79 
been able to make but few proselytes. A year or two since, 
I prevailed on a clergyman to try the practice on a strip of half 
an acre, running through a large field, treated in the common 
manner ; and he told me that, on taking up the crop, he did not 
find much difference in the gross quantity; but that those which 
had not been earthed up, were more generally of a good size ; 
not so many large and small as the other part of the field. I 
have no doubt, if potatoes are planted shallow, and placed wide 
enough apart to admit of the stems being laid down after the 
young potatoes are formed, and to have the earth between them 
thrown over five or six inches thick, so as to form a flat surface, 
that it would increase the crop. But this is a very different 
operation from that I object to.” 
123 Proteace®, Culture of. Difficulties have hitherto pre- 
sented themselves in the culture of the several species of Bank- 
sia, Dryandra, and others of the Proteaceae, which form prom- 
inent ornaments of the greenhouse. Many of these interesting 
plants, which have at different times been admired in the prin- 
cipal collections around the metropolis, are now no where to be 
found. One reason of this has doubtless arisen out of the man- 
agement which has existed in the practice of continuing to stim- 
ulate the plants into active growth, immediately after their 
flowering season ; the time which, in their indigenous situations, 
naturally constitutes their season of repose. In tropical coun- 
tries the season of vegetable repose does not occur from low' 
temperature, as in our own climate. With us a low temperature, 
which distinguishes our winters, depresses vegetables into tor- 
pidity and rest — a state of existence which is as requisite to ve- 
getable as to animal life. In tropical plains, heat is perpetual, 
but the magnificent plants, natives of those climates, still have 
their season of rest ; a season which the judicious cultivator will 
endeavour to imitate. Within the tropics the year possesses 
two prominent features, as in our northern latitude; but with us 
this arises from temperature, whilst in the tropics it arises from 
moisture. During the rainy season, attended as it is by inten- 
sity of heat, plants vegetate with a luxuriance, and assume a 
character of magnificence, of which no artificial means can af- 
ford an adequate idea. Under this increased stimulus, their 
flowers and fruit proceed rapidly to maturity, and by the time 
of its accomplishment, intense heat and drought begin to spread, 
140 iOCTARlOt. 
