By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 



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nevertheless, obtained so large a crop from one which vege- 

 tates remarkably late in the spring, and ripens rather early 

 in the autumn, that I was induced to ascertain, by weighing, 

 to what the produce would have amounted had the crop 

 extended over an acre, and I found that it would have been 

 21 tons, 11 cwt. 80 lb. or 48,352 lbs. 



In this calculation the external rows, which derived su- 

 perior advantage from air and light, were excluded. No 

 more manure, or culture, than is usually given, had been 

 employed, for the crop was not planted with any intention 

 of having it weighed : the wet summer was, however, very 

 favourable. 



I am not acquainted with the ordinary amount of the 

 weight of a good crop of Potatoes, upon an acre of ground in 

 a favourable soil, when well-manured and cultivated ; but I 

 am confident, that it may generally be made to exceed twenty 

 tons, by a proper selection of varieties : and if four pounds of 

 good Potatoes afford, as is generally supposed, at least as 

 much nutriment as one pound of wheat, the produce of an 

 acre of Potatoes, such as I have described, is capable of sup- 

 porting as large a population, as eight acres of wheat, ad- 

 mitting the calculation of Mr. Arthur Young, that the 

 average produce of an acre of wheat is 22£ bushels or 

 1440 lbs. ; and as an acre of wheat will certainly support as 

 large a number of people as five acres of permanent pasture, 

 it follows, that an acre of Potatoes affords as much food for 

 mankind, as forty acres of permanent pasture : an important 

 subject for consideration, in a country where provisions are 

 scarce and dear, and where so high bounties, on pasture, are 



