==Forcing Potatoes==.—­The demand for new Potatoes exists long before the first of the outdoor crops grown in this country can be lifted.  To meet such a demand is not a difficult matter where the necessary amount of glass is at command, and by adopting the method here given supplies may be maintained through the winter and onwards until the first-earlies from the open ground are available.  It may be said at once that for culture in pots and boxes under glass a high temperature is neither requisite nor desirable.  Sturdy healthy growth is essential to the formation of a crop of tubers, and if the plants be forced into an attenuated condition the labour will have been in vain.  Another matter which needs to be specially mentioned is the choice of suitable varieties.  Only dwarf-growing kinds, thoroughly adapted for forcing, should be considered.  The date of planting will necessarily be regulated by the time at which the crop is required.  But a few weeks in advance of planting, the sets should be sprouted by placing them on end in shallow boxes, packed with damp light soil and stood near the light in a slightly warm pit or house.  When the sprouts are formed rub off all but the two strongest.  Good turfy loam, a small quantity of manure from a spent Mushroom bed, and a little bone meal, will make an excellent compost for the pots or boxes.  Two sets will suffice for a ten-inch or twelve-inch pot, or five tubers may be placed in a box measuring about four feet long by one foot wide.  Perfect drainage must be insured.  Plant the sets with care, taking up as much soil as possible with the mass of fibrous roots which will have formed during the period of sprouting.  The operation may best be accomplished by only half filling the pots or boxes at first, and when the sets are in position add a further two inches or so of soil.  Water sparingly, especially at the outset.  As root growth increases add more soil and give the plants an occasional application of tepid liquid manure.  At all times avoid excessive heat, and if the crop can be finished off gradually in a cool house so much the better.

Where sufficient accommodation cannot be found for forcing Potatoes in pots or boxes, an excellent crop may be grown on a gentle hot-bed made up in the usual manner, and covered to a depth of at least nine inches with a compost of three parts light loamy soil to one part leaf-mould.  After putting on the frame, keep the lights closed for a few days.  But a great heat is not wanted, and undue forcing at any stage will lead to disaster.  Partially exhausted hot-beds which have been used for other purposes will also be found to answer admirably.  Prepare the sets in the manner already advised for pots and boxes, and plant them with the least possible disturbance to the fibrous roots, three inches deep, in rows fifteen inches apart, allowing twelve inches between the tubers in the row.  Whenever the weather is fine afford the plants a little air.  Increase the amount