe, drop the seeds (sets) in the trenches 

 and roughly cover with soil. When the tops are a few inches high they are moulded once, and no 

 further cultivation is considered necessary. No manure is employed, unless the patch of ground hap- 

 pens to be near the owner's yard, when such as he can scrape together is sometimes used. Perhaps 

 there is no crop that shows better the effects of good cultivation than the potato. An instance illus- 

 trating this occurs to me whilst writing. On a property in the north of Ireland I remember to have 

 seen potatoes of the same variety grown at the same season of the year in the vegetable garden, and 

 in the open field. In the garden the ground had been thoroughly trenched but only lightly manured ; 

 the potatoes as they grew were carefully moulded with fine soil ; the ground between the rows was 

 occasionally forked over and broken up fine, taking care not to injure the young roots and tubers, and 

 the whole was kept rigidly clean. A very large crop of clean skinned potatoes was the result, and 

 these when cooked were dry and floury. The field corp was cultivated mainly by means of the plow, 

 manure being freely used, but the yield was not nearly so large as in the garden, and there was a very 

 much larger per centage of small, and diseased tubers, and in point of quality the potatoes were not 

 to be compared with those from the garden. 



Of course the farmer with his five, up to fifty acres or more, cannot bestow the same care and at- 

 tention usually given to the small garden plot, but as growers in Jamaica only plant small areas of 

 this crop, they should endeavour to follow the garden method of cultivation as nearly as possible. Mr. 

 Shirley Hibberd, an eminent authority, says : — 



" The potato, though peculiar and capricious in constitution, is nevertheless a very accommodating 

 plant. Hence it may be grown with some degree of success, depending, of course, on the nature of 

 the season, on any kind of soil that will produce a mere blade of grass. I have many times lifted 

 crops of 15 tons to 20 tons per acre from low-lying undrained clay land, where in such seasons as 1860 

 or 1879 the sets would rot in the soil without starting, or at the very best would produce a crop that 

 would not pay for lifting. Perfect drainage seems to be the first requisite to success. From the 

 moment the plant becomes waterlogged it has received its death-blow ; but given depth of soil and full 

 exposure to daylight, with free escape of every drop of moisture the plant does not require, and a fair 

 crop commensurate with the conditions may be looked for in a season fairly favourable to vegetation. 

 There is probably no plant in cultivation that can equal the potato in scraping money out of sheer 

 sand, or shale or starving chalk and limestone." 



I have had on several occasions endeavoured to convince small growers, who merely place the 

 sets in the ground and obtain fairly good results, that if they would at any rate loosen tha soil, and 

 apply a little manure their crops would increase in value probably ten-fold, but have always been met 

 with the excuse that it would not pay to do so. This excuse is a very poor one, when we consider the 

 low rates of wages paid to field labourers, that suitable land can be rented at a few shillings per acre 

 per year, and that all their marketable potatoes can readily be disposed of at l^d or 2d per lb. Com- 

 pare these conditions with those under which the growers in market gardens near London labour. A 

 writer in the " Gardeners' Chronicle" in 1878 remarked : — 



When a grower of potatoes for market can undertake to rent for a short season of six months 

 land for the purpose of growing potatoes for market at a charge of £13 per acre, it might well be 

 asked, how are the profits to be obtained, and what kinds of crops are to be looked for ? For this price 

 the land is taken, well manured, and fairly well cultivated, the planter having the choice either of 

 casting out drills with the plough or dibbling the sets in. In the present case the former plan is 

 adopted: the seed is laid in rapidly by women and boys, and plough moulders follow behind and cover 

 in as fast as the sets are laid. A wooden roller presses down the apex of the ridges thus formed, and 

 presently harrows will be run over the ground and this will leave it in excellent condition for hoeing 

 when the crop is well through the ground. The average quantity of seed per acre is about 30 bushels 

 of small and 35 bushels of large. The present average price of seed of Victorias is 5s. per bushel, 

 which, exclusive of labour, adds to the expenses about £8, and if £6 be added for labour and general 

 cost per acre, for lifting and other charges, it will make a total of £27 per acre, to be deducted from 

 the value of the crop before there is any profit to go into the hands of the cultivator. Potatoes are a 

 risky crop, late frost may injure them, drought may check them, excessive moisture may provoke an 

 undue amount of haulm growth and a severe attack of the inevitable disease. A good crop would be 

 8 tons per acre on ordinary fields, and from that may be deducted ^ a ton of chats worth about 15s. 

 for pigs' food, and 1^ tons of seed size, leaving 6 tons of ware for market. *' This estimate will only 

 be fulfilled if there be no disease, but if, as is too often the case, one third be diseased, the largest 

 tubers as a rule being the worst, then at most there will be but 4 tons of ware tubers for the market, 

 and only 1 ton of seed. The price of potatoes in the market is affected by the state of the crop, which 

 because of the immense extent of ground planted, is certain to be an abundant one if there be no di- 

 sease, and the price will then range from £4 to £5 per ton. With a clean crop of Victorias held over 

 until the market had settled down to its winter price at £5 per ton, the amount realized per acre for 

 7^ tons would be £37 10s. and adding 15s. for the ^ ton of chats, £38 5s. A diseased j ear would give 

 5 tons at about £9 per ton, which would give a total of £45 15s., a better paying crop, though less in 

 bulk ; but as the disease is so irregular in its effects it may be that this particular grower would not 

 have more than one half a crop clean for sale, a common result when the disease is very prevalent, and 

 therefore it would not be safe to look in any case for a product that should realize more than £40 

 per acre under any circumstances. If from this be deducted the £27 per acre for expenses, and at 

 least £3 for cartage to market, it will be found that £10 per acre is no great profit to look for out of 

 8 uch a venture, as all the amount deducted must be paid in hard cash before the crop can be marketed. 



