CHAPTER XIII. 
THE POTATO. 
Let the sky rain potatoes.” 
Merry Wives , V., 
JHE Potato ( Solarium tuberosum ) is one of the most im- 
portant of kitchen garden crops, considered as to its 
utility, and it ranks higher than any other as a subject 
for exhibition and fancy cultivation. About 500 varieties 
have passed through our hands as subjects of trial culture, 
and the proportion of really inferior kinds amongst so many 
is remarkably small. On the other hand, very many are so 
nearly alike that their names are a burden to the catalogue 
and of no use whatever to the cultivator. To find 100 dis- 
tinct and useful sorts, however, is by no means difficult, and 
the earnest potato-fancier would not be content to plant less 
than that number as comprising a fair collection. The grower 
who aims at supplying the table only should not be afraid 
to grow twenty or thirty sorts, if it can be accomplished 
without inconvenience, for in seasons when disease prevails 
it is most capricious in its attacks ; so that while some sorts 
escape wholly or in part, others are entirely swept away, 
and those who have many sorts are most likely to come out 
of the conflict with a fair stock of potatoes, while those who 
have been content with a few sorts may find that they have 
lost all. Certain sorts are peculiarly liable to the disease, and 
these comprise at least a few of the very best, but some very 
inferior kinds are equally liable, and there is not one variety 
known that enjoys complete immunity. 
It scarcely need be said that to treat the subject with the 
amplitude befitting its importance, end the abundant material 
for an exhaustive treatise that exists, would be quite beside 
our present purpose, which is to convey useful information in 
the fewest possible words, to the end that potato-culture may 
