134 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



[Apr. 



Mr. Knight, in one of his valuable papers, in the Trans- 

 actions of the Horticultural Society, says, " When the planter 

 is anxious to obtain a crop within the least possible time, he 

 will find the position in which the tubers are placed to vege- 

 tate by no means a point of indifference ; for these being shoots 

 or branches, which have grown thick instead of elongated, 

 retain the disposition of branches, to propel their sap to their 

 leading buds or points most distant from the stems of the plants 

 of which they once formed a part. If the tubers be placed 

 with their leading buds, a few very strong and early shoots 

 will spring from them ; but if their position be reversed, many 

 weaker and later shoots will be produced, and not only the 

 earliness but the quality of the produce will be much affected 

 in size." 



Ground in which potatoes are to be planted, if not in to- 

 lerable good condition, should be dunged, but when they can 

 be grown in fi'esh unimpoverished soil without manure, their 

 flavor will be better. Ground which has long lain uncropped, 

 or that which has never been in a state of cultivation, if dry 

 and not very barren, will produce excellent potatoes, both in 

 quantity and quality. Leaves of trees, not too much decom- 

 posed, are good manure for this crop, and will produce 

 both early crops, and have the least effect on their flavor. 

 Rank and unfermented dung is the worst that can be applied. 



Amongst the many curious and interesting experiments made 

 by Mr. Knight upon this valuable vegetable, is the following : 



by planting in June or July, he conceives, that an exhausted 

 good variety may, in a great measure, be restored, by using 

 the produce of this late planting for the seed of the succeeding 

 season, planted at the proper time." But, with all due defer- 

 ence to the worthy president's theory, we have been dis- 

 appointed in practice by its adoption. In 1824 and 1825, we 

 planted several kinds of potatoes, in the beginning of July, in 

 the open fields, which, although considered good sorts, yet 

 had ceased, in the gardens at Stratton Park, to be good in 

 quality. The produce of this late planting was again planted 

 in March and April in the gardens, and we found them not im- 

 proved in quality nor size, but rather progressively worse. It 

 is, however, a matter of much importance, and the result of 



