Page:Treatise on Cultivation of the Potato.djvu/60

 The largest grew on till December, when I killed it by throwing water on its leaves. None of the plants in the field gave more than $2 1⁄2$ lbs. of tubers; but the field was so unsuitable to the plant, that skerries grown in it last year were uneatable. The diseased plants I allowed to lie on this field, and I think it is the field in the world the best saturated with the spores of the Peronospora. In it I am preparing to grow a fresh crop of seedlings; and in it I have no doubt, I will find hundreds of individuals (varieties, as we are pleased to call them) upon which the Peronospora cannot bite. It has been done before, why not again? And now I shall proceed to give what information I can as to the best means of growing the plant. The seed should be sown at once, and if it be desired, to make the most of it, one seed to the square inch. The bed, any sort of good light earth, sifted or throughlythoroughly [sic] pulverized; seed to be covered with same fine earth, $1⁄8$ or $1⁄4$ inch deep, well watered with rain water, and kept properly moist. Temperature from 45 at night to 50, 60, or 70 Fah. by day. I used boxes filled to within one inch of the top, and then filled up to the top with rain water, the surplus water filtering through. When the plants are two inches or so high, let them be transplanted without breaking the roots, into spaces of at least 4 inches square. When the frosts are over, and the temperature genial, they may at any time be planted out, and in my opinion the following method is the best.

Let lazy beds be made 5 feet wide, with spaces for trenches between them 20 inches wide. Let the beds be well trenched with the spade, 18 inches deep. Within 10 inches of the margainmargin [sic] of each side of the bed, place a line of seedling plants distant from each other 15 inches. In the middle of the bed place another line 15 inches apart of seedlings and sets alternately. Let the sets be of such "varieties," as are most certain to catch the disease.

But let the plant have a chance for its life—a fair field, but no favour—let the ground be free from the shade of tree, walls, or anything else. Let the plant have light and air, and let the Peronospora do its worst. Then every plant which is not immaculate when ripe, which does not resist the shock absolutely, destroy it. No matter how beautiful; no matter how protificprolific [sic], destroy it. It is not to be depended on for a moment. It is not a "staff of life," and why cultivate it; when any number of millions as