Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/104



TAKE the apples of potatoes, or potatoe balls, in the beginning of October, before the frost has hurt them. Hang them up by the foot stalks in a dry closet, where they will not freeze. Let them hang till March or April. Then mash the apples, wash the seeds from the pulp, and dry them in a sunny window. Sow the seeds in a bed about the first of May. When the plants are four or five inches high, transplant them into ground well prepared, one or two plants in a hill.—They will produce full grown apples and some of the roots will be as large as hens' eggs. English farmers hold it to be absolutely necessary to renew their potatoes from the top seed once in fourteen or fifteen years.

TAKE potatoes whole, and cover them with horse litter of a moderate warmth; let them remain till they put forth shoots of four or five inches in length, which they will do in two or three weeks. Then take them carefully from the litter, and plant them with the shoots standing upright, so deep in the earth that the shoots may be just seen peeping out of the ground.—They should be thus set in a dry soil, with more horse dung. By such means, it is said that potatoes may be obtained at least four weeks earlier than by the common method.

PLOUGH a deep furrow, place a quantity of cut straw, old hay, decayed leaves, or the mould of rotten leaves, or other vegetable substances, and lay the seed potatoes on it, and cover as usual. The potatoes will be of the best quality, which are thus produced. Large potatoes, which are planted whole, will produce