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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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The reaſon for preferring the kidney or Killimanca for the ſecond corp is obvious: both of theſe are more productive than any of the early potatoes:; and as the price at an advancçed period of the ſeaſon is always conſiderably lower, any potatoe that will produce a greater bulk will be more profitable. There is, beſides, another reaſon of conſiderable weight; it is found from experience, that when fuccefſive crops of potatoes are taken from the ſame land, the ſfecond and ſucceeding crops are always more abundant when a different kind of potatoe is planted. This circumſtance is well worth the attention of farmers, as by a due obſervance of it they may plant potatoes for years upon the ſame ſoil, with profit to themſelves and without injury to the property.

A crop of this kind of potatoes will be ready to take up about the be- ginning or middle of October: indeed if the real kidney is planted, tlrey will be ready in September, when ſufficient time will remain either for a crop of greens, coleworts, or a broad-caſt crop of turnips, to be eaten off in the ſpring with ſheep. Theſe are not matters of conjecture; the author of the preſent memoir had laſt year two very abundant crops of potatoes from a patch of ground in his garden, which was afterwards planted with coleworts, which were very large, before the winter ſet in. No manure was made uſe of for the firſt crop of potatoes, and only a ſmall quantity of new earth(part of the fub-ſoil of the ſame garden) was given to the ſecond. It is worthy of remark, that the ſecond crop was not planted till the end of June; and though the ſeaſon was exceedingly dry throughout, the crop was very productive.

Method /of planting Potatoes upon Lay. Potatoes are found to ſucceed beſt upon land that has been ſometime in graſs; and can be raiſed without any

kind of manure upon lays of one or two ycars old.

The proper way of managing the lay ſeems to be that of ploughing it with a plough that takes off only the ſod, and lays it flat down into the furrow with the roots uppermoſt. The planter follows this plough, and places the ſets upon the inverted ſod; a common plough follows him, and covers them with the looſe ſoil. From the circumſtance of the ſod being completely inverted, it begins inſtantly to rot, and progreffively as it decays it furniſhes a manure for the crop. When it is preferred to plant the ſets with a dibble, it can be done with great facility, the top of the furrow being a fufficient direction for the planter to keep in a ſtraight line, and the compactneſs of the ſod below will prevent him from going too deep.

By the time that this crop is ready, the turf is in a great meaſure con- fumed, and by mixing with the ſoil, will ſerve as manure for the ſecond. It will, however, be of great advantage if the ridges are accurately mea- ſured in ſuch a way as that the ſecond crop may be planted upon that part

which formed the interſpace between the drills of the firſt. When this can U 4

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