416 



On the Culture of the Potatoe, 



cessive years, very great ; but its vigour was gradually diminished ; 

 and in the last year its produce was at least one third (more than 

 seven tons per acre) less than I obtained from the same soil, and 

 under, in every respect, the same management, from other varieties 

 of nearly similar habits, but which had recently sprung from seed. 

 The propagation of expended varieties, therefore, appears to me to 

 be one of the causes why the crops of Potatoes generally have been 

 found so much less than those which I have stated to have been 

 produced here. I have received letters within a few months from 

 persons in different parts of the kingdom, informing me that they 

 have been unable to obtain by any mode of culture above two hun- 

 dred and fifty, or three hundred bushels of Potatoes from an acre of 

 good and well-manured ground. I have in answer desired to know the 

 age of the varieties cultivated; but upon that point, I have uniformly 

 found my correspondents totally uninformed; communicating to 

 me, however, the important intelligence that the same varieties bore 

 more abundantly at a former period, and often that the quality of 

 the former produce was superior. When I first stated, in a former 

 communication, that I had obtained a produce equivalent to six 

 hundred and seventy bushels of eighty pounds per acre, I found 

 some difficulty in obtaining credit for the accuracy of my statement, 

 though I then felt perfectly confident that by first obtaining varieties 

 better adapted to my purpose, I should be able to raise much hea- 

 vier crops ; and the following statement, in support of which I am 

 prepared to adduce the most unquestionable evidence, will prove 

 that my confidence was perfectly well founded. 



I planted in my garden in the last season, some tubers of a variety 

 of Potatoe of very early habits, but possessing more vigour of growth 

 than is usually seen in such varieties. The soil in which they were 

 planted was in good condition, but not richer than the soils of gar- 

 dens usually are, and the manure which it had received, consisted 



