36 A Method of obtaining Early Crops of New Potatoes, 



precisely where I had deposited the large tubers in the preceding 

 autumn ; and the appearance of these perfectly satisfied me, that I 

 had erred in supposing those to have perished. The experiment 

 was therefore repeated in the autumn of 1828 ; and the result in 

 the succeeding spring was the same, not a single plant appearing 

 above the soil; but upon examination I found beneath it, in June, 

 a very abundant crop of excellent young Potatoes, which attained 

 maturity at least a month earlier than those raised at the same 

 time, in the same soil and situation, in the usual way. It now be- 

 came obvious, that a similar crop of young Potatoes had been pro- 

 duced in the preceding year ; and that these, having remained at 

 rest till late in the summer, had become excitable, and had pro- 

 duced the numerous plants abovementioned. The tubers planted 

 were of the largest size which I could obtain of the variety, the 

 ash-leaved kidney Potatoe. 



Similar experiments were made in the last autumn ; but the 

 temperature of the ground was so low, owing to the excessive 

 coldness of the preceeding summer, that not a single tuber vege- 

 tated. A part were therefore taken up, and made to vegetate by 

 means of artificial heat, till they had emitted stems about three 

 inches long, when they were taken from the soil, and the further 

 progress of vegetation arrested. In the middle of January these 

 were put into a pot with some barren sandy soil, and placed in the 

 pine-stove, and supplied, moderately, with water till the middle of 

 March. At that period I discovered that small New Potatoes had 

 been abundantly generated, and water was not subsequently given, 

 till the middle of April ; when I found the pot to contain very well 

 grown young Potatoes, which were without any other defect than 

 that of not being, to my taste, sufficiently mature. The requisite 

 degree of artificial heat to insure success in experiments similar to 

 the preceding, may of course, be obtained from a variety of dif- 

 ferent sources, which I need not point out ; and not improbably, I 



