How to grow potatoes
Extract from The Sunlight Year Book, 1897, published by Lever Brothers, Port Sunlight.
The soil for the potato should be light and fresh, well-drained, and only slightly manured. Of the many varieties the early ash-leaved kidney seems to be the favourite with all, as it favours us with an early appearance, and is of fine quality and flavour.
Cut the potato up into sets and plant in December or January, in rows about six inches deep, in a warm situation near a south wall. The potatoes for later use are planted at the beginning of April. Reject the watery, and see that the sets have one good eye, and plant evenly in rows.
Hoe the earth up on both sides of the plants when they are about 7 inches high to assist their strength and propagation. At midsummer, some of the tubers will be found ready for use; but only sufficient for immediate consumption must be taken up, as they are not sufficiently ripe to keep long. The chief winter crops should remain in the ground until the end of October, and then be stored away for future use. Clear the ground thoroughly of small, as well as of large, tubers, or they will prove a source of trouble next year.
