THE CULINARY GARDEN. 



133 



Knight, which will be subsequently noticed. The same intel- 

 ligent writer, in another communication in that useful periodi- 

 cal, supposes, that seed-potatoes from a cold and poor soil, 

 when planted in a rich and favorable one, will hasten their 

 maturity six weeks ; he justly observes, that " obtaining a crop 

 six weeks earlier than usual is an object deserving the highest 

 consideration ; its coming into use at the season of the year, 

 when the poor man's garden affords him no new vegetables, 

 when the stock of the old potatoes is become short and dear, 

 and withal so bitter, unpalatable, and unwholesome, to have 

 then a crop of new potatoes is a delicacy indeed, especially to 

 the poor, depending so much for their support upon the potato ; 

 still more so to the Irish poor, to whom the potato may be 

 said to be the staff of life." 



Regarding that disease called the curl, so injurious to potato 

 crops, he presents us with the following valuable remarks : "I 

 have," he says, " planted several rows of early pink-eyes from 

 ripe tubers, which are now coming up almost all curled ; not 

 a curl appears on any of the same variety from unripe tubers, 

 although planted within a few yards of each other. The last 

 autumn, (1826,) being warm and long, enabled the worm 

 to grow stronger and more vigorous to attack the potato, in 

 which it made holes, and therein perhaps deposited its eggs, 

 which, nourished by the heat, acquired life and strength, and 

 after the potato was planted and became soft, it grew vigorous 

 and preyed upon its sap, rendering the plant weak and curled. 

 I am," he says, " inclined to think that the worm is the cause 

 of the curl, and that if potatoes, intended for sets, were taken 

 up before being ripe, that is, before they are full grown, the 

 worm will not have attacked them ; and that if it has, ex- 

 posing the potatoes to the sun will kill the worm before it has 

 deposited any of its eggs." He concludes this paper by re- 

 commending potatoes intended for seed for the following sea- 

 son, to be taken up before they are fully grown, and exposed to 

 the sun for a month or six weeks, and at the season of plant- 

 ing, to " observe the eye-cut, and by placing it upward, it will 

 secure, without any further trouble or expense, a crop of every 

 variety of potato six weeks earlier than the same variety will 

 produce if allowed to gTow to maturity." 



