On the Culture of Potatoes. 
443 
so many ranks of ridges, the intervening spaces being 12 inches deep in 
the centre. This one effectual earthing-up sufficed; and the crop at¬ 
tained perfect maturity in due time. The total yield of potatoes (which 
were, for the greatest part, of a fair average size, and of most excellent 
quality, mealy, and fine in flavour) was 576 tb. 
The Early Frame Potatoe, planted the first week in March, was the 
subject of the second experiment. I had procured one peck, weighing 
14fb, and the tubers were cut into small sets, with from one to three 
eyes each. The sets were planted in rows, pointing north and south, 
two feet asunder, the sets being four inches apart in the rows. The sit 2 
was a garden-plot, four yards by seven yards and a half, i.e. 30 sq. yards. 
The sub-soil was a strong stiff loam, and this was brought to the surface 
by deep trenching, just before it was cropped. This plot suffered also 
from the frost above alluded to. The final yield was very great, (2591b) 
but the Potatoes were far from being regular as to size ; a great portion 
were small, weighing little more than one or two ounces each, occasioned 
I doubt not, by cutting the tubers into small sets. 
The third experiment commenced on the 25th of March, when I was 
enabled to procure a small supply of a variety styled Early Champions, 
but which was evidently far from true to its kind. The Potatoes w'ere 
planted by the side of the first plot of Champions, in rows, two feet six 
inches asunder; the sets six inches apart, crown from crown. I’he 
total yield, digged up between August 25, and September 18, 1831, 
was 10291b. * 
General deductions from facts:—First, I find that little or nothing is 
gained by planting before the middle of March ; for if a frost destroys the 
leaves as it did those of my first-sown Champions, a great loss in the 
product of the tubers must inevitably be experienced. Second, early 
ripened Potatoes will yield an earlier crop than others of the same variety, 
which have come to maturity at a later period of the preceding season. 
My first Champions were produced by myself, from a few roots given to 
me by a neighbour, in June, 1830, when I obtained possession of the 
property that I now occupy. The land required to be trenched, and 
therefore the Potatoes were not in the ground until the last week of the 
month; hence they scarcely ripened before the frosts set in. The 84lb 
planted in April had been produced at the usual season by a farmer; 
and they came in very early, and yielded almost double the quantity of 
those first planted. It is but just, however, to state that we commenced 
digging the latter as early young Potatoes, in July; and therefore, 
scarcely two-thirds of the crop remained to attain perfect maturity. 
Third, Ash-leaved Kidneys, above all others, require to be planted 
whole. If they are not, many of them may never germinate at all. I 
tried an experiment during last year, and it was decisive in its result. 
• The blossoms of every sort which produccil any, were mostly puKhed oH as they apprarod. 
