ESCULENT -ROOTED PLANTS.— THE POTATO. 



205 



greatly the disease under which the potato 

 is now suffering. 



Manure, to be beneficial to any plant, 

 must be placed so that it is within the 

 reach of the spongiolets; and as they 

 ramify in all directions away from the 

 seed, tuber, or whatever else may consti- 

 tute the origin of the plant, it appears 

 pretty clear that it should be as tho- 

 roughly mixed with the soil as possible, 

 and hence confining it within the narrow 

 limits of a drill is of all modes of applica- 

 tion the most wasteful. In accordance 

 with these views, they are right who re- 

 commend planting the potato in ground 

 enriched by previous manuring, whether 

 employed for the last crop, or applied to 

 the ground without any crop at all, be- 

 cause they get rid of one of the evils stated 

 above — namely, encouragement to the 

 disease. Manure, to be useful to any 

 crop, must become soluble, and this con- 

 dition does not come immediately about 

 in the case of such manures as rank 

 stable-litter : its application, therefore, 

 must be regarded as of little service to 

 the present crop ; but that it will be so to 

 the succeeding crop is to be expected. 



The mode, therefore, of preparing 

 ground for potatoes, as usually practised 

 — viz., planting them in drills or trenches 

 along with manure — must be regarded as 

 erroneous ; and, as we have already ob- 

 served, if manure is to be applied, let it 

 be so during the process of trenching or 

 digging, and let it be as completely mixed 

 with the soil as possible. 



The methods of planting the potato are 

 numerous. That of planting with the 

 dibber, next to that of placing them in 

 trenches amongst rank manure, is the 

 worst. The rapidity with which the former 

 is accomplished is an inducement with 

 many, but it is a very imperfect one, 

 unless the ground is very dry, and the 

 dibber of a diameter to make a hole suffi- 

 ciently wide to admit of the set or tuber 

 falling to the bottom ; and this is not 

 easily done when the soil is light or gra- 

 velly, as portions of it will fall in before 

 the set is introduced, and consequently 

 some will be much deeper planted than 

 others. The better way is, to open a 

 drill with a hoe or spade, of an equal 

 depth throughout, and to set the tubers 

 in it, and afterwards draw the soil over 

 them, so that in most cases there may 



VOL. II. 



be 6 inches of mould over them when 

 finished. This insures their being all 

 placed at a uniform depth, and leaves the 

 mould quite open and soft both under and 

 above them, — affording, in the first place, 

 a proper state for the young and tender 

 roots pushing their way into it ; and, in 

 the second, allowing the rains to sink in, 

 and the solar heat and air to penetrate, 

 and admitting of an uninterrupted pro- 

 cess of evaporation taking place. 



In regard to distance, much depends on 

 the sort. The small-growing early kinds 

 may be set in rows 15 inches apart, and 

 from 8 to 10 inches in the line ; but for 

 the later and stronger-growing sorts, 20 

 inches to 2 feet should be allowed row 

 from row, and from 12 to 15 inches in the 

 line. There is no gain in too thick planting. 



In ordinary garden-soils the sets may, 

 with every propriety, be placed 6 inches 

 under the general level of the surface. In 

 damp wet land the sets should be placed 

 on the surface of the dug ground, and the 

 mould drawn over them, in form of a 

 broad flat ridge, say 6 inches in height 

 at the centre, and 10 inches at the base. 

 Where the ground is very wet — but such 

 is very unfit for the potato — the old lazy- 

 bed manner may be followed, which is by 

 dividing the ground into beds of 4 feet in 

 breadth, leaving 2^-feet alleys between. 

 Dig the bed deeply over, set the tubers in 

 rows across, at the distances stated above, 

 and cover them at first by laying 4 inches 

 of soil, taken from the alleys, over them ; 

 and in course of a few weeks afterwards, 

 but before the shoots appear above ground, 

 lay over that 3 inches more from the same. 

 In such cases, ridges may be thrown up, 

 from 1 to 2 feet in height, and from 2 to 

 3 feet apart ; and on the top of these set 

 the tubers, and cover them over as above. 

 These are extreme cases; and when the 

 soil is incapable of being thoroughly dried 

 by draining, to admit of the process being 

 carried on in a more business-like manner, 

 it were better to crop the ground with 

 some other crop. 



In regard to the depth the sets should 

 be put in the ground, much depends on 

 its texture — as to whether it is light and 

 pervious to solar heat and air, or whether 

 it is retentive, and impenetrable to either. 

 From experiments made in the London 

 Horticultural Society's garden, the fol- 

 lowing results have been arrived at : — 



2 D 



