450 THE GARDENER. [Oct. 



yclept " exhibition '' Potatoes. I do protest against the Potato beiug put on a 

 level with Mangold-wurzel as a show-root, making size the criterion by which 

 to judge of its merits. Nay, even in judging Mangolds some respect is paid 

 to shape and outline ; but a Mangold, be it big or little, is but a Mangold 

 still; whilst there are Potatoes and Potatoes, the difference being just this, 

 that whilst some are fit to go upon the table of an epicure, others are only 

 fit diet for the pigs. The difference may be but trifling, but it is enough that it 

 exists. If I were philosophically inclined, I might profitably moralise over the 

 strange taste for mere size that seems to prevail among horticulturists. We 

 have nearly gone mad in the pursuit of it in some things, and now find we have 

 committed a huge blunder. 



Big plants have had their day, and are now rather pooh-poohed ; big Cucum- 

 bers, also, are now looked upon as so much cattle-food by judges of taste ; big 

 Melons or other fruit must pass through the sharp ordeal of the flavour test ; and 

 so it is all through the piece. And now we have but to get rid of the strange 

 anomaly of big Potatoes from our exhibition tables, and then we may well hope 

 for the display in the future of such cultural results as shall both please the eye 

 and delight the taste ; and that such a reformation is near I have good reason to 

 believe. Business pursuits took me a short time since to the classic regions of 

 Oxford ; and whilst there, how could I resist the temptation, so strong to me as a 

 " potatoologist " (?), to drop in upon that celebrated cultivator Mr Ptobert Fenn 

 of "Woodstock, and get a look at what he was doing in the way of raising new 

 varieties, as well as note the results of his mode of cultivation] 



Mr Fenn is a strong advocate for what is known as the " ridge-and-trench sys- 

 tem" of culture; and which system, however, simply means that the ground, 

 having been well prepared and manured during the previous winter, the line is 

 laid down at intervals of 3 feet apart, the sets are then placed in a row alongside 

 of the line, and about 15 inches? distant from each other in the rows, and then 

 the soil is thrown up over the sets with the spade, burying them to the depth of 

 about 6 inches. Of course no earthing-up is needed, and the trenches in between 

 are at any time available for the planting out of winter crops. I had tried this 

 mode of planting myself, on a dry soil, during the past summer, with but indiffer- 

 ent results — that is to say, I obtained no greater produce out of a line so planted 

 than I did from a line planted on the old method, and therefore I did not esteem 

 the mode of cultivation a desirable one to follow. Naturally I felt desirous to 

 note how Mr Fenn's ridge-planted Potatoes turned out ; so, when the inevitable 

 refreshment had been partaken of, we turned out to the garden, he grasping his 

 digging-fork with as much zest and fervour as a soldier would his beloved rifle, and 

 I, note-book in hand, to mark in permanent characters the results. But first I must 

 state, to my great joy, I found Potatoes were grown both upon the ridge and the 

 flat system in the old rectory garden at Woodstock ; and after a fair comparison 

 of the produce, we concluded that nothing was gained by ridging, as the crop in 

 each case was about equal in a given length of row. The advantages of the ridge 

 system appear to be two — first, a saving of seed ; second, greater convenience for 

 putting out winter crops. The disadvantages are — first, more manual labour re- 

 quired in planting ; second, a smaller crop from off a given space of ground. One 

 thing, however, must not be forgotten. Mr Fenn grows solely for comparison, and 

 not for his own consumption, a few of the coarse, rank-growing varieties, of which 

 we have far too many. His study and endeavour has long been to obtain sorts that 

 produce but a medium green growth, and of such is the bulk of his crop ; so that 

 the necessity does not really exist for wide spaces between* the rows, as the ex- 



