Page:Treatise on Cultivation of the Potato.djvu/17

 Under this view of the subject, I have been led to endeavour to ascertain, by a course of experiments, the mode of culture by which the largest and most regular produce of potatoes, and of the best quality, may be obtained from the least extent and value of ground; and having succeeded best by deviating rather widely from the ordinary rules of culture, I send the following account of the results of my experiments. These were made upon different varieties of potatoes; but as the results were in all cases nearly the same, I think that I shall most readily cause the practice I recommend to be understood by describing minutely the treatment of a single variety only, which I received from the Horticultural Society, under the name of Lankman's potato.

The soil in which I proposed to plant being very shallow, and lying upon a rock, I collected it with a plough into high ridges of four feet wide, to give it an artificial depth. A deep furrow was then made along the centre and highest part of each ridge; and in the bottom of this, whole potatoes, the lightest of which did not weigh less than four ounces, were deposited, at only six inches distance from the centre of one to the centre of another. Manure, in the ordinary quantity, was then introduced, and mould was added, sufficient to cover the potatoes rather more deeply than is generally done.

The stems of potatoes, as of other plants, rise perpendicularly under the influence of their unerring guide, gravitation, so long as they continue to be concealed beneath the soil; but as soon as they rise above it, they are, to a considerable extent, under the control of another agent, light. Each inclines in whatever direction it receives the greatest quantity of light, and consequently each avoids, and appears to shun, the shade of every contiguous plant. The old tubers being large, and under the mode of culture recommended rather deeply buried in the ground, the young plants ill the early part of the summer never suffer from want of moisture; and being abundantly nourished, they soon extend themselves in every direction till they meet those of the contiguous rows, which they do not overshadow, on account of the width of the intervals.

The stems being abundantly fed, owing to the size of the old tubers, rise from the ground with great strength and luxuriance, support well their foliage, and a larger breadth of this is thus, I