410 
Rational Potato Culture. 
These two solutions are mixed and well stirred up together and 
put on at the rate of from 180 to 160 gallons per acre with the 
Eclair, or horse machine. 
The above are the main features of the system of “ intensive ” 
culture propounded by M. Girard. 
In a report presented to the Societe Rationale d’ Agriculture 
de France in March last M. Girard observes : — 
From the results which I make known to-day I do not hesitate to 
affirm that the investigation of 1892 is sufficient to demonstrate that, the 
question of regenerating the potato culture of France is already solved. It 
is another conquest to add to those with which science has enriched agri- 
culture. 
It must be admitted that some of the yields recorded by M. 
Girard are startling. Had they simply been made on fractions of 
acres in petite culture, it might have been suggested that mistakes 
had been made in multiplication, or that an elaboration of culture 
had been bestowed on the land which could not be given on a large 
scale. But it is seen that crops ranging from 14 to 16 tons per 
acre were grown on large acreages of from 30 to 150 acres. 
These large crops are the more remarkable when it is brought 
to mind that the average return of the potato land of France is 
only about 3T tons per acre, that of the United States about 3 
tons per acre, and that of Great Britain 6‘11 tons per acre. 
From inquiries made of potato growers in England and Scot- 
land as to the largest crops they have grown, I have ascertained that 
in Kent a grower obtained 16 tons of ware or marketable potatoes 
and 4 tons of seed per acre on 6 acres of Regents ; and another 
Kentish grower grew 160 tons of Magnums on 10 acres of land. 
Another large English grower states that the largest crop he ever 
grew was 15 tons per acre of Magnums. 
A well-known grower in Scotland speaks of 14 tons per acre on 
20 acres as the largest crop he has seen. He has also known from 
11 to 13 tons grown per acre, and has heard of great crops being 
grown of 18 tons per acre, but could never get this confirmed. The 
estimated average annual yield of potatoes in Scotland per acre 
is 5*79 tons, or rather less than that of England. 
It was shown by the experiments carried out by the Wiltshire 
Technical Education Committee, 1 that the rational or intensive, 
culture adopted in their experiments, ensured results in some 
respects as striking as those recorded by M. Girard. 
These Wiltshire experiments were made in three different parts 
of the county, upon 80 small parcels of land a perch in extent. 
The average yield of these 80 plots, of which 10 plots were un- 
manured, was 12 tons 6 cwt. 19 lb. per acre. Twenty of the 
plots yielded at the rate of 17 tons 10 cwt. per acre, and 12 plots 
at the rate of 16 tons 5 cwt. per acre. 
1 Report on Potato Culture and Disease Prevention : Experiments by the 
Wilts Technical Education Committee in Warminster and District in 1892. 
Cassell Si Co. 
