ESCULENT- ROOTED PLANTS. — THE POTATO. 



199 



the hatching of the eggs of insects deposited in 

 the soil. The remedies proposed are — deep- 

 trenching, change of crops, abundant supplies of 

 water at the roots, charcoal-dust to the extent 

 of half an inch laid over the surface, and slightly- 

 pointed in ; sulphur and also soot are applied 

 with advantage, both of which are obnoxious to 

 most insects ; spirits of tar, dry gas-lime, the 

 ammoniacal liquor from the gas-works, are also 

 beneficial. Gas-lime has been applied in quan- 

 tities varying from 8 to 12 bushels per acre, 

 and, for turnips, is raked in just before sow- 

 ing ; while for other Brassicae it is pointed in 

 with a spade to the depth of from 6 to 8 inches, 

 and applied in a larger quantity. In the case 

 of transplantable Brassicae, frequent removal has 

 been attended with beneficial effects, but this is 

 owing, probably, more to the care taken in re- 

 moving the excrescences at each transplanting, 

 than to any other cause in connection with the 

 operation. 



General remarks. — Saving turnip-seed, as well, 

 indeed, as that of all brassicaceous plants, is a 

 very peculiar branch of rural economy, requiring 

 great circumspection in first selecting the speci- 

 mens, which should always be the most perfect 

 of their kind, and afterwards in preventing 

 those intercourses to which all this natural 

 order is so prone. Were cabbage, cauliflower, 

 and turnip to be grown together, and did their 

 period of flowering happen to occur at the same 

 time, it is uncertain what might be the progeny 

 from their seed. Certainly a great deterioration 

 might be anticipated. — Vide Sect. Propagation 

 by Seed. In saving, therefore, seed of any par- 

 ticular variety of turnip, no two sorts should be 

 attempted in the same garden at the same time, 

 nor should any other allied plant be suffered to 

 flower at the same period. The finest formed 

 bulbs should be selected in autumn, and trans- 

 planted into an open airy part of the garden, 

 and placed, according to their respective size of 

 growth, at from 2 to 3 feet apart each way, that 

 the light and air may have free access to every 

 part of the plant, while in flower, and while per- 

 fecting its seed. In spring, as the flower-stems 

 extend in height, if only a few plants be experi- 

 mented upon, they should be tied to stakes for 

 support ; if many be grown together, they are 

 less liable to sustain injury from wind. A judi- 

 cious pruning away the smallest side-shoots, 

 particularly such as flower latest, will be of ad- 

 vantage to those left ; and besides this, little 

 further care is necessary, beyond securing the 

 crop from birds, which in all gardens can be 

 readily excluded from the seed, by covering the 

 plants with netting, elevated a foot or two above 

 the topmost branches. If plenty of room is 

 allowed, the seed will ripen pretty regularly ; but 

 the first-ripened pods should not be sacrificed 

 by being allowed to shed their seed in waiting 

 till the smaller and later ripen also. It is better 

 to lose the last than the first. When the seed 

 begins to change to a brownish colour in the 

 pods, the whole crop should be cut over by the 

 ground, and laid upon a dry place to mature 

 fully. The accumulated sap remaining in the 

 stems and branches will afford them sufficient 

 nourishment, although separated from the root, 



to mature the seed. The precaution of covering 

 with the net, while the crop is drying, must not 

 be neglected ; and when the whole is sufficiently 

 dry, carry it to an open, airy, dry shed, and thrash 

 it out, spreading over the floor a thick canvass 

 cloth to receive the seed. The thrashing should 

 not be done violently — a stout lath will be suffi- 

 cient for the operation ; and when the first beat- 

 ing is over, gather up the seed from the cloth, 

 pass it through a sieve, and lay what passes 

 through upon another smaller cloth, still further 

 to dry it. In a day or two afterwards, the same 

 operation should be repeated, when most if not 

 all the seed good for anything will be got out. 

 Sift and dry the seed thus secured ; and when 

 thoroughly dry, bag it up for storing away. Great 

 care must, however, be taken that the seed is 

 thoroughly dry, and that, until it is so, it be 

 spread out thinly ; for, if laid in too great a 

 thickness, or even bagged too soon, it is, of al- 

 most all other seeds, the most likely to get into 

 a state of fermentation, which would destroy its 

 vitality. Turnip-seed, like all the other varieties 

 of Brassica, will keep for years ; and if well kept, 

 will improve for the first four or five years ; and, 

 in some cases, such as early Dutch turnip, cauli- 

 flower, broccoli, &c., we have had long enough 

 experience to be satisfied that seeds of either, if, 

 as we said before, well kept, are better at the end 

 of the seventh or eighth year than they are the 

 season following their saving. — Vide Sect. Pro- 

 pagation by Seed. The European names are — 

 Navet in French ; Steckrube, or Rube, in Ger- 

 man ; Nabo in Spanish ; Navone in Italian ; 

 Raap in Dutch. 



§ 3. — THE POTATO. 



Natural history. — The potato (Solatium tubero- 

 sum L.) belongs to the natural order Solaneae, * 

 and to the class Pentandria and order Monogynia 

 in the Linnaean arrangement. The generic name 

 is derived from Solor, to comfort, from some of 

 the species soothing by stupifying. Some say 

 from $oZ, the sun; and others from Sulamim (from 

 Sus), from its being serviceable in disorders of 

 swine. The derivation may be possible, but the ap- 

 plication is not very evident. The English name 

 is probably derived from Batata, the Indian name 

 of the sweet potato, which was known in this 

 country thirty-three years before the introduc- 

 tion of the potato ; or it may be from Papas, the 

 name given it by the natives of Quito, where it 

 grows wild. The order Solaneae comprises up- 

 wards of 900 species, which are found distributed 

 over a large portion of the globe, the genus 

 Solanum alone furnishing about 170 of that 

 number. All the tribe are suspected of pos- 

 sessing narcotic properties; but it is thought 

 by many that this has been exaggerated, on 

 account of the intense and deleterious properties 

 of deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), the 

 mandrake (Mandragora nernalis), and some 

 others that belong to it. Some of them, like 

 the potato, contain, however, very opposite 

 properties in the same plant. An extract from 

 the leaves and stems is a powerful narcotic, 

 ranking between belladonna and conium, the 



