86 



JOUENAIi OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ January 81, 1867. 



liie all other Potatoes that year, second growth occurred to it, 

 and one-third was diseased. 



I gave it another trial in ISfiG. I planted it on a piece of 

 dry soil in drills 2 feet G inches apart, the seta 20 inches from 

 one to the other. Lawes'a manure was used on the sets. In 

 the last week in .July I took one plant up, and the Potatoes it 

 bore weighed G{ lbs. ; I was, consequently, tempted to take some 

 up to send to the London market. On the 2ud of August I 

 had a ton sent thither, and there were only 8 stones of small 

 ones, which made in all 21 cwt., and the hand which produced 

 them measured only 9J poles. That ton of Potatoes sold in 

 London for £6 17s. <Jd. This is the Potato for me. — E. J. 

 Atheeton, Nurseryman, Chatteris. 



PROPAGATING AND PRUNING BLACK 

 CURRANTS. 



FoK the benefit of amateurs I see Mr. Read has written some 

 notes on the best way to grow Currants. I think he has gone 

 on very well until he came to the Black Currant, as to which 

 I am sure he has made some mistakes. Thus, I infer that he 

 intends the cuttings to be made in the same way as those of 

 the Red and White. I am sure that there are many growers 

 who will coincide with me in saying that that is one of the 

 greatest of mistakes, for if so made half of the head will often 

 die from some unknown cause. 



My plan is to put the cuttings in with all the buds on them, 

 say four or five, leaving one above ground. Next autumn cut all 

 the shoots down to two eyes ; by doing this you will have eight 

 nice strong shoots which will bear a few bunches of fruit. The 

 plants are now fit to plant out permanently ; set them in rows 

 5 feet by i feet. A row of Cabbages may be planted between 

 them for two or three years ; plant the Cabbages early and 

 they will come off before they can interfere with the Currant 

 trees. In the following autumn cut off the foremost shoot to 

 the next lower one, and so continue every year. Never let 

 more than two or three years' growth be on one shoot before you 

 cut it to the ground (if there is no shoot to take its place, 

 cut it to the next shoot lower down), and if a shoot die you have 

 two to take its place, which will spring up from the ground. 



After a few years, if your bush become too large and the 

 shoots extend too far iu the rows, take the spade and chop 

 them off closely with roots to them, and if you want to make 

 another row they will quickly form good plants for the purpose ; 

 yon will save two years by using them. Be sure never to cut 

 off the top of any shoot if it is too long, cut it out altogether ; 

 never be afraid to cut out plenty of shoots, for the Black 

 Currant likes plenty of sun and air, and does not succeed so 

 well as the Red Currant in the shade. In fact, the Black 

 Currant is as different from the Red and White as the May 

 Duke Cherry is from the Morello, the older and more shrubby 

 the tree the more and better the fruit ; but on the Black 

 Currant, like the Morello, all the young wood should be pre- 

 served, and no topping is wanted. 



I could show Mr. Read a large number of Black Currant 

 trees, among them some which have been planted about twelve 

 years, and not one more than 3 feet high and 10 feet across. I 

 do not remember a single plant in the plantation having died 

 out. I iind by well thinning the trees out, giving plenty of 

 manure every year, and growing none but the Black Naples, 

 that the fruit will make a very pretty dish for the table, and 

 especially where no G-rapes are grown. The fruit is both large 

 and sweet, and I have seen bunches 4 inches long with as many 

 s twenty berries on them. 



I wonder Mr. Read did not offer some remarks about the 

 Gooseberry, with respect to which information is not less 

 needed than in the case of the Currant. I treat them in the 

 first place as he does the Red Currant ; but, as in the case of the 

 Black Currant, after the third year I never shorten the shoots 

 I intend to bear, unless it is one that has grown too far out 

 of the way. 



I think it is a wrong system to cut every shoot to about 3 or 

 i inches ; of course, from every shoot so cut you must expect 

 three to spring, and very little fruit, and in the following 

 spring you have a hedge. On my system, leave the leading 

 shoots about 6 inches apart ; cut everything else clean out, 

 and do not shorten the shoots. In the following season you 

 will have one or two shoots from that left, and plenty of fine 

 fruit ; cut the old shoot out leaving one of the young ones for 

 the next season, and so on every year. 



As to Red Currants we can always find plenty of vacant spots ' 



for them on the waUs. Against walls too low for anything else, 

 and with any aspect, wherever there is a space of 2 feet to 

 spare, there the Red and White Currant are planted. Train 

 the branches 6 inches apart, and prune them just as Pears and 

 Plums.— J. T. 



CUCUMBER FAILURES. 



For years I have been a grower of Cucumbers, and have many 

 times witnessed that we cannot, even under the best of treat- 

 ment, insure the best results. I have some Cucumber plants 

 showing fruit ; they have been looking well and are now, only, 

 it may be, one of the best and healthiest-looking plants will to- 

 day show symptoms of flagging in .part of a leaf, or a whole 

 leaf, as if wanting water ; to-morrow perhaps other leaves and 

 footstalks hang drooping ; next day one or two more, and so the 

 evil goes on for weeks and the plants cannot be said to be 

 either alive or dead. Of the leaf that flagged first the foot- 

 stalk will again become stiff, but the blade will be wholly gone 

 (crisped up). From the first symptoms the plants make little 

 or no growth ; sometimes I have known them break from the 

 stem, but the foliage so produced only shares the same fate^ 

 the older leaves. Leaf after leaf sutfers until the whole of tBe 

 foliage is gone, and the plant is good for nothing. 



I have repeatedly taken up the plants and examined them, 

 sometimes there is a partial decay of roots with the stem 

 looking well and healthy ; at other times the stem and all the 

 roots appear to be attacked, and then, of course, the plants die 

 quickly. 



In my Cucumber-houses the disease generally takes the 

 winter plants just as they are beginning to bear, about this time 

 — say Januai-y and February. In March and April, when the 

 days are longer, the plants have not suffered iu the houses ; 

 but I have had the ridge Cucumbers in the summer months 

 out of doors affected in a very similar manner for several 

 seasons. 



I have tried all kinds of changes of soils and seed, but to no 

 purpose. I have never seen any one's plants do as mine have 

 done. I have been where Cucumbers were grown almost 

 throughout the year, I have mentioned the evil to others, and 

 showed my plants, but have never yet met with any one who 

 has experienced the like. 



My houses are heated with hot-water pipes for top heat, and 

 there are cement tanks under the beds, with hot-water pipes 

 running through, for bottom heat. I can have plenty of heat, 

 the range being from 60° to 80". Our houses have not been 

 below GO" during this cold weather. — An Old Sdescbibek. 



[We have experienced the same evil, especially in winter, and 

 when the plants were grown in low pits, and have generally 

 traced it to too much heat at the roots, and too much moisture 

 at a season when the processes of evaporation are very irregu- 

 lar ; a good layer of rubble between the tank and the soil might 

 help. We seldom meet with this complaint in houses where 

 the light strikes freely to the bsttom of the Cucumber plants, 

 and where there is room to have the soil in a rather steep ridge 

 instead of as a flat bed. Where, as in your case, there is 

 plenty of heat, a steep roof, even a rather steep span-roof, 

 is best for winter Cucumbers. Many plants fail about this 

 time that have borne up to Christmas. What say other corre- 

 spondents ?] 



ON PRUNING CEDRUS DEODARA. 



[The following is extracted from " The Gardener," a new 

 series of the " Scottish Gardener," edited by Mr. William 

 Thomson, of Dalkeith Palace Gardens, and which promises to 

 be a most excellent monthly publication.] 



The Deodar or Temple Tree has now become a favourite all 

 over Great Britain, i'he parks and pleasure-grounds of the 

 wealthy, the metropolitan parks and cemeteries and town 

 squares, as well as villa and cottage gardens, all boast of their 

 Deodar Cedars. Many of these trees are m a faultless state ; 

 still large numbers of them are to be seen in a sad and appa- 

 rently neglected condition ; but all are capable of being brought 

 into shape by a free use of the knife, and for this end I pro- 

 pose giving a few practical hints. 



The Deodar was first introduced into Great Britain by the 

 Honourable William Leslie Melville during the year 1831, from 

 seed collected on the Indo-Tataric mountains, at an elevation 

 of 10,000 or 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, where it 

 attains a height of 180 feet, and sometimes even 200 feet, 



