THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Janttaby 19, 1838. 
i 248 
crescences. The more forward, the earlier, the sooner it is 
ready to be taken up for use, the higher price it will command; 
and the more perfect and equal in shape, the more valuable, 
j because there is less waste in preparing it for table. And here 
we must beg to correct a mis-statement. It has been frequently 
remarked, that Potatoes are not good to cat until winter 
ones come in ; and generally speaking, there is a good deal of 
truth in the remark. In many counties we could name, what 
is there called a new Potato, is one of the worst and most un- 
, wholesome of vegetables. “ How can you like new Potat oes ? 
1 we have been asked, with a look of surprise expressive of com¬ 
miseration ; “ they are such heavy, waxy, indigestible things; 
and so they are. 
It may seem a vain boast, and we may be laying ourselves 
open to the charge of prejudice ; but this we can truly say, 
! that we never ate a new Potato equal to, or to be compared 
in excellence to those cultivated in this district, and its vicinity. 
There is almost, as great a difference between other new 
Potatoes, and the JMoreeombe ones, as between chalk and 
cheese. Light and digestible, they form a dish fit for an 
epicure; not heavy, livery balls, which you see continually 
sent up to table in the summer season, but light and flowery, 
the delicate skin cracked and bursting. Such has been the de¬ 
mand for this favourite esculent, that the markets of Leeds, 
• Bradford, and many other large towns in Yorkshire, have 
been supplied from this district. Before the opening of the 
; North-Western Railway, and its connexion with the Midland, 
new Potatoes were sent to Covent Garden market from lienee, 
where they met in competition produce sent from Cornwall. 
But latterly, markets have been opened nearer home ; and large 
quantities are daily forwarded during the season to Derby, 
Sheffield, Birmingham, Leicester, and Cheltenham. Hundreds 
of tons are thus weekly despatched, and the demand continues 
to increase. 
The rent of land is, as may be supposed, proportionably 
high. Some is let at the rate of £16 per statute acre. We 
have in our mind’s eye a field, broken up last winter, now let 
at 3.?. 5 cl. per rod of forty-nine yards. 
A good crop will yield ten score pounds per rod, which, at 
1.9. Gd. per score, would amount to 15.9. per rod, or about £70 
per acre in round numbers. 
The difference of expense in cultivating early Potatoes, and 
late or winter ones is not great. Some adopt the plough, and 
plough the sets in every other furrow ; whilst others employ 
spade husbandry. It is astonishing how quickly a labourer, 
attended by a boy to put in the sets, will complete an acre 
i with the spade. Of course the land is previously prepared. 
Earlier in the season—in the middle of June—prices are 
considerably higher Ilian that above mentioned. From 2.9. Gd. 
to 3-9. per score the price will extend; but then the produce is 
less in quantity, though we have known instances of six and 
seven scores obtained per rod at those prices. 
After the Lemon Kidney , which will supply the consumer 
from June to August, comes an excellent second early —the 
Red Kye —which continues good from August to the follow¬ 
ing May. Last year a crop of these Potatoes was lifted before 
the end of August, kept perfectly sound and free from disease, 
and the last of them was eaten in the middle of May. 
The mode of obtaining Potatoes, matured for lifting so 
early as August, is very simple. You merely have to set 
them well sprouted. There is no occasion to put them in 
early; the last week in April, or first week in May, will do; 
and they will be ready by the end of August, when the land 
may either be sown with Rape, or with Grass-seeds for meadow 
or pasture. If sown with the former, it may be eaten off 
by sheep, and ploughed again for Potatoes the following 
spring, and so on. 
There appears to be, in this neighbourhood at least, a stage 
at which the Potato is more liable to take the disease than at 
other period of its growth. The month of August is the 
critical time for the winter Potato. But by sprouting the 
tuber before setting, you obtain nearly a month’s advantage; 
so that, when the disease does come, the plant is in a stronger 
state than it would otherwise be, and is thereby enabled to 
repel the attack. 
This we know for a fact, that the same variety of seed, set 
at the same time, in the same field, and not taken up till 
October, was much diseased j whilst those taken up in 
August kept perfectly sound. 
The third variety of Potato which has proved most free 
from unsoundness is the FluJce. This is a late winter Potato, 
and the least liable to disease of any of the winter varieties 
with which we are acquainted. The Fluke is very productive, 
and grows to a large size. In many soils they retain a sweet, 
Yam-like flavour until Easter, wdien it -will disappear, and 
become a first-rate vegetable until new ones come in. 
But in order to give our readers more accurate information, 
it will be necessary to enter further into detail, and describe 
the mode of cultivation here practised, from the preparation 
of the land for the seed, to storing ; including the method of 
sprouting, upon which the profit of the Lemon Kidney , in a 
great measure, depends; and, we think, would also prove 
advantageous if applied to the growth of late Potatoes. 
And, first, we shall commence with the preparation of the 
ground, keeping in mind the nature of the soils before-men¬ 
tioned. Let us, then, take a small field—an acre or two of 
arable land ; for w'e would by no means recommend a beginner 
to commence with a larger plot. For be it remembered, that 
the cultivation of the early Potato, though similar in many 
ways to that of the late, yet differs in many respects. A 
farmer, who has been accustomed to cultivate his thirty or 
forty acres of Potatoes, may ridicule the idea of making so 
much of so small a matter, and remind us of a “ certain mouse 
and a certain mountain,” which have not escaped our recol¬ 
lection. He may treat, it as a joke : but we should be acting 
unkindly, at least, if we did not, in recommending the adoption 
of our system to more general practice, add a -word of caution 
Shaft, 2 feet 2{ inches, and a little arched. 
c 
A to B, 12£ inches. A to C, 13£ inches. 
Shape, concave. 
to the recommendation. We should be sorry to be the means 
of involving any novice in what might prove to him an un¬ 
profitable investment. What, then, we have said, we must 
beg to repeat. Make only a 6mall beginning, and increase 
