Page:Treatise on Cultivation of the Potato.djvu/14

 Were a tree capable of affording an eternal succession of healthy plants from its roots, I think our woods must have been wholly overrun with those species of trees which propagate in this manner, as those scions from the roots always grow in the first three or four years with much greater rapidity than seedling plants. An aspen is seldom seen without a thousand suckers rising from its roots; yet this tree is thinly, though universally, scattered over the woodlands of this country. I can speak from experience, that the luxuriance and excessive disposition to extend itself in another plant, which propagates itself from the root (the raspberry), decline in twenty years from the seed. The common elm being always propagated from scions or layers, and growing with luxuriance, seems to form an exception; but, as some varieties grow much better than others, it appears not improbable that the most healthy are those which have last been obtained from seed. The different degrees of health in our peach and nectarine trees may, I think, arise from the same source. The oak is much more long-lived in the north of Europe than here; though its timber is less durable, from the number of pores attending its slow growth. The climate of this country being colder than its native, may, in the same way, add to the durability of the elm; which may possibly be further increased by its not producing seeds in this climate,—as the life of many animals may be increased to twice its natural period, if not more, by preventing their seeding."

destruction, in the present season, of early crops of potatoes by frost in this vicinity, (particularly in the gardens of those who could ill bear the loss they have sustained,) has led me to address to the Society the following account of some deviations from the ordinary modes of practice in the culture of that plant, which I have found successful in not only affording plants which more effectually recover when impeded by frost, but also in furnishing a larger and more early produce under ordinary circumstances.

It has long been known that abundant crops of late and luxuriant varieties of early potatoes may be obtained by planting very small