150 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 28, 1873. 



roller over any stems that at this period of the year appear 

 too succulent, before the disease shows itself upon them, having 

 observed some favourable indications from a partial experiment 

 of this nature. — B. K., Giteniseij. 



BKOWN'S WONDEE STRAWBERRY. 



I ENTiEELY agree with Mr. Powell's opinion of this variety ; 

 it was sour here — in fact, a weed compared with many of our 

 fine estabUshed varieties. I had grown a stock of it, but de- 

 stroyed it instead of inserting it in our list. 



While writing about Strawberries, how is it we never meet 

 with Dr. Roden's gems, so temptingly described in your last 

 number ? They are never met with in good gardens, on the 

 exhibition table, or in any catalogue. — Chakles Tuknee. 



BLUE PETER AND LITTLE GEM PEAS. 

 Dr. Eodex, iu your issue on the 14th inst., has described Blue 

 Peter as superior to Little Gem ; here it was very inferior to it. 

 My opinion is, that Little Gem will remain a favourite long 

 aiter Blue Peter is forgotten. Emperor of the Marrows is also 

 highly spoken of ; I hope, however, this will not induce any of 

 your readers to grow it. — The Inteoducek of Little Geji. 



POTATOES AS THEY ARE. 



Woodstock, Oxfokdshire. — After thirty-seven years of trials, 

 and of crosses and ^ropings in the dark, I may say for a good 

 third part of the first series, it really appears to me now 

 that I have arrived at the chmax. For both garden and field 

 cultivation I have singled-out from my newest 'JIG seedhngs, 

 which I informed you of at the beginning of the season, about 

 one himdred varieties for future observation and " weeding-out," 

 and from which I hope in about another three years to hand 

 down to posterity something still better than is known at 

 present of my productions excepting by myself. It should take 

 seven years to properly test a new Potato and get it ready to 

 " send out ;" so I suppose, for the reason given at the commence- 

 ment of this paper, I must be cautious how I speak of a future 

 seven years. If I be spared to enter into future crosses, I shall 

 leave no mystery about where and how I leave off, and there 

 will be left others better than myself to carry on the enterprise 

 —yes, enterprise is the word— for experimentalising for the 

 further improvement of the noble tuber will be found no joke, 

 and I speak feelingly. 



Well, since I was set to pick up a certain quantity of the old 

 Early Shaws in my uncle's garden at Sicklesmere, before I was 

 taken by my father to witness my first play at the theatre. Bury 

 St. Edmunds, I have never seen better crops of Potatoes than 1 

 do hereabouts this year, and they are generally free from disease. 

 I have also had an opportunity to a wide extent in this and 

 other counties of inspecting the Potato and other crops, and ex- 

 cepting some breadths I lately saw in full blossom in Middlesex, 

 which upon mquiry I found to be " foreigners," I should say our 

 late Enghsh sorts will bear out their destiny ; notwithstanding 

 they are spotted more or less in the leaves, the haulms remain 

 green and upriRht— a pretty good criterion to go by as regards 

 freedom from disease in the tubers. Early and second early 

 sorts are mostly already secured in good condition. 



I have, nevertheless, seen and heard of a few diseased tubers 

 making their appearance amongst the later sorts, notably with 

 my own, amongst Yorkshire Hero and the old Cobbler's Lap- 

 stone, the only two "strangers" which I grew this year for 

 comparison besides my graft hybrid Yorkshu-e Hero iu Onwards, 

 for carrying out the purpose of testing what difference exists 

 between the latter and the former, which I find to be this : The 

 hybrid is 6 inches shorter in the haulm, and ripens fuUy three 

 weeks before Yorkshire Hero. When taken -up last week no 

 person viewing the sorts as they lay upon the ground in their 

 bulk side by side — let them be never such novices in Potato 

 judgment, could fail to perceive a general refinement in the 

 tubers of the hybrid as compared to those of Yorkshire Hero, 

 and I may include also those of the old Lapstone, which, by- 

 the-by, with Yorkshire Hero, were in their growth of haulm 

 throughout, and in appearance of tubers, as " like as two peas " 

 of the same sort. 



There has lately sprung up a contention as to who was the 

 raiser of Yorkshire Hero. The Eev. W. P. Radclyffe sent me 

 the Yorkshire Hero, some years ago, as being a graft hybrid of 

 Mr. Thomas Almond's. I very much doubted at the time if it 

 was possible to graft one Potato into another kind and achieve 

 a change in the sort ; but the evidence I received in writing was 

 so strongly iu favour, that I determined to try for myself; and 

 time and many trials couvmce me it can bo done after a manner 

 of dwarfing and refining, both in top and tuber, a strong- 

 growing variety when it is grafted into a kind of medium 

 growth, and that in nine cases out of ten it vrill utterly spoil 



the graftee. I find this subject coming on the tapis again iu 

 another phase, but it is scarcely worth while now for me to 

 enter into the subject iu these pages, seeing that 1 have done so 

 very often, without, however, being able to convince the sceptics. 

 It may prove useful and interesting just now if you wUl reprint 

 the following : — 



" Bramham, near Tadcaster, May 22u(1, 1866. 



"These Kidney Potatoes were propagated by Major Haf,iie, but tliey were 

 raised by his son Joseph, the particulars of which are as follows: — 



" ' I, Joseph Hague, iu the year 1827, then residing at Thomer, near Leeds, 

 planted two peclvs of Potatoes, which I had sent me from Clap Gate, near 

 Ilarowood. Those Potatoes produced an extraordinary quantity of line 

 berries, which induced me to try to raise seedlings from them. In that I 

 succeeded, and selecting the two best from among the quantity, I again 

 planted the seedling tubers, but subsequently removed to Bramham, where 

 I now reside. Having no garden connected with the house 1 then occupied, 

 1 took my seedlings over to Bardsey, and they were plauted in my father's 

 garden ; and as he was the first to propagate them, the general impression 

 was, and is now, and is with many people to this day, that he raised them 

 himself, but he never at any period of his life attempted to raise seedling 

 Potatoes. I have five brothers who can all testify to the accuracy of the 

 above statement. Mr. Fuller, llorist, Ac, Headingley, near Leeds, but at the 

 time gardeuer to G. Lane Fox, Esq., of Bramham Pail-, gave the Lapstone 

 Kidney its name.— Joseph Hague.' " 



There are a great many Lapstone Kidneys now under as many 

 aliases, and I had at least twenty varieties of them on trial in a 

 field near here a few years ago, and some wags removed my 

 numbered pegs, and for the life of me, as I had not numbered 

 the rows in my book, I could not tell which was which of the 

 majority of them, and so my comparative experiment came 

 abruptly to an end. Fortunately I had presented the old Lap- 

 stone breed to Mr. Eadclyiie some years ago, and this circum- 

 stance enabled me, through his kindness, to get my old variety 

 again this spring. 



Well, neighbom-s call in, to see me with bulging pockets, to 

 become gi-adually emptied as they formally and lovingly dis- 

 tribute along the ground fine samples of Mona's Pride, &c. — 

 a decoy for envy. Only a wine merchant, as he hands out a 

 sample of his choicest brand, could assume a greater air of 

 superiority. I instinctively turn to my ridges, but, no, the 

 proper amenities would not allow me to discover finer tubers 

 than those of my friends, and I exclaim, "Astonishing ! Why, 

 they are equal to take a prize anywhere," and, indeed, I was not 

 far from the truth. Again, a connoisseur of the Potato walks 

 proudly iu, holding out a plate nicely covered over with a clean 

 cloth. " Apricots, 1 hope!" No, a plate of my Onwards seed- 

 ling Potato, which he swears by. But his is a small town gar- 

 den, which just suits the Onwards, as the ground has been 

 enriched within the last few years, sufficiently even to grow 

 exotic plants, merely by the appUcation of his house sewage 

 and the contents of a dry-earth closet, which he also swears by. 

 I will only say I am of the same opinion, as this garden has 

 had no other manure for the last twenty-five years, except 

 leaves and other refuse of the premises, than the contents of 

 the rectory-house sewage tanks and the dry-earth closets, the 

 first, I believe, that England possessed, and no household could 

 have been healthier than this for the last quarter of a century, 

 notwithstanding the theory that have lately gone abroad con- 

 demnatory of such manure. I can speak, and have spoken 

 pretty often iu this and other periodicils, decidedly in favour 

 of it, and if I were a person inclined to feel ever so little con- 

 ceited, I would advise Her Majesty's Sanitary Commissioners 

 to send down a special inspector to interview these premises, as 

 I consider our sanitary an-angements in connection with our 

 water tanks and supply to have worked out all the aims that 

 the generality of people seem to be wishing for. At any rate, 

 if Mr. Smee's letters were to receive heedless credence it would 

 be a national misfortune. From long experience with house 

 sewage and the contents of dry-earth closets, I can confidently 

 say they afford the best and the most innocuous manures that 

 can be applied to the soil; but the land should be allowed time 

 to analyse, and the plants^to digest them or any other manures, 

 before the produce is eaten by either man or beast. A three- 

 course system is what I adopt as nearly as I can for garden 

 gi'ound, but it would be more comxiletely adapted to farmwork. 

 Say, deluge a third, field by field alternately, under green crops, 

 such as Turnips or Rye-grass, then take Potatoes or pulse crops ; 

 and for a third course take grain with a dressing of hme, or 

 some such practice, which will prevent the land being continu- 

 ally under sewage which it cannot profitably make away with. 

 — Robert Fenn, Bectort/, Woodstock. 



ToRTwoKTH, Gloucestekshihe. — Up to the present time no 

 diseased tubers have been observed among our early crops, 

 which are excellent and clean-skinned. As a rule, garden crops 

 are the first to suffer, particularly on close moist soil, and the evil 

 is no doubt accelerated by too high feeding. Curative remedies 

 without number have been offered us, but they have to a great 

 extent proved of little value. Nothing is so certain as the selec- 

 tion of early varieties and spring planting, so as to insure ma- 

 turation by the end of July or beginning of August. The 

 disease has made its appearance among our field crops, but 

 as yet to a limited extent ; and should the present favourable 

 weather continue, I believe this wUl be a more prosperous year 



