C 93 ] 



XV. On the Potatoe. By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 

 F. R. S. President. 



Read February 1, 1831. 



I f the Potatoe could only be employed, as it has chiefly been, to 

 afford vegetable food to mankind, its improvement would be an 

 exceedingly important object; for, circumstanced as this country 

 is, it must necessarily constitute a large part of the food of the 

 poorer classes ; and it is consumed in large quantities at the tables 

 of the affluent and luxurious. But I am convinced by the evi- 

 dence of experiments, which I have been some years in making, 

 that the Potatoe plant, under proper management, is capable of 

 causing to be brought to market a much greater weight of vegetable 

 food, from any given extent of ground, than any other plant which 

 we possess, with equal profit to the farmer. The Swedish Turnip 

 may, in certain seasons and when the soil is favorable, rival, and 

 perhaps excel it ; but a total failure of crops of that plant is an 

 event of no unfrequent occurrence, and partial failures occur in 

 almost every season; whilst by proper culture, and selection of 

 varieties which vegetate and acquire maturity in successive parts 

 of summer and autumn, there is not any crop which I conceive to 

 be so certain as that of Potatoes; and it has the advantage of 

 being generally most abundant, when the crops of wheat are de- 

 fective, that is in wet seasons * And, I think, I shall be able to 



• Failures of crops of Potatoes occur in Ireland, because the excessive poverty of the 

 peasantry compels them to plant their ground generally with less than one fifth of the 

 proper quantity of Potatoes; and all the Irish varieties, which I have seen, have been 

 unproductive, though generally of exceedingly good quality ; the Irish mode of culture 

 is also, I have reason to believe, excessively bad. 



