December 29. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
• 
Second division—Root crops.—Turnips, Beet, Carrots, 
| Parsnips, Onions, ifcc. This ground can be at liberty by the 
beginning of December, to become bastard trenched, and 
laid up in ridges for the action of the winter frosts, to be 
planted with the main crop of Potatoes the first favourable 
opportunity in March, i strongly urged autumn-planting 
tw'o years ago; but as practice works progress, the system I 
adopted this year I intend to continue, for I am inclined to 
1 think the plan accelerated the formation of the tubers a 
i fortnight at the least. I have my seed in preparation, an 
explanation of which will answer the question about “sets.” 
' I choose middling sized whole Potatoes, (grown under my 
| own observation on a neighbour's ground, a light gravelly 
soil, opposite in its nature to my own, which is a sound 
gravelly loam). The seed is now disposed in single layers 
upon shallow wooden trays, and secured from contact with 
damp in an underground cellar, having a temperature 
ranging from 40° to 45° ; its dimensions are nine feet by 
eighteen feet, and it is dimly lighted by a glazed aperture, 
measuring three feet by six inches. The young eyes on 
the tubers are just budding forth. I shall soon attend to the 
“ spurting ” process, and leave one shoot upon those sets 
which are the size of a small hen’s egg, and two shoots to those 
which exceed that size; I follow up the disbudding as fast 
as the shoots appear, and, by planting time, the shoots 
allowed to remain are become robust and purple with 
health, with young roots starting from around their base, 
sturdy, so to speak, as the quills of a porcupine. The 
advantage can be plainly seen over the old enervating, 
spurting, and cutting method. Nothing is here lost to the 
potato; whatever virtue is gone out of it remains elaborated 
in the young shoot, and the tuber is'delivered to the soil, 
with its powers about it, in addition to a young plant, with 
roots and leaves germinating, ready to compete for the light 
of day, and to begin their fructifying functions without 
loss of time. 
To return to the soil. When the ridges are in a frozen 
state, about the beginning of February, I take the oppor¬ 
tunity to break them up, leaving the soil something re¬ 
sembling to a Polar Sea in minature ; it is again forked 
over the first dry and favourable opportunity, preparatory for 
planting, which brings me to the questions—“ Width of 
drills, and the distance at which the sets are placed?” and 
“ Whether manure is put in the drills at the time of planting, 
in spring, or dug-in in autumn ? ” 
I am a decided advocate for pure air, and manage to let it 
circulate as freely as possible amongst all animal and veget¬ 
able life under my charge. I give thirty inches between the 
rows for the main crop of Potatoes; the drills are formed in 
depth six inches, if the planting is conducted early in 
March; if towards the latter end, not quite so deep; from 
fourteen to eighteen inches, according to the size of the 
set, is the distance I place between them in the drills, a 
method for forming which, and the after-management, I 
recently explained, at page 428, in the last volume of The 
Cottage Gardener. 
According to my judgment, the rule of applying raw 
manure to the drills at planting time is radically wrong. It 
must be bad practice to place a pulpy tuber into a mass of 
sweltering corruption, and I am confident the future culture 
of the Potato will prove it so. If, however, manure is 
decided upon, let me advise it be worked into the land now, 
though thus to give manure, as Mr. Beaton once justly 
i observed, is very much like putting bread and cheese with 
a dead man into his coffin, where nothing is active to 
partake of it. A better method would be to get the land 
thoroughly pulverised, by bastard trenching (viz. keeping 
the bottom spit down) to the depth of two feet, the ground 
! is thus made open for the warmth and action of the atmo- 
; sphere, thus encouraging the decomposition of organic and 
I other substances ever present in all soils which, locked out 
from the air, would remain there unproductive till doomsday. 
If the land will bear liming, one of the greatest benefits 
would be found by spreading fifty bushels or more per acre, 
1 fresh from the kiln, and work it into the surface just before 
planting time. Its effect would prove far more productive 
in generating those gases which are congenial to the 
Potato than the most bountiful application of manure that 
; could be applied. But, where lime would be found unsuit- 
i able to the soil, or, from its nature, soot and salt mixed 
(forty bushels of soot, and twenty bushels of salt per acre), 
and applied in the manner of lime-dressing, is a worthy 
substitute; in fact, this latter dressing could not be mis- . 
applied upon an\ r soil. I use whichever of the substances 1 
is most come-at-able at the time, and the soot and salt have, 
latterly, most courted my company, though, to speak truth, 
the first is my greatest favourite. 
Now, compare the above method with the too common 
leave-go habit of allowing the soil to become livery, sod- ! 
dened, and uncared for, over-run with weeds and all the 
children, until the last moment in spring, when a hundred 
other things require attending to, to be then hurriedly and 
improperly dug, and similarly sown, and, what is worse, the 
Potatoes themselves have been allowed to undergo a like 
careless treatment; probably kept in jumbled masses, I 
heated, forced into germination, and deprived of their long j 
premature shoots over and over again, till almost every j 
hearty property of the tuber is sacrificed and gone; then, as '■ 
a final stroke, cut to pieces and placed along with raw 
manure in the drills at planting, thus adding, as it were, 
insult to injury, and laying the surest foundation for disease j 
that could possibly be thought of. Eschew the lazy practice I 
as you would the plague. 
Third division — Mixed crops. Early Potatoes, Peas, 
Beans, and so forth. This compartment serves also for the 
Celery trenches, and flying crops, such as Lettuce, Endive, 
&c. This mixed produce is assisted solely through the 
season by applications of liquid-manures. It will, for next 
year, take the place of the winter and spring Cabbageworts, 
as they are used front off their ground, and the root crops 
then take its present site; the Parsnips settling themselves 
where the Celery is grown, and the other seeds sown with 
top-dressings of charred wood-ashes. 
I have now divulged the whole secret and formula as 
connected -with the 140 sacks. I do not consider that 
number anything extraordinary, as five years since my crop 
averaged more than 200 sacks to the acre, grown after the 
same plan ; the ground, when taking them up, was literally 
covered with Potatoes ; from off one particular spot I had 
the curiosity to measure three bushels, and the site they 
occupied, when growing, to produce that quantity, measured 
just twenty-one square yards. 
I never was at Pontefract, but I am familiar, even now, 
with liquorice lozenges sold under that patronym (they are 
one of the best of specifics, taken in time, to frighten away a 
sore throat). Liquorice bespeaks also a good soil, which 
leads me happily to conclude some is in Mr. Tasker’s posses¬ 
sion ; therefore, appropos to the latter part of his letter, which 
says—“ I intend to plant several acres of Potatoes next 
year.” I will state a course that has occurred to me as 
being likely to suit the cultivation of the Potato on a large 
scale, viz.:— 
First crop —Swedes. Land ploughed and wrought into a 
good tilth, and formed into single ridges, measuring thirty 
inches apart from each apex, a thorough application of 
sound farm-yard dung to be then carted on to the land, and 
spread evenly between the furrows, the ridges then split 
with the plough, to close over the dung, thus forming fresh 
ones, and a light roller afterwards made to pass over them; 
the seed then drilled with guano, bone-dust, or some of the 
artificial manures, to hasten the young plant out of the way 
of the fly; then comes hand-hoeing, singling out the 
plants, and horse-hoeing. Cart the Turnips from the land, 
to be near at hand for the fatting stock. 
Second crop —Potatoes. Subsoil, plough and work the 
land into a fine tilth by the month of March, add fresh 
lime, or soot and salt, as a top-dressing, harrow it in, and 
plant. I would invent a one-horse machine to open one 
drill, and fill up the last at the same time, for dexterity’s 
sake. Directly the Potatoes appear horse-hoe between the 
rows. I would invent and add to the hoe a couple of slight, 
lateral, moulding plates, for the purpose of conveying a 
portion of soil upon the young plants, to secure them from 
frost. Next come the moulding up with a double mould 
board plough, and the boys to pick off the berries, should 
any form ; just the sort of job for the boys ; it does not last 
long. Then the taking up and carting the crop to the bay 
of a barn, to be evenly spread, sorted, and examined, for 
three weeks or a month before storing. 
Third crop — Mustard. Potato-haulm burnt, land harrowed 
