On the Disease in Potatoes. 
345 
years, and will supply abundance of sets, and not perf'eptibly 
diminish the food of the populcFtion. 
I have also heard of great success having attended the follow- 
ing experiment, which I am about to try : — Place the tubers in a 
moist, dark place, at a temperature varying from 50° to 60° Fah- 
renheit. Here they will push out shoots which will grow to 8 or 
10 inches, and then throw out fibrous roots at the lower points. 
These should be taken oft" without being bruised, and immediately 
planted in a hot-bed, with the tops just above the ground. Tlie 
parent tubers will throw out a second similar set of shoots which 
may be similarly treated, and the tubers may then be planted at 
the usual time. Thus from one tuber three sets for a crop may be 
obtained. This plan is not likely to succeed with all sorts of 
potatoes, and probably not with the ash-leaved kidneys and others 
of a like nature ; but it is worth trying where it is possible when 
seed is scarce. I will report to you in the month of March the 
progress of my experiments. 
Yours truly, 
PORTMAN. 
Bnjanston, December 18, 1845. 
XXIX. — On the Cultivation of the Potato. By Hknry Cox. 
[This paper was sent in before the new disease of (he potato had become known.] 
Though much has been said and written on the cultivati(m of 
the potato, room is still, I think, left for a few practical remarks. 
The exact date of the introduction of this valuable article of 
food is not known. In England it made but little progress till 
within the last sixty years, before which time the common mode 
of cultivating them was to strew a little litter over the ground 
where ihey were planted, and to dig a few as they were wanted. 
About that time my grandfather planted towards three-quarters 
of an acre in a field now occupied by my father at Avening in 
Gloucestershire, which so astonished the inhabitants, that it be- 
came matter of discussion what he intended to do with such a 
quantity of potatoes ; and the old inhabitants remember even 
now how people thronged from the neighbouring villages to see 
so many potatoes growing together. 
Since that time they have become of so much importance that a 
failure for one year in the potato crop would be a great national 
calamity, as many of the labouring population depend upon their 
crop of potatoes for their chief subsistence ; they are also become 
of much importance in the feeding of cattle ; so that I think no 
