FORCING THE COMMON POTATO, &C. 



519 



enable it to protrude these, but simply heat and water ; and if the root be 

 removed entire, as soon as its leaves become lifeless, it will be found to vege- 

 tate, after being replanted, as strongly as it would have done if it had retained 

 its lirst position." 



Sect. XII. — Forcing the common Potato^ the sweet Potato^ and other tubers. 



1100. The common potato (Solanum tuberosum, L.) is forced in a great 

 variety of ways. The best varieties for this purpose are the ash-leaved 

 kidney, the Rufford kidney. Fox's seedling, and Shaw's Early. (See 

 our Catalogue of Culinary Vegetables). They may be forced in 

 pots on shelves in a peach-house or vinery, or in frames or pits mode- 

 rately heated, the plants in every case being kept quite near the glass, 

 as few plants suffer more when placed at a distance from the glass than 

 the potato. Abercrombie says, " for a fair crop of tubers, which shall be 

 somewhat dry and floury, and of the size of a hen's egg, plant sets of 

 the ash~leaved variety in single pots filled one-third part with light earth 

 in January. Place them in a hothouse or hotbed, earth them up as they 

 appear, and about the middle or end of February transplant them, with their 

 balls entire, into a pit prepared as for asparagus. Distance, from plant to 

 plant, one foot each way. Give water occasionally, and admit as much air 

 as possible at all times. Potatoes so managed will produce a crop at the end 

 of March or beginning of April." The general mode is to plant in frames or 

 pits, on a bed of fermenting material, sufficient to produce a gentle heat, for 

 the potato will not bear rapid forcing, a high temperature, or a dry atmo- 

 sphere. They however, cannot have too much light, being natives of a high 

 table-land, with a clear sky. Some gardeners plant them on old hotbeds 

 and supply the heat by linings ; and many plant them on beds unprotected 

 by glass, but covered with hoops and mats during nights and very severe 

 weather. 



1101. A substitute for new potatoes is obtained by placing layers of pota- 

 toes alternately with sawdust in a box, and placing it in a moderate tem- 

 perature in a room or cellar. The potatoes vegetate and produce tubers in 

 December and January, about the size of walnuts, and sometimes larger, 

 without any leaves having been protruded. This plan is most successful 

 when potatoes of the growth of the season-before-last are used. By this 

 treatment, no leaves will emerge above the soil, and, consequently, as no 

 nutritive matter can be deposited by them, the new potatoes, which may 

 be produced at any required period by burying the old potatoes three weeks 

 before, are nothing more than a recomposition of the old tuber, in conse- 

 quence of the application of heat and moisture. Few persons, however, will 

 be satisfied with this kind of substitute for a new potato formed by the aid 

 of light and foliage. Another mode of producing a substitute for new 

 potatoes is, by retarding the tubers of early varieties, by keeping them in a 

 cool dry cellar till June or July, and then planting them. Being early 

 sorts, they produce, even when planted thus late, a crop of young potatoes 

 which possess in a great degree the flavour peculiar to potatoes taken 

 fresh from the stem. By covering the ground with litter, so as to exclude 

 the frost, young potatoes may thus be obtained throughout the winter. (See 

 G. ilf., vol. viii., p. 56, and our Catalogue of Culinary Vegetables). 

 In the mild climate of Cornwall, where the winters frequently pass with 

 little or no frost, the planting of sets can be deferred till autumn ; and with 



