428 
Farming of Cormoall. 
42. Potatoes. — The cultivation of this root forms a very con- 
siderable part of the business of farmers in some districts, parti- 
cularly those residing at Penzance, the Lizard, and on the banks 
of the Looe and Tamar.* The soil and climate of Cornwall are 
peculiarly adapted to the growth of the potato, the land being 
generally dry, light, and friable, and the climate moist and m'lld. 
An old lay pasture is preferred, which is well reduced by plough- 
ing, tormenting, harrowing, and rolling, until it is brought to a 
fine tilth ; it is then manured with dung or sea-weed, and latterly 
guano. This crop being generally considered to be a fallow- 
crop, most farmers pay considerable attention to the weeding, 
in caves, and a few carefully pile and thatch them, to preserve them 
against the winter frosts. See the ])est mode of storing turnips in Cornwall 
in Jour. Roy. Agr. See, vol. ii., p. 225. Prize Essay, by Mr. W. E. Geach, 
of Cornwall. 
* In the parishes bordering on the Looe, great quantities of potatoes are 
grown for the London market. In some of the parishes which adjoin the 
cliffs and the river, where sea-weed can be obtained at a small expense, 
the greater portion of the land intended for a wheat crop is first planted 
to potatoes (23). The preparation for the last-named crop commences 
in the months of January and February, by carting out the accumulated 
soil from the hedges into small heaps ; if this should not prove sufficient, 
furrows are ploughed up across the field, and the soil also added to that 
which the hedge-grips produced. On these "bottoms" of earth, dung 
from the farm-yard, sea-weed, and sand are deposited and mixed together. 
The quantity of dung and weed amounts generally to about 25 cart-loads 
per acre ; sand from 12 to 14 loads. The lay is then partly skimmed, the 
one portion being turned over on that which remains, and is called 
" turning to rot." Alter it has been " to rot " for two or three months, it 
is harrowed down fine, and if any couch appears, it is burned, but burning 
is not generally liked for potatoes, it being considered that the ashes 
cause the potato to be of a soapy, close nature. The manure is spread as 
the potatoes are planted, which is done by ploughing a furrow, into which 
the sets are dropped by women and children. A man follows and pushes 
in the manure on the sets with the back of a rake ; the plough returns 
and covers the whole with another furrow ; two small furrows are then 
ploughed without any sets, which gives place sufficient between the rows 
of potatoes. When the field, or a given portion thereof, is planted, the 
land is harrowed down fine, which completes the work. The potatoes are 
taken up as soon as they are ripe by men, women, and boys, with aft im- 
plement called the " digger," having three prongs, like a dung-fork, only 
turned downwards instead of looking forward, as those of that implement. 
The price for "digging"' the potatoes varies from 15.s. to 20.9. per acre ; 
the produce averaging from 240 to 300 Winchester bushels of 8 gallons 
per acre, which in the season will fetch at the ship's side from 18/. to 20/. 
per acre. As soon as the land is clean of potatoes, the wheat is sown,- 
after which a barley crop too often follows, without any other manure 
being applied to the land than that for the potato crop. The potato 
tillage is an enticing one at first view, promising as it does a fair profit ; 
but since no manure is made by the crop, no portion of it being consunied- 
onthe farm, there is no provision made for another year's cropping beyond 
the sea-weed occasionally to be obtained at the sea-side." — Ck>mmwncation 
from Mr. W. E. Geach, Author of the Prize Essay on Storimj of lurnips. 
