€y2\ Tui: practical gardener. [,/<///. 



haniening them by degrees to st<an(l the weatlier in April and 

 May, with a httle protection at night. 



The forcing of potatoes at an early period of the year has 

 been noticed by few writers upon horticulture, until the aj)- 

 pcarance of the Transactions of the Horticultural Society ; 

 we therefore will make a few extracis from that voluminous 

 work, which, fron its size and the richness of its embellish- 

 ments, however creditable to that body, is certainly from those 

 causes beyond the reach of readers in moderate circumstances. 



Mr. Knight cultivates potatoes upon hot-beds in the follow- 

 ing manner : " The varieties of potatoes," he says, which 

 are well calculated for early forcing, begin to vegetate before 

 Christmas; and it is of consequence to preserve the germes and 

 roots first emitted from injury, where a crop of good potatoes is 

 required before the end of May. 1 therefore plant my potatoes 

 in pots of about six inches in diameter in January, (a single 

 potato in each,) and the pots are then placed in the ground, 

 and covered with litter to protect them from fi-ost, and in this 

 situation they remain till the hot-bed be ready to receive them. 

 In the mean time, the excitability of the plants is not at all 

 expended, on account of the low temperature in which they 

 vegetate ; and, therefore, when phmged into the hot-bed, they 

 instantly shoot with excessive rapidity, and in a few days 

 begin to generate tubers. One stem alone should be suffered 

 to grow in each pot, for where more remain, the tubers are 

 smaller, and the crop is not increased in weight. When the 

 plants grow in small pots, the gardener will have apparently 

 the advantage of being able to take out the largest potatoes, by 

 inverting the pots, without materially injuring the fibrous roots ; 

 but this practice will rarely be found eligible, because the 

 plants, having the range of their roots confined to the limits 

 of the pots, soon occupy the whole of their pasture, and there- 

 fore do not produce their tubers in succession, as they will 

 under common circumstances. The lights should be drawn 

 off during the day, when the spring is far enough advanced to 

 |:>ermit this being done without injury to the plants ; and early 

 in May the pots may be taken out of the hot-bed, which may 

 be employed for other purposes ; and as it must necessarily 

 have been kept very dry during the latter period of the growth 



