Cultivation of Arable Land—Potatoes. G17

plough that juft pares off the furface and depofits it in the furrow, to place the fets upon the inverted fod, and cover them with the loofe mold from be- low by means of a common plough*. In this cafe the fets may alfo be put in by a dibble where that method is preferred; but the former is probably the

better praétice, as the turfy material on which the fets are put, in this method’

of planting, foon begins to decay, the purpofe of manure is in fome meafure anfwered. Itis therefore a plan that may be advantageous where manure is farce, as in bringing wafte and other coarfe grafs lands into the ftate of tillage.

Thefe are the principal modes of planting that are employed where the’

plough is had recourfe to; but where labour is cheap, crops of this fort are fre- quently fet by the fpade.

Where this is the cafe, after the lands have been once well dug over from the ftate of the fward, it is frequently a pra€tice to form a trench acrofs the end of the ridge to the width of about three feet, and from ten to fifteen inches in depth, according to the itaple of the land. After this another trench of the fame dimenfions is made on the fide of the former, the furface materials, to the depth of fix or feven inches, being thrown into the bottom of the preceding trench upon which the proper fupply of manure is laid, and the potatoe fets put in at the diftance of eight or ten inches from each other, after which the neceflary quantity of earth is raifed from the bottom of this trench to cover the fets in the firft, and bring it to its proper level. This, though a laborious me- thod of proceeding, and not by any means calculated for the extenfive culti- vator, provides an excellent bed for the reception of the feed, and leaves the land in a high ftate of preparation for fuch crops as may be afterwards grown. Befides, as the grafly material anfwers the purpofe of manure by its gradual decay, it may probably be had recourfe to where that article cannot be eafily obtained.

There is ftill another mode of planting the potatoe by the fpade; which is that of forming the ground into beds of about fix or feven feet in width, ac- cording as the land may abound or be deficient in moifture, three or four feet on each fide being left to be dug for trenches. The furface of the bed is then to be dug over, anda fuitable proportion of manure applied equally over it. The fets are then planted upon it at fimilar diftances to thefe juft mentioned, and covered by means of the mold dug from the fide trenches, to the depth of three or four inches. In fertile good ftapled foils, from the roots of the plants hay- ing plenty of loofe mold to fix and extend themfelves in, in this method of

* Mr. Somerville.

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