332 



On Cottage Gardening. 



There are a great many varieties of the potato; some are very 

 early ready for use, such is the frame ; others finely-flavoured 

 and handsome in shape, as the ladij s-finger kidney. These, how- 

 ever, from their scanty yield, are unfit for the provident cottager. 

 The best for his purpose, as uniting quality with quantity, are the 

 champion and the early Shaw ; these are best for immediate use 

 as soon as their tops decay : but for long-keeping and storing, 

 the Devonshire apple and Yorkshire reds should certainly be pre- 

 ferred. Two-thirds of the whole piece should be planted with 

 reds, and the other third with the Shaws and champions ; and as 

 soon as the tops of these last decay, they should all be taken up 

 and the ground immediately replanted with cabbage^ savoys^ or 

 any other winter greens. 



When the tops have risen 5 or 6 inches high, they should be 

 earthed up for good, for once earthing up is enough ; but the 

 vacant spaces between the rows should always be kept w^ell broken 

 up and loose, by a heavy hoe, fork, or mattock^ taking care not to 

 go too near the roots to disturb the runners. When the flowers 

 appear, let them be picked off, for this adds as well to the size as 

 to the number of the tubers. 



In choosing the kind or kinds for planting, procure, if possible^ 

 those which have been named above, and which have been grown 

 on a different kind of soil and in some distant place ; for no kind 

 of potato succeeds long together in the same garden or district. 



Much has been said and written as to whether potatoes should 

 be planted whole or cut into sets ; but it is now settled that a 

 bushel cut into sets yields a much greater return than if they 

 were planted whole. The yields however, depends greatly on the 

 quantity of manure bestowed : if dressed as thickly as a farmer 

 dungs for wheat or turnips, it may be dug in before planting ; 

 but if manure is scarce, the nest best plan is strewing it along the 

 bottom of open trenches, on which the sets are placed, and covered 

 with loose earth. 



Where there is no shed or outhouse for storing potatoes from 

 the air and frost, pitting them in the garden is the most convenient 

 way. A narrow pit about 10 inches deep should be made on a 

 dry spot, in this a bed of dry fern or straw is first put, then the 

 potatoes are laid in a ridge of the required length, and covered 

 with a good coat of straw. Over this, earth dug from the sides 

 and ends is piled over a foot thick, forming it like a ridge, and 

 patted smooth with the spade to throw off rain ; a trench being left 

 open all round prevents all surface-flow from soaking in. Pars- 

 nips, carrots, &c. may be pitted in the same way. 



When the garden is all cropped, as above directed, the next 

 object demanding attention is thinning the rising crops, and 

 keeping the whole free from weeds by the hoe and hand. About 

 the 1st of May a row of rough runners — or scarlet runners^ as 



