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Report of the committee of the board of agriculture, appointed to extract information from the county reports, and other authorities, concerning the culture and use of potatoes
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Mr. Dann's method is this: To plough the ground in the autumn of winter; as ſoon as barley ſowing is finifhed, carry out the dung(twenty large cart loads per acre, which if rather long he prefers) ſpreads and ploughs it in immediately with two ploughs following each other, the horſes(three in each) fingle, and on the land, leſt by walking in the furrow they might deſtroy or injure the ſets; women and children ſufficient following to drop the ſets; which as each furrow is ploughed ten inches wide, will be twenty inches, and the ſets in the furrow nine or ten inches apart; nine perſons are in general ſufficient, and, on the average, two and a half acres per day are planted. The expence for ſpreading dung, ploughing, and planting, is about 148. per acre; a flight harrowing, and rolling with a light roller, if neceſſary, is all that is done until the plants appear.

Mr. Haſfſal recommends to ſet the drills four feet apart, inſtead of three, as fome adviſe. He has always found the former conſiderably more Pro- ductive than the latter.( 2*

In June laſt, ſays a correſpondent of the Board, as I was looking at a crop of potatoes, of about three quarters of an acre, planted by Mr. Watts, a gardener, near Leiceſter, I obſerved an eighth part of the crop to be at leaſt ſix inches higher than the other part of the field., This naturally led me to enquire the reaſon of it, by ſeeing ſo great a difference. He an- fwered me, that the ground was all of it digged and manured alike, exactly of equal quality all over; that the potatoes were of the ſame ſort, and that moſt of them were planted the fame day, with only this ſmall dif- ference, that on the part which was the moſt vigorous, drills were made by a land-hoe, about a foot aſunder; the others, by mere accident, were ſet by a dibble, or ſetting-ſtick, at the ſame diſtance. I frequently viſited the crop whilſt growing, and obſerved the fuperiority increaſing all the fummer, till the drilled crop was fit to take up, when the ſtems were about a foot higher, and forwarder by nearly a monih, as ſome of the other were taken up the ſame day to ſee thèé difference. During the ſummer, they were equally hoed alike three times; and on taking up the whole field, and comparing them together, the produce was about one quarter more from the drilled crop than the dibbled or ſet one. The potatoes were larger, and nearly a month carlier; which is another great advan- tage, by having the ground at liberty ſooner for another crop. The dif-

erence, in my opinion, ariſes from this cauſe: In drawing a drill with a hoe, the earth is left in a Bne pulverized ſtate, and the potatoc ſet is after- wards covered with fimilar earth; the roots conſequently have very fine carth to ſtrike into. On the contrary, the hole made with a dibbler, or

ſd,) MsS. Papers of the Board. E 2