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L. On two early Varieties of the Potatoe, and the best Method 

 of forcing them. In a Letter to the Secretary. By Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read December 3, 1811. 

 My Dear Sir, 



J have sent you, to be distributed among the Members of 

 the Horticultural Society, a few Potatoes of two of the very 

 early varieties, which I have mentioned in a former commu- 

 nication, and described as better calculated for forcing, than 

 any with which I was acquainted.* 



The growth of both varieties is extremely dwarfish, so that 

 the tubers ought not to be planted, in the hot-bed, more than 

 six or seven inches from each other ; and, if cultivated in 

 the open ground, the rows should not be more than nine 

 inches distant, nor the spaces between the tubers more than 

 four or five. 



That which I have marked as first, appears to be the ear- 

 liest of the two, when cultivated in a hot-bed, where its tubers 

 begin to vegetate almost instantaneously, and in which its 

 stems and foliage acquire their full growth in a few days : 

 but in the open ground, I think the other is at least equally 

 early ; the leaves of it indicated, last year, some disposition 

 to curl, but that disease is easily cured by the means re- 

 commended in the Horticultural Transactions of 1810.*f* 



The produce of both these varieties of Potatoe, is small, 

 particularly in the open air ; but the crop occupies the 



* See Horticultural Transactions, page 213. t See page 191. 



