Solanum tuberosum Varieties, for forcing or first crop, in the open ground: - Walnut-leaved Kidney, earliest; Broughton Dwarf; Early Warwick; Ash-leaved Kidney, white, best; Soden'9 Early Oxford; Fox's Seedling, perhaps the best; Early Manly; Early Mule.

Earliest for general cultivation: -

Early Kidney; Nonsuch; Early Shaw; Gold Finder; Taylor's Forty-fold.

For main crops, the varieties are ranged in this class, according to their forwardness in ripening: -

Early Champion; Leathercoat; Ox Noble; Red Nose Kidney, very good; Large Kidney; Irish Cup; Bread Fruit, the best; Red Streak, or Lancashire Pink Eye; Black Skin; Purple; Red Apple; Rough Red. - All these are English varieties. At Philadelphia, where we write, but two sorts are extensively grown, viz., Mercer and Foxite; the former has had great popularity for both quality and product - the latter, though not productive, is the best we have ever seen grown in this country.

Soil And Situation

No inhabitant of the garden varies more in quality in different gardens than the potato; for a variety will have a strong unpleasant flavour in one soil, that has a sweet agreeable one in another. In a heavy wet soil, or a rank black loam, though the crop is often fine and abundant, it is scarcely ever palatable. Silicious soils, even approaching to gravel, though in these last the tubers are usually corroded or scabby, are always to be planted in preference to the above. A dry, friable, fresh, and moderately rich soil, is unquestionably the best for every variety of the potato; and for the earliest crop, it may be with advantage more silicious than for the main ones-.

The black-skinned and rough-red, thrive better than any other in moist strong cold soils.

If manure is necessary, whatever may be the one employed, it is better spread regularly over the surface previous to digging, than put into the holes with the sets, or spread in the trench when they are so planted.

Stable dung is perhaps the best of all factitious manures; sea-weed is a very beneficial addition to the soil; and so is salt.

Coal-ashes and sea-sand are applied with great benefit to retentive soils. The situation must always be open.

Time And Modes Of Propagation

It is propagated in general by the tubers, though the shoots arising from thence, and layers of the stalks, may be employed. New varieties are raised from seed.

Planting in the open ground must be done with reference to the latitude in which we live - in Pennsylvania, for instance, those intended for the earliest crop may be planted in March; for a succession, in April; and for the main winter supply, in May. Formerly large crops were produced from plantations made in July, but latterly they have not succeeded.

Sets

The next point for consideration is the preparation of the sets. Some gardeners recommend the largest potatoes to be planted whole; others, that they be sliced into pieces containing two or three eyes; a third set, to cut the large tubers directly in half; a fourth, the employment of the shoots only, which are thrown out if potatoes are kept in a warm damp situation; and a fifth, that merely the parings be employed. Cuttings of the stalks, five or six inches in length, or rooted suckers, will be productive, if planted during showery weather, in May or June; and during this last month, or early in July, it may be propagated by layers, which are formed by pegging down the young stalks when about twelve inches long, they being covered three inches thick with mould at a joint. These three last modes are practised more from curiosity than utility, whilst at the same time, none of the first five mentioned plans can be individually followed to advantage without modification. For the main crops, it is evident from experiment that moderate sized whole potatoes are the best, from which all but two eyes have been removed; but especially having the crown, which is a congery of small eyes, first removed; for from these proceed little spindled stalks, which are comparatively worthless, and injure the main stem.

For the early crops almost the very contrary to the above is the most advantageous to be practised. The set should have the crown-eye, which is one growing in the centre of the congery of small ones above mentioned, preserved. Some potatoes have two such eyes, but the generality only one. This is always the most prompt to vegetate, and if not known by this description, may be evinced by placing two or three potatoes in a pan of moist earth near the fire. If the earth is kept moist, the crown-eye will be in a state of vegetation in five or six days.

To obtain early crops, where tubers are rapidly formed, large sets must be employed. In these one or two eyes at most should be allowed to remain. If the sets are placed with their leading buds upwards, few and very strong early steins will be produced; but, if the position is reversed, many weak and later shoots will arise, and not only the earliness but the quality of the produce be depreciated. For the earliest crops there are likewise several modes of assisting the forward vegetation of the sets. These should be prepared by removing every eye but one or two; and being placed in a layer in a warm room, where air and light can be freely admitted, with a covering of straw, they soon emit shoots, which must be strengthened by exposure to the air and light as much as possible, by taking off the cover without injuring them. During cold weather, and at night, it must always be removed: the leaves soon become green and tolerably hardy. In early spring they are planted out, the leaves being left just above the surface, and a covering of litter afforded every night until the danger of frost is passed.

The only modification of this plan that is adopted in Cheshire, where they are celebrated for the early production of potatoes, is, that they employ chaff or sand for a covering instead of straw.