for Potatoes
should be deeply dug, and, if needful, manured in the autumn. About
twenty to thirty cartloads of half-rotten manure per acre may be dug or
ploughed in to as great a depth as possible, consistent with the nature
of the subsoil and the appliances at command. In breaking up pasture
with the spade, bastard trenching will as a rule prove advantageous. The
land is lined off in two-feet breadths, and the top spit of the first
piece is removed to the last piece, which will often be close at hand by
the rule of working a certain distance down and back again. The under
spit will then be well broken up, the manure thrown in, and the top spit
of the next piece will be turned in turf downwards, making a sandwich of
the manure. If this is done in autumn, there will be a mellow top crust
produced by the spring, and the best way to plant will be in trenches,
unless the land is very light, in which case the dibber may be used.

As light lands are often profitably devoted to Potato culture, and more
especially to the production of first-class early Potatoes for the
markets, a few words on their management may be useful here. If on the
light land there is a choice of aspects, by all means select the plots
that slope to the south-west; the dangerous aspects are north and east.
The ground should be ploughed up in autumn and left rough, but it is not
economical to manure light lands in autumn. At the time of planting, the
furrows should be cut with a plough fitted with a double mould-board,
and the manure spread evenly along them previous to laying in the sets.
A good dressing per acre will consist of fifteen loads of farmyard
manure, and four cwt. of artificials, consisting of one and a half cwt.
of guano, two cwt. of superphosphate of lime, and half a cwt. of muriate
of potash. When the sets are laid, cover them by splitting the ridges
with the plough. If planted early in March, the crop should come off in
time for Turnips, for which the land will be in good heart, and the seed
should be sown as quickly as possible after the clearing of the
Potatoes.

==Preparing the Sets.==--Among the many subjects that open out before us
at this point are the selection and preparation of the sets. Why are
smallish tubers chosen in one case and planted whole? and why, in
another case, are large tubers chosen and divided before planting, to
make two or more sets of each? Because there is a principle on which
sound practice rests, and it is