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L'ack loam lying low without ventilation, never makes palatable food. In a gravelly or sandy soil, exposed to the sun and free air, it thrives to perfection, and has a good relish. But a rank black loam, though improper to raise potatoes for the table, produces them in great plenty; and the product is a palatable food for horned cattle, hogs, and poultry. The spade is a proper instrument for raising a small quantity, or for preparing corners or other places inaccessible to the plough; but, for raising potatoes in quantities, the plough is the only instrument.

As two great advantages of a drilled crop are, to destroy weeds, and to have a fallow at the same time with the crop, no judicious farmer will think of raising potatoes in any other way. In September or October, as soon as that year's crop is removed, let the field have a rousing fur row, a cross brakeing next, and then be cleared of weeds by the cleaning harrow. Form it into three feet ridges, in that state to lie till April, which is the proper time for planting potatoes. Cross brake it, to raise the furrows a little. Then lay well digested horse dung along the furrows, upon which lay the roots eight inches distant. Cover up these with the plough, going once round every row. This makes a warm bed for the potatoes; hot dung below and a loose covering above, that admits every ray of the sun. As soon as the plants appear above ground, go round every row a second time with the plough, which will lay upon the plants an additional inch or two of mould, and at the same time bury all the annuals; and this will complete the ploughing of the ridges. When the potatoes are six inches high, the plough, with the deepest furrow, must go twice along the middle of each interval in opposite directions, laying earth first to one row, and next to the other. And to perform this work, a plough with a double mould board will be more expeditious; but, as the earth cannot be laid close to the roots by the plough, the spade must succeed, with which four inches of the plants must be covered, leaving little more but all the tops above ground; and this operation will bury all the weeds that have sprung since the former ploughing. What weeds arise after, must be pulled up by the hand. A hoe is never to be used here.

In the Bath Society Papers, we have the following practical observations on the culture and use of potatoes, given as the result of various experiments made for five years successively.

When the potatoe crop has been the only object in view, the following method is the most eligible:The land being well pulverised by two or three good harrowings and ploughings, is then manured with fifteen or twenty cart loads of dung per acre, before it receives its last earth. Then it is thrown on to what the Suffolk farmers call the trench balk, which is narrow and deep ridge work, about fifteen inches from the centre of one ridge to the centre of the other. Women and children drop the sets in the bottom of every furrow fifteen inches apart; men follow and cover them with large hoes, a foot in width, pulling the mould down so as to bury the sets five inches deep; they must receive two or three hand hoeings, and be kept free from weeds; al.

ways observing to draw the earth as much as possible to the stems of the young plants. The first or second week in April is the most advantageous time for planting.

In the end of September or beginning of October, when the haulm becomes withered, they should be ploughed up with a strong double breasted plough. The workman must be cautioned to set his plough very deep, that he may strike below all the potatoes, to avoid damaging the crop. The women who pick them up, if not carefully attended to, will leave many in the ground, which will prove detrimental to any succeeding crop. To avoid which, let the land be harrowed, and turn in the swine to glean the few that may be left. By this method, the sets will be fifteen square inches from each other; it will take eighteen bushels to plant an acre; and the produce, if on a good mixed loamy soil, will amount to 300 bushels. If the potatoes are planted as preparation for wheat, it is preferable to have the rows two feet two inches from each other, hand-hoeing only the space from plant to plant in each row; then turning a small furrow from the inside of each row by a common light plough, and afterwards with a double breasted plough with one horse, split the ridge formed by the first ploughing thoroughly to clean the intervals. This work should not be done too deep the first time, to avoid burying the tender plants; but the last earth should be ploughed as deep as possible; and the closer the mould is thrown to the stems of the plants the better. Thus fifteen bushels will plant an acre, and the produce will be about 300 bushels; and the land, by the summer ploughings, will be prepared to receive seed wheat immediately, and almost ensure a plentiful crop. The potatoe sets should be cut a week before planting, with one or two eyes to each, and the pieces not very small; two bushels of fresh slaked lime should be sown over the surface of the land as soon as planted, which will effectually prevent the attacks of the grub.

A premium having been offered by the above Society for the cultivation of potatoes by farmers, &c., whose rent does not exceed £40 per annum, the following methods were communicated, by which those who have only a small spot of ground may obtain a plentiful crop.

The earth should be dug twelve inches deep, if the soil will allow of it: after this, a hole should be opened about six inches deep, horse dung, or long litter should be put therein about three inches thick; this hole should not be more than twelve inches in diameter; upon this dung or litter, a potatoe should be planted whole, upon which a little more dung should be shook, and then earth put thereon. In like manner the whole plot of ground must be planted, taking care that each potatoe be at least sixteen inches apart; and, when the young shoots make their appearance, they should have fresh mould drawn round them with a hoe; and if the tender shoots are covered, it will prevent the frost from injuring them; they should again be earthed when the shoots make a second appearance, but not be covered, as the season will then be less severe. A plentiful supply of mould should be given

them, and the person who performs this business should never trend upon the plant, or the hillock that is raised round it; as,.the lighter the earth .s, the more room the potatoe will have to expand. From a single root thus planted, very nearly forty pounds of large potatoes were obtained, and from almost every other root upon the same plot, from fifteen to twenty pounds; and, unless the soil be stony or gravelly, ten pound, or half a peck of potatoes may almost always be obtained from each root, by pursuing the above method. But cuttings or small sets will not do for this purpose.

The second method will suit those who have not time to dig their ground. Where weeds much abound, and have not been cleared in the winter, a trench may be opened in a straight line the whole length of the ground, and about six inches deep; in this trench the potatoes should be planted about ten inches apart; cuttings or small potatoes will do for this method. When they are laid in the trench, the weeds that are on the surface may be pared off on each side about ten inches from it, and be turned upon the plants; another trench should then be dug, and the mould that comes out of it turned on the weeds. Each trench should be regularly dug, that all the potatoes may be ten or twelve inches from each other. This method will raise more potatoes than can be produced by digging the ground twice, and dibbling in the plants; as the weeds lighten the soil, and give the roots room to expand. They should be twice hoed, and earthed up in rows. If cut potatoes are to be planted, every cutting should have two eyes, for, though fewer sets will be obtained, there will be a greater certainty of a crop, as one eye often fails. Where a crop of potatoes fails in part, mends may still be made by laying a little dung upon the knots of the straw or haulm of those potatoes that do appear, and covering them with mould; each knet or joint thus ordered, will, it the weather prove wet afterwards, produce more potatoes than the original roots. From the smallest potatoes planted whole, from four to six pound at a root were obtained, and some of the single potatoes weighed nearly two pound. These were dug in, in trenches where the ground was covered with weeds, and the soil was a stiff loamy clay.

A good crop may be obtained by laying pota. toes upon turf at about twelve or fourteen inches apart, and upon beds of about six feet wide; on each side of which a trench should be opened about three feet wide, and the turf that comes thence should be laid with the grassy side down wards upon the potatoes; a spot of mould should next be taken from the trenches, and be spread over the turf; and in like manner the whole plot of ground that is to be planted must be treated. When the young shoots appear, another spot of mould from the trenches should be strewed over the beds, to cover the shoots; this will prevent the frost from injuring them, encourage them to expand, and totally destroy the young weeds. When the potatoes are taken up in the autumn, turn the earth again into the trenches, so as to make the surface level.

For field planting, a good method is to dung

the land, which should be once ploughed previous thereto; and, when ploughed a secondtime, the potatoe plants should be dropped before the plough in every third furrow, about eight or ten inches apart. Plants that are cut with two eyes are best for this purpose. The reason for planting them at so great a distance as every third furrow, is, that when the shoots appear, a horse hoe may go upon the two vacant furrows to keep them clean; and, after they are thus hoed, they should be moulded up in ridges; and, if this crop be taken up about October or November, the land will be in excellent condition to receive a crop of wheat. Lands that are full of twitch or couch grass, may be made clean by this method, as the horse-hoeing is as good as a summer fallow; and if, when the potatoes are taken up, women and children were to pick out such filth, no traces of it would remain; and by burning it a quantity of manure would be procured. After ploughing, none should ever dibble in potatoes, for treading the ground,

Vacant places in hedge rows might be grubbed and planted with potatoes, and a good crop might be expected, as the leaves of trees, thorns, &c., are a good manure, and will surprisingly encourage their growth, and gratify the wishes of the planter; who, by cultivating such places, will then make the most of his ground, and it will be in fine order to receive a crop of corn the following year.

The best method of taking up potatoes is to plough once round every row at the distance of four inches, removing the earth from the plants, and gathering up with the hand all the potatoes that appear. This distance is proper to prevent cutting the roots. When the ground is thus cleared by the plough, raise the potatoes with a fork having three broad toes. The potatoes must then be gathered with the hand.

It is of importance to have potatoes all the year round. For a long time they were in Scotland confined to the kitcher garden; and, after they were planted in the field, it was not supposed at first that they could be used after December. Of late they have been kept good till April. But it is easy to preserve them till the next crop: when taken out of the ground, lay in a corner of a barn a quantity that may serve till the spring covered with dry straw pressed down: bury the remainder in a hole dug in dry ground, mixed with the husks of dried oats, sand, or the dry leaves of trees, over which build a stack of hay or corn. When the pit is opened for taking out the potatoes, the eyes of what have tendency to push must be cut out; and this cargo will serve till the end of June. To be certain of making the old crop meet the new, the setting of a small quantity may be delayed till June, to be taken up at the ordinary time before frost. This cargo, having not arrived to full growth, will not be so ready to push as what are set in April. If the old crop be exhausted before the new cropi pis ready, the interval may be supplied by the potatoes of the new crop that lie next the surface, to be picked up with the hand; which, far from hurting the crop, will rather improve it.

Einhoff found mealy potatoes to contain twenty-four per cent. of their weight of nutritive mat

er, and rye seventy parts. Consequently sixtyfour and a half measures of potatoes afford the same nourishment as twenty-four measures of rye. 1000 parts of potatoe yielded to Sir H. Davy from 200 to 360 parts of nutritive matter, of which from 155 to 200 were mucilage or starch, fifteen to twenty sugar, and thirty to forty gluten. Now, supposing an acre of potatoes to weigh nine tons, and one of wheat one ton, which is about the usual proportion, then as 1000 parts of wheat afford 950 nutritive parts, and 1000 of potatoe say 230, the quantity of nutritive matter afforded by an acre of wheat and potatoes will be nearly as nine to four; so that an acre of potatoes will supply more than double the quantity of human food afforded by an acre of wheat. The potatoe is perhaps the only root grown in Britain which may be eaten every day in the year without satiating the palate, and the same thing can only be said of the West Indian yam, and bread fruit. They are, therefore, the only substitute that can be used for bread with any degree of success, and indeed they often enter largely into the composition of the best loaf bread without at all injuring either its nutritive qualities or flavor. In the answer by Dr. Tissot to M. Linquet, the former objects to the constant use of potatoes as food, not because they are pernicious to the body, but because they hurt the faculties of the mind. He owns that those who eat maize, potatoes, or even millet may grow tall and acquire a large size; but doubts if any such ever produced a literary work of merit.' Potatoe meal may be preserved for years closely packed in barrels, or unground in the form of slices; these slices having been previously cooked or dried by steam, as originally suggested by Forsyth of Edinburgh. Some German philosophers have also proposed to freeze the potatoe, by which the feculous matter is separated from the starch, and the latter, being then dried and compressed, may be preserved for any length of time, or exported with ease to any distance. (Annalen des Ackerbaues, vol. iii. s. 389).

Potatoes as food for live stock are often joined with hay, straw, chaff, and other similar matters, and have been found useful in many cases, especially in the later winter months, for horses, cows, &c. With these substances, as well as in combination with other materials, as bean or barley-meal and pollard, they are also used in the fattening of neat cattle, sheep, and hogs. Potatoes are much more nutritive when boiled; they were formerly cooked in this way, but are now very generally steamed, especially in the north. The practice has been carried to the greatest extent by Curwen in feeding horses. He gives to each horse, daily, one and a half stone of potatoes mixed with a tenth of cut straw: 120 stones of potatoes require two and a quarter bushels of coals to steam them. An acre of potatoes, he considers, goes as far in this way as four of hay. Von Thaer found them, when given to live-stock, produce more manure than any other food: 100 lbs. of potatoes producing sixtysix pounds of manure of the very best description. The baking of potatoes in an oven has also been tried with success (Comm. Board of Agriculture, vol. iv.); but the process seems too

expensive. They are also given raw to stock of every description, to horses and hogs washed, but not washed to cows or oxen. Washing was formerly a disagreeable and tedious business, but is now rendered an easy matter, whether on a large or small scale, by the use of the washing machine.

3. CARROTS and PARSNIPS.-Of all roots a carrot requires the deepest soil. It ought at least to be a foot deep, all equally good from top to bottom. If such a soil be not in the farm, it may be made artificially by trench ploughing, which brings to the surface what never had any communication with the sun or air. When this new soil is sufficiently improved by a crop or two with dung, it is fit for bearing carrots. Beware of dunging the year when the carrots are sown; for with fresh dung they seldom escape rotten scabs. The only soils proper for carrrots are loam and sand. The ground must be prepared by the deepest furrow that can be taken, the sooner after harvest the better; immediately upon the back of which, a ribbing ought to succeed, as directed for barley. At the end of March, or beginning of April, which is the time of sowing the seed, the ground must be smoothed with a brake. Sow the seed in drills, with intervals of a foot for hand-hoeing, where the crop is an acre or two: but if the quantity of ground be greater, the intervals ought to be three feet for horse-hoeing. In flat ground without ridges, it is proper to make parallel furrows with the plough, ten feet asunder to carry off redundant moisture. The farmer will often find carrots a very advantageous crop; instances are given of their excellence as food for horses, cattle, and hogs.

The culture of PARSNIPS is much the same with that of carrots.

SECT. III.-PLANTS CULTIVATED FOR LEAVES, OR FOR LEAVES AND ROOTS. The plants proper for the field of these kinds are cabbage red and white, colewort plain and curled, turnip-rooted cabbage, and the root of scarcity.

1. CABBAGE is an interesting article in husbandry. It is easily raised, is subject to few diseases, resists frost more than turnips, is palatable to cattle, and sooner fills them than turnips, carrots, or potatoes. The season for setting cabbage depends on the use it is intended for. If intend-, ed for feeding in November, December, and January, plants procured from seed sown the end of July the preceding year must be set in March or April. If intended for feeding in March, April, and May, the plants must be set the first week of the preceding July, from seed sown in the end of February or beginning of March the same year. The late setting of the plants retards their growth; by which means they have a vigorous growth the following spring. And this crop makes an important link in the chain that connects winter and summer green food. Where cabbage for spring food is neglected, a few acres of rye sown at Michaelmas will supply the want. After the rye is consumed there is time sufficient to prepare the ground for turnips.

Where cabbage plants are to be set in March, the field must be made up after harvest in ridges.

three feet wide. In that form let it lie all winter to be mellowed with air and frost. In March take the first opportunity, between wet and dry, to lay dung in the furrows. Cover the dung with a plough, which will convert the furrow into a fcrown, and the crown into a furrow. Set the plants upon the dung, three feet from each other. Plant them so as to make a straight line cross the ridges, and along the furrows, to which a gardener's line stretched perpendicularly cross the furrows will be requisite. This will set each plant at the distance precisely of three feet from the plants that surround it. The purpose of this is to give opportunity for ploughing, not only along the ridges, but across them. This mode saves hand-hoeing, is a more complete dressing to the soil, and lays earth neatly round every plant. If the soil be deep and composed of good earth, a trench ploughing after the preceding crop will be proper; in which case the time for dividing the field into three feet ridges ought immediately to precede the dunging for the plants. If weeds rise so close to the plants as not to be reached by the plough, destroy them with a hand-hoe. Unless the soil be much infested with annual weeds, twice ploughing after the plants are set will be a sufficient dressing. The first removes the earth from the plants; the next, at the distance of a month or so, lays it

back.

Where the plants are to be set in July, the field must be ribbed as directed for barley. It ought to have a slight ploughing in June before the planting, to loosen the soil, but not so as to bury the surface earth; after which the three feet ridges must be formed, and the other particulars carried on as directed above with respect to plants set in March.

2. As to the turnip-rooted cabbages, in the Bath Society Papers we have the following account of Sir Thomas Beevor's method of cultivating them, which he found to be cheaper and better than any other In the first or second week in June I sow the same quantity of seed, hoe the plants at the same size, leave them at the same distance from each other, and treat them in all respects like the common turnip. In this method I have always obtained a plentiful crop of them; to ascertain the value of which I need only inform you that, on the 23d of April last, having then two acres left of my crop, sound, and in good perfection, I divided them by fold hurdles into three parts of nearly equal dimensions. Into the first part I put twenty-four small bullocks of about thirty stone weight each (fourteen pounds to the stone), and thirty middle-sized fat wedders, which, at the end of the first week, after they had eaten down the greater part of the leaves, and some part of the roots, I shifted into the second division, and then put seventy lean sheep into what was left of the first; these fed off the remainder of the turnips left by the fat stock; and so they were shifted through the three divisions, the lean stock following the fat as they wanted food, until the whole was consumed. The twenty-four bullocks and the thirty fat wedders continued in the turnips until the 21st of May, and the seventy lean sheep until the 29th, which is one day over four weeks; so that the

two acres kept me twenty-four small bullocks and 110 sheep four weeks, not reckoning the overplus day of keeping the lean sheep; the value, at the rate of keeping at that season, cannot be estimated in any common year at less than 4d. a week for each sheep, and 1s. 6d. per week for each bullock, which would amount together to the sum of £14 10s. 8d. for the two acres.

You will observe that, in the valuation of the crop above mentioned, I have claimed no allowance for the great benefit the farmer receives by being enabled to suffer his grass to get into a forward growth, nor for the superior quality of these turnips in fattening his stock; both which circumstances must stamp a new and a great additional value upon them. But, as their continuance on the land may seem to be injurious to the succeeding crop, to supply that loss I have always sown buck-wheat on the first earth upon the land from which the turnips were thus fed off; allowing one bushel of seed per acre, for which I commonly receive from five to six quarters per acre in return. Thus you see that, in providing a most incomparable vegetable food for cattle, in that season of the year in which the farmer is generally most distressed, and his cattle almost starved, a considerable profit may likewise be obtained, much beyond what is usually derived from his former practice, by the great produce and price of a crop raised at so easy an expense as that of the buck-wheat, which with us sells commonly at the same price as barley, oftentimes more, but very rarely for less. The land on which I have usually sown turniprooted cabbages is a dry mixed soil, worth 15s. per acre.'

To the preceding account the Society have subjoined the following note:- Whether we regard the importance of the subject, or the clear and practical information which the foregoing letter conveys, it may be considered as truly interesting as any we have ever been favored with: and therefore it is recommended in the strongest manner to farmers in general, that they adopt a mode of practice so decisively ascertained to be in a high degree judicious and profitable.'

To raise the turnip-rooted cabbage for transplanting, the best method yet discovered is to breast-plough and burn as much old pasture as may be judged necessary for the seed-bed two perches well stocked with plants will be sufficient to plant an acre. The land should be dug as shallow as possible, turning the ashes in; and the seed should be sown the beginning of April. The land to be cultivated and dunged as the common turnip. About midsummer will be a proper time for planting, which is best done as follows:-The land to be thrown into one-bout ridges, upon the tops of which the plants are to be set, about eighteen inches from each other. As soon as the weeds rise give a hand-hoeing, afterwards run the ploughs in the intervals, and fetch a furrow from each ridge, which, after lying two or three weeks, is again thrown back to the ridges; if the weeds rise again give them another hand-hoeing. If the young plants in the seed-bed be attacked by the fly, sow wood-ashes over them when the dew is on which will prevent their ravages.

3. The racinc de disette, or Roor OF SCARCITY, beta cicla (see BETA), delights in a rich loamy land well dunged. It is directed to be sown in rows, or broad-cast, and as soon as the plants are of the size of a goose-quill, to be transplanted in rows of eighteen inches distance, and eighteen inches apart, one plant from the other care must be taken in the sowing to sow very thin, and to cover the seed, which lies in the ground about a month, an inch only. In transplanting the root is not to be shortened, but the leaves cut at the top; the plant is then to be planted with a setting stick, so that the upper part of the root shall appear about half an inch out of the ground; this last precaution is necessary to be attended to. These plants will strike root in twentyfour hours, and a man will plant with ease 1800 or 2000 a day. In the seed-bed the plants, like all others, must be kept clear of weeds when planted out, after once hoeing, they will suffocate every kind of weed near them.

The best time to sow the seed is from the beginning of March to the middle of April: but some continue sowing every month until the beginning of July, to have a succession of plants. Both leaves and roots have been extolled as excellent both for man and beast. This plant is said not to be liable, like the turnip, to be destroyed by insects; for no insect touches it, nor is it affected by excessive drought, or the changes of seasons. Horned cattle, horses, pigs, and poultry, are exceedingly fond of it when cut small. The leaves may be gathered every twelve or fifteen days; they are from thirty to forty inches long, by twenty-two to twenty-five inches broad. This plant is excellent for milch cows, when given to them in proper proportions, as it adds much to the quality as well as quantity of their milk; but care must be taken to proportion the leaves with other green food, otherwise it would abate the milk, and fatten them too much, they being of so exceedingly fattening a quality.

4. OFTARES.-The common tare is distinguished into the winter and spring tare, probably the same original plant; but a material difference has been superinduced by cultivation. (Annals of Agriculture, vol. ii). The winter tare escapes injury from frosts, which destroy the spring variety: the difference in the seeds is, however, so inconsiderable, as to be scarcely distinguished; but the winter-tare vegetates with a seed leaf of a fresh green color, whereas the spring tare comes up with a grassy spear of a brown dusky hue.' Dickson's Practical Agriculture.

The winter variety is sown in September and October, and the first sowing in spring ought to be early. If they are to be cut green for soiling throughout the summer and autumn, which is the most advantageous method of consuining them, successive sowings should follow till the end of May. The quantity of seed to an acre is from two bushels and a half to three bushels and a half, according to the time of sowing, and as they are to be consumed green or left to stand for a crop.

Tares are in some places eaten on the ground, particularly by sheep and, as the winter sown variety comes early, the value of this food is then

very considerable. The waste, however, in this way, even though the sheep be confined in hurdles, is great and still greater when consumed by horses or cattle. But if the plants be cut green, and given to stock either on the field or in the fold-yards, there is perhaps no green crop of greater value.

A little rye sown with winter tares, and a few oats with the spring sort, serve to support their weak stems, and add to the bulk of the crop. There is little difference in the culture of tares and peas; they are often sown broad-cast, but sometimes in rows, with intervals to admit of hånd-hoeing. The land ought to be rolled as a preparation; and they should always be cut with the scythe, rather than a sickle. When thus cut with the scythe, even an early spring sown crop sometimes yields a weighty after crop. In those districts where winter sown tares are found to succeed, the ground may be cleared in time for being sown with turnips, or dressed like a fallow for wheat.

5. OF RAPE-SEED.-Rape is cultivated to a large extent in Great Britain, not only for the sake of the oil, but also for feeding sheep. The late Mr. Culley of Northumberland gives the following account of its culture, founded on his own practice :

'Rape may be sown from the 24th of May to the 8th of June: but comes to the greatest growth if sown in May. If sown earlier it is apt to run to seed. From two to three pounds of seed is required per acre, sown by a common turnip-seed drill. But, as rape-seed is so much larger than turnip-seed, the drill should be wider. When hoed the rape should be set out at the same distance as turnip plants. The drills should be from twenty-six to twenty-eight or thirty inches, according to the quantity of dung given. As many ploughings, harrowings, and rollings, &c., should be given, as may be necessary to make that kind of poor soil as fine as possible, and cleared of twitch, &c.: the produce will be from twenty-five to even fifty tons per acre, or upwards. But it is not so much the value of the green crop (though the better the green crop, the better will the wheat be) as the great certainty of a valuable crop of wheat, that merits attention. The sheep are put on from the beginning to the middle of August; they must have the rape consumed by the middle, or at latest by the end of September, so that the wheat may be got sown, on such poor damp soils, before the autumnal rains take place. The number of sheep must depend on the goodness or badness of the crop. But as many sheep must be employed as to eat the rape by the middle of September, or end of that month at the latest, for the reasons formerly given. The Burwell red wheat (so called from a village in Cambridgeshire) is always preferred Poor clays will not allow deep ploughing, consequently that operation must be governed by the depth of the soil. The land must be made as clean as any naked fallow. There is scarcely an instance known of a crop of wheat sown after rape, and eat off with sheep, being mildewed, and the grain is generally well perfected. Mr. Culley has known a crop of wheat after rape, upon a poor moorish

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