70 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER.. 
Notembeu 4. 
could not lie more tended to than they are all this time; 
hut it is not more than is necessary, for the nursery is the 
jiroper place to lay the foundation of future prosperity, both 
for jdarit and heir. As soon as the little pots are filled with 
roots, then conies another shift, and this is the right time 
to put the plant in the right place—the centre of the pot— 
which is a simple move, only to place the hall more to one 
side of tlie new pot. The compost is a little stronger, 
and more stiniiilatiiig this time; one-third peat, one-third 
sandy loam, and the otlier third made of sand and leaf 
mould. 
Tf all this has been got through by Midsummer, the 
jilants may Require another shift before the end of July, 
but it is alwai'S more safe for seedlings, and for young 
Howevek much some of our corresiionclents may object 
to our advocacy of the Potato as a main crop, we must 
still pursue our course; and we are firm in our resolve 
to persevere, for many reasons, of which one or two of 
the most prominent will, perhaps, he accepted as a 
sufficient justification. 
In the first place, the declaration of one gentleman, 
with whom we conversed the other day, hears testimony 
to a fact of far greater importance than the words, at 
first, may seem to convey:—“ I do not care for my 
dinner,” he said, “ unless potatoes are part of it.” It is 
not an exaggeration to say, that to three-fourths of the 
population of our islands this vegetable is similarly 
acceptahle. Nor is it a mere consideration as to 
whether this or that plant affords a food most agreeable 
to the palate, though even that is important; hut the 
fact is notorious, tliat, by the best of management, you 
canuot grow of any other crop so large an amount of 
nutriment upon an equal space of ground. 
The Potato being so generally acceptable to the palate, 
and being so very productive, it has become, as a matter 
of course, a crop of most extensive cultivation. The 
amount of this cultivation has been endeavoured to he 
ascertained in various ways, and the following are some 
of the facts ascertained; — 
In 1S17, Parliament obtained from three unions, 
selected as fair average examples, returns of the amount 
of acres devoted to the culture of the various usual 
crops. In Ewjland, out of the ai,75() acres in Hartley 
Witney and Basingstoke union, 23(i acres were occupied 
by Potatoes. In Scotland, in the county of Edinburgh, 
or Midlothian, of 17(i,871 acres, 6,025 were growing the 
same root; and in Ireland, in the Baliehorough union, 
comprising 80,324 acres, the Potato occupied 11,492. 
If these, added together, are a fair average of the United 
Kingdom, then more than one-fifteenth of its surface is 
occuj)ied by the Potato. 
In the same year. Parliament obtained from the 
constabulary oi Ireland a further return of the total of 
its acres then under Potatoes, and the returns showed 
a gross amount of 284,116 acres, producing 2,048,195 
tons of their tubers. In Scotland, Mr. M’Culloch cal¬ 
culates there are annually grown 200,000 acres of the 
same root; and he combines Potatoes, Turnips, and 
Rape, as occupying annually, in England, 2,000,000 
acres, and their produce as wortli, on an average, 
4:14,000,000 sterling. We might multiply the statistical 
details to a much greater extent, hut wo will only add. 
to show what is the consumption in London alone, that 
in the three months preceding the first week of Decem¬ 
ber, there are, on an average, delivered there, from ships 
only, somewhere about 300,000 sacks, each sack contain¬ 
ing one hundred-weight-and-a-half of Potatoes. 
Now this is the crop, and for which no adequate sub¬ 
stitute has been suggested, which we have been advised 
to abandon as hopelessly diseased. We deny this being 
its state, and a veiy few weeks ago we showed why we 
are of this opinion. We showed that the disease is not 
universal—that even one field hears a healthy crop, 
whilst another, with hut a hedge between, produces a 
crop diseased ; and that it is quite as frequent that one 
portion of the same field shall he exempt from the dis¬ 
ease infecting the other portion. This being so, and these 
exemptions showing, as clearly as evidence can show, 
that there is a coi'tain combination of circumstances 
which will secure a healthy crop, let us persevere hope¬ 
fully in our endeavours to ascertain those circumstances^ 
] n confirmation of the soundness of our view of the 
case, we have now before us two letters, wliich give 
practical proofs that there are varieties of the Potato not 
liable to the murrain that has scourged others; and that 
there are modes of culture which will ward otf this 
murrain from a variety which is destroyed by that mur¬ 
rain, when differently treated. 
Tlie first letter is from Kinthury, near Hungerford, 
in Berkshire, fit)nr a very trustworthy authority, and it 
says:—“ I want to draw public attention to a variety of 
the Potato called, hereabouts, the ‘ Kintlmrij Johns,’ and 
about Andover, the ‘ Foolhardys.’ It is a large, coarseish, 
prolific Potato, and does not boil floury ; but it wonder¬ 
fully avoids the blight, and has done so ever since the 
disease appeared. This year, which is considered the 
worst, it is remarkably free from the disease; and the 
gardener who has our garden says, that among his crops 
the Kinthury Johns have one gallon in a bushel tainted; 
while the Fortyfolds, and all other sorts, have three 
parts out of four had. All the poorer people say the 
same thing. They do not ])laut it extensively, because 
they pwefer other kinds for eating; hut where other kinds 
will not keep, it seems to me that an inferior Potato is 
worth having.” 
If reference he made to our seventh volume, p. 297, 
a communication, signed H. B., South Fetherton, will 
he found relative to Potato-planting, from which this is 
extracted:— 
“ It is possible that my plan may have been tried. The 
plants got from cuttings, to begin tlie autumn with them a 
month earlier, without a shift at the end of July, than to 
face the winter with them in pots not well filled with roots 
and wood in an unripe condition. Therefore, on the whole, 
let gardeners risk as they may—if they kill two to save one 
plant, who cares—but let the amateur take my advice, and 
be content with less growth the first season, and more 
security for the next. After the first year, our Oxynnthii.i j 
will r.ank with a general assortment of young promising [ 
stufl', requiring about one-third peat, and tw'o-thirds good ^ 
friable loam, a few charcoal bits, and a little sand, also j 
weak liquid-manure, now and then, and fnuuo-culture, with 
stopping of shoots, so as to bring up a sure foundation for | 
the future specimen. D. Beaton. ; 
