On the Culture of Potatoes. 
44 J 
By this method, and always planting out on the same piece of ground 
for a number of years, I never fail to obtain Leeks, regularly measuring 
nine or ten inches round the white or blanched part. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Yours, very sincerely, 
Hereford^ Feb. 7, 1832. One of the Unpolished. 
Article VI.— On the Culture of Potatoes. By The Au¬ 
thor OF “The Domestic Gardener’s Manual,” 
a Corresponding Member of the Horticultural Society. 
Gentlemen, 
Youh correspondent, Vigorniensis, has intimated a wish to 
be informed of Mr. Knight’s method of planting Potatoes ; and you, in 
in a note, have stated your intention shortly to furnish the desired infor¬ 
mation. I am far from wishing to trespass on your province, or to 
deprive your readers of that instruction which cannot fail to be derived 
from the perusal of papers written by Horticulturalists of your high prac¬ 
tical attainments. But as I have long since apprised you of my intention 
to send you a paper on the culture of Potatoes, at a proper period- 
as that period is now at hand,—and particularly, as ray correspondence 
with our enlightened President, Mr. Knight, has placed me in possession 
of directions for planting that noble root, in his own hand-writing;—for 
these reasons, I am inclined to believe that you will permit your friend to 
become your substitute on the present occasion, and to place before your 
readers a faithful and verbatim extract from Mr. Knight’s letter. The 
object of that illustrious man has always been, to give publicity to every 
species of really useful information, and therefore I do but further his 
views, when 1 give extent to those directions with which he personally 
honoured me ; and you, Gentlemen, are doubtless in possession of facts 
whereby to substantiate that which 1 now adduce. 
Mr. Knight’s general rules, as I find them in a letter now before me, 
are these:— 
He first observes, I obtained from the Ash-leaved Kidneys, last 
season, (a bad one, 1830,) a produce equal to 670 bushels, of 80 lb 
each, statute acre ; and I entertain no doubt of having as many this 
year. To obtain these vast crops of the Ash-leaved Kidney, I always 
plant whole Potatoes, selecting the largest I can raise; and for a very 
early crop, those ripened early in the preceding summer, and kept dry, 
1 usually plant them on their ends, to stand with the crown-end upward, 
and place them at four inches distance, from centre to centre, in the 
rows,—the rows two feet apart, and always pointing north and so\ith.’* 
Von. I, No. 10. I 
