864 
EXPERIMENTS IN THE PLANTING OF 
POTATOES. 
Certain statements as to the advisability of the late planting of 
potatoes having appeared in some of the daily papers, and being at 
direct variance with our personal experience in the cultivation of 
potatoes on a large scale, it occurred to us to conduct some experi- 
ments in order to find what would be the exact result of such an 
investigation. 
With that idea one .side of an open field, which had previously 
been prepared for potatoes, and upon the remainder of which a crop 
of Iniperators was subsequently grown, was set aside last year. The 
land was excellently adapted for the requirements of the crop, being 
well drained and of a uniform description of light loam, resting on 
a gravel subsoil. An even dressing of about 15 tons to the acre 
of good farmyard dung had been put on and ploughed in during the 
autumn, and the land remained untouched through winter. In the 
early spring the field received a thorough working, and was brought 
down to a deep tilth. Drill-marks two feet apart were made right 
through the land which had to be subsequently planted, and plots 
of one pole each v/ere carefully marked oflF. 
The fourteen varieties of seed potatoes selected were of the or- 
dinary seed size and had been grown on the farm in the previous 
year ; they included those most favoured by growers and salesmen 
as well as others not so well known. The Thorburn is an Ameri- 
can variety hardly distinguishable from tlie Beauty of Hebron. 
The Duke of Albany is of a type to which the Puritan and 
White Beauty belong. The Village Blacksmith, though now 
recognised as of no value as a field potato, created a sensation 
some three or four years ago by its peculiarly dark and netted 
skin. Daniels' Advance, The Daniels, and Empire State have all 
done well with us, the two latter being of special quality. Future 
Fame, Stourbridge Glory, and The Bruce are varieties very similar 
to the well-known Magnum Bonum. 
After the first planting, the seed was turned over every other 
week and the sprouts were destroyed in order not only to prevent 
them from heating and exhausting their vigour, but also to fensure 
that the different plantings should start their growth on equal terms. 
Otherwise, had some been planted with unbroken sprouts, it is quite 
possible they might have been above ground as soon as those planted 
a month earlier. Though the seed, generally, of the earlier varieties, 
is often sprouted and greened for forcing under garden cultivation, 
it is practically impossible, owing to the want of space and care re- 
quired in handling, to effect this on a large scale in the field. 
Though last year was generally regarded as a disease-year 
throughout the country, the weather suited the potato crops in the 
South Midlands, and there was no more than an average amount 
