The Potatoe is decidedly the most important vegetable crop grown, and, unfortunately, the most precarious. A moderately heavy loam on a whinstone bottom is the best soil for growing Potatoes to perfection, and a tough clay the worst. Whatever kind of soil we may have at our disposal must be made friable by thorough cultivation to grow them as good as possible. As a rule, garden Potatoes are not half cultivated, and the produce is generally of an inferior description. Wherever possible, the soil ought to be dug up roughly in autumn or early in winter to allow of its being thoroughly pulverised by the action of the frost; and a good supply of well-decayed manure added at the same time, unless the soil happens to be very rich, and in that case, a dressing of wood-ashes and soot spread over the surface when the ground is frozen hard in winter, will be much better than ordinary manure. Worms generally abound in rich garden soil, and these cause Potatoes to be scabbed, especially in dry seasons, as they scarify the skin to get at the moisture; but wood-ashes and soot do much to cause worms to take themselves off, and so the crop comes cleaner, and of better quality, as scabbed Potatoes are generally watery.

The addition of rich manure to such soil only aggravates the mischief, and does not add so much to the weight of tubers as to the weight of shaws, which, again, encourages damp and fosters the blight in such dripping seasons as the one we have just passed through. Salt and soot, applied in the ame way as recommended for ashes, have proved to be very beneficia in inland positions, more especially in light porous soils from which the saline matter is easily washed by heavy rains. The ash of Potatoes contains 2- 1/2 per cent of common salt, and most vegetables as much or more; and stable-yard manure seldom contains more than 1 per cent, and the rains, as we have said, wash it away easily, so it will at once be seen that salt must be beneficial as a manure in all districts where the rain is free from it. Perhaps the most economical way of applying it is to sprinkle it in the drills at planting-time, and when this is done, fine, large, clean tubers will generally result. Heavy clay will be much improved for this crop if part of it be burnt, along with any inflammable material to hand, and spread over the ground: leaf-mould is also a good dressing for such soils.

Planting ought to be done with the fork, and the soil broken fine during the process. Early sorts should have a sunny dry spot, preferably a south border; and ample room ought to be afforded them, which is what very few people give. Kidney varieties, and others with dwarf shaws, should not be planted closer than 2 feet between the rows, and 1 foot between the plants; and on good soil even more should be allowed. Planted closer the result is that there is always a large percentage of small Potatoes of very little use, whereas with room to grow there should be no small Potatoes to speak of if the soil be treated as it should, and the weight from a given piece of ground will be greater. Large growing kinds are planted here at 3 feet between the rows, and 2 feet between the sets, and closer planting we regard as downright waste of garden ground.

It is a great mistake to pick and sow the smallest Potatoes for seed. It pays far better and gives greater satisfaction in the end to pick the best, and were this generally done change of seed would be much less necessary than it is. Another mistake generally perpetrated by seed growers, is to lift the "Potatoes while only half-grown, under the idea that such Potatoes make better seed. There is no exception that we know of to the rule that all seeds, tubers, etc, are better fully matured than half matured; and having made experiments on this point, we maintain that Potatoes cannot be too well matured. We are also well satisfied that, when good cultivation is given, changing the seed is a great mistake. "When they are badly cultivated the case may be different. The writer grows a collection for exhibition in which he is pretty successful, and he finds that should he require to buy fresh seed of any standard variety it takes him two, and even three, years of good cultivation to bring them up to their proper character. Here are two secrets for would-be successful exhibitors.

Keep your Potatoes clean and sound by the use of ashes, salt, and soot, and a finely-broken soil, and get them into character by not changing your seed, but by good cultivation, and the selection of your finest tubers annually. It may be objected that we have only written for those who wish to exhibit. Not so. You will find the same principles profitable when growing for the supply of the kitchen. The Potato is easily grown, and so it is never half-grown like every thing else that is easily grown, from Herbaceous border plants to Geraniums and Fuchsias.

Preparing The Seed

Laying the tubers out in sun to green does no good unless they are half-matured only. Keep them in a dry pit or a cool shed where no frost can reach them, nor yet so warm that they will spring into growth before March. About the end of March lay them in a warm place in a greenhouse, or vinery, or other place, as circumstance may direct, to cause them to spring; and if they are sprung a quarter of an inch by the middle of April, and the soil is in a dry warm condition, they should be cut into sets of not more than two eyes each. Let them lie and dry a little before planting them. Plant in the manner directed, three or four inches deep, in a broad shallow trench, and cover over with fine dry mould. As soon as they are fairly through the ground, go over them with the fork and break up the soil, which will very likely be battered down with the rain, and destroy all weeds, and throw out all sticks and stones in the operation. Repeat this again in three weeks or so, and when the stems are tall enough, earth them up with the draw-hoe. Thin out the stools to two, or at the most three, stems, and leave the strongest. Small weakly shoots only produce small worthless Potatoes, and, by crowding the others, harm them.

Perhaps we may be expected to say something on the disease; but we confess we are helpless. Our own are very badly diseased, Magnum Bonum alone standing out; and we do not hesitate to say that this is at present the most valuable Potato which we possess. It is proving to be a splendid cropper. We had it in very good condition in August, kept over from last year's crop; and it stands disease better than any other which we know of: a Potato with a better character has yet to be raised. Champion, about which we heard so much a year or two ago, will not compare with it on any one desirable quality which a Potato should possess. It is a very strong grower, however, and demands ample room.

Potatoes ought to be lifted and stored, in the way noticed above, whenever the stems decay, from whatever cause - whether ripeness, disease, or frost - as nothing but harm can come to them after the tops are gone, or even going. In the case of those which are attacked with disease, immediate lifting will often save a great number, which would be destroyed were they allowed to stand. The disease commences in the leaves, and does not spread to the tubers quite instantaneously, although it does so, often in a few days. Gardener.