To Raise Varieties

A variety of the potato is generally considered to continue about fourteen years in perfection, after which period it gradually loses its good qualities, becoming of inferior flavour and unproductive; fresh varieties must, therefore, be occasionally raised from seed. The berries, or apples, of the old stock, having hung in a warm room throughout the winter, the seed must be obtained from them by washing away the pulp during February. This is thoroughly dried and kept until April, and then sown in drills about half an inch deep and six inches apart, in a rich light soil. The plants are weeded, and earth drawn up to their stems, when an inch in height: as soon as this has increased to three inches they are moved into a similar soil, in rows, sixteen inches apart each way, and during their future growth earthed up two or three times. Being finally taken up, in the course of October, they must be preserved until the following spring, to be then replanted and treated as for store crops.

Some gardeners sow in a moderate hot-bed, very thin, in drills the same depth as above, and nine inches apart. Water is frequently and plentifully poured between the rows, and earth drawn about the stems of the seedlings until they are a few inches in height. They are then transplanted into rows, water given, and earthing performed as usual. The only additional advantage of this plan is, that as the seed can be sown earlier, the tubers attain a rather larger size the first year.

It is to be remarked, that the tubers of every seedling should be kept separate, as scarcely two will be of a similar habit and quality, whilst many will be comparatively worthless, and but few of particular excellence. If the seed is obtained from a red potato that flowered in the neigbourhood of a white- tubered variety, the seedlings, in all probability, will in part resemble both their parents; but seldom or never does a seedling resemble exactly the original stock. At all events, only such should be preserved as are recommended by their superior earliness, size, flavour, or fertility.

The early varieties - if planted on little heaps of earth, with a stake in the middle, and when the plants are about four inches high, being secured to the stakes with shreds and nails, and the earth washed away from the bases of the stems by means of a strong current of water, so that the fibrous roots only enter the soil - will blossom and perfect seed.

Forcing

The season for forcing is from the close of December to the middle of February, in a hot-bed, and at the close of this last month on a warm border, with the temporary shelter of a frame. The hot-bed is only required to produce a moderate heat. The earth should be six inches deep, and the sets planted in rows six or eight apart, as the tubers are not required to be large. The temperature ought never to sink below 65°, nor rise above 80°.

The rank steam arising from fermenting dung is undoubtedly injurious to the roots of potatoes; and to obviate this they may be planted in narrow beds, and the dung applied in trenches on each side; or all the earth from an old cucumber or other hot-bed being removed, and an inch in depth of fresh being added, put on the sets, and cover them with four inches of mould. At the end of five days the sides of the old dung may be cut away in an inward slanting direction, about fifteen inches from the perpendicular, and strong linings of hot dung applied.

If the tubers are desired to be brought to maturity as speedily as possible, instead of being planted in the earth of the bed, each set should be placed in a pot about six inches in diameter; but the produce in pots is smaller. But young potatoes may be obtained in the winter, according to the following plan, without forcing:-

Plant some late kinds, unsprouted, in a dry rich border, in July, and again in August, in rows two feet apart. They will produce new potatoes in October, and in succession until April, if covered with leaves or straw to exclude frost. If old potatoes are placed in dry earth, in a shed, during August, they will emit young tubers in December.