==The main crop==, as the source of supply for fully nine months out of twelve, deserves every attention.  Potatoes are grown with advantage on so many diverse soils, and in such unlikely climates, that the plant appears, on a casual consideration, to be altogether indifferent to its surroundings.  But it is none the less true that for the profitable cultivation of this crop certain conditions are absolutely essential.  Among these an open situation and a well-drained soil are perhaps the most important.  To this might be added favourable weather, because a bad season frustrates every hope and labour.  Having an open situation and a well-drained soil, it is much to be preferred that the soil be of a deep, friable, loamy nature; in other words, a good medium soil, suitable for deep tillage, but neither a decided clay, chalk nor sand.  A fertile sandy loam, lying well as regards sunshine and drainage, may generally be considered a first-rate Potato soil, and excellent crops have also been grown on thin soils overlying chalk and limestone.  So again, fine crops are often taken from poor sandy soils, and from newly-broken bog and moss, as well as from clay lands that have had some amount of tillage to form a friable top crust.  But when all is said the fact remains that the ideal soil for Potatoes is a deep mellow loam, and, failing this, preference should be given to calcareous and sandy soils rather than to clays or retentive soils of any kind.

==Manures==.—­Much prejudice prevails against manuring land for Potatoes, and where the soil is good enough to yield a paying crop, it will be prudent to do without manure, and to dress generously for the next crop to restore the land to a reasonable state.  Still it is the practice of many of the most successful growers for the early market to manure for this crop, and in some instances the manure is laid in the trenches at the time of planting.  Generally speaking, land intended 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.