Febrnary 7, 1887. 3 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTOBE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



9S 



A GOSSIP ABOUT POTATOES. 



reading 



I! 

 d 



. .y 



the years seeni to have 

 passed awaj' I — and the reperusal has impressed on me 

 the need of caution, and never to become too determined 

 and certain upon an,y one point or principle of cultivation, 

 or to fancy that one has dr,tu-n a line beyond which further 

 progress is not possible, and, above all, not to take ton 

 much conceit to oneself about that last new offspring of 

 thought, for very likely it may turn out to be only new 

 because it has been foi'L'otteu. 



I find by my writings that I have been careful in these 

 respects : but I am a reader of old books upon a variety of 

 subjects, and it is astonishing how often I find the very 

 ideas and doings tliat I could conscientiousl}' have laid 

 claim to as the mdepondent workings of my own brain. 

 Fine lessons these old-world recurrences aflord ; they 

 serve to take down conceit, by showing that there have 

 been and always will be others as goiid and clever as 

 oneself ; and that the best plan for a man who wishes to 

 make himself useful in his day is first to prove Ids theories 

 by practice, and then to publish the results 



This must be my excuse for not addressing you lately. 

 Dame Nature for my practical hobbies insists upon time, 

 and ready writers are so very quick that if one did not 

 " fruit first and write afterwards," the task of defending 

 oneself would not be altogether .so very easy ; besides, in 

 the midst of lighting one cannot write, and about fourteen 

 months ago a challenge was thrown down to me, when 

 referring a querist to some printed correspondence of mine, 

 " Oh, ah ! " said my questioner, '" it's all very well for you 

 scribbling fellows to write this and tliat, ten to one it 

 is all theory. Give me one practical man before 3'ou all. 

 Why do you not show, and go in and win with the tine 

 productions brought about by the practice you describe '.' 

 then one could feel that it was not all bosh ! " Pleasant to 

 hear, certainly, and this writer felt himself " scratched :" 

 SO, in defence of the " scribbling fellows," and to encourage 

 the others, I did '" go in," and I did " win " in less than a 

 year two medals, tweiity-tlu'ee first-class certificates, one 

 extra prize, and two high commendations at tlie Royal 

 Horticultural Society's Shows at South Kensington. Per- 

 haps he will cry, " Bragaadoccio ! " And so it is ; and why 

 should I not be proud of being so commended '.' I am ; and 

 now to my " Gossip." 



Cultivators' minds are now opening to the subject, and 

 after perusing the papers of recent writers about the Po- 

 tato, I \vish to show how my practice and opinions respect- 

 ing tliis esculent may agree or clash with theirs, and to let 



No. 806 -Vol. XIL, Niw Sngng, 



you know liow its cultivation has fared with me during the 

 last untoward season. 



My frame and orchard-house were too much crammed 

 with other occupants last season for me to attempt the 

 production of early Potatoes there, and such is the case 

 at present ; so I adopted, and intend to adopt for the future, 

 the excellent plan stated bj' 3'our spirited and untiring 

 correspondent " FonwAnos," at page 2'1, No. l!lf^. Vol. 'VIII. 

 On March '2:ird I planted Webb's Telegraph. Coldstream 

 Early, Shutford Seedling, and Mitchell's Early Albion, 

 with an eye to exhibiting those kinds at the International 

 Horticultural Exhibition in Ma_y. but to find that I had 

 placed too much faitli in the good qualities attributed to 

 Webb's Telegraph. Coldstream Early took the lead of 

 Shutfoi'd Seedling and Mitchell's Albion ; it came into use 

 the soonest by ten days, and by May 18th I had fine 

 samples of the last three sorts. Webb's Telegraph, how- 

 ever, was full)' three weeks behind the rest. I felt sadly 

 disappointed, and it caused me not to exhibit new Potatoes, 

 as I had determined to show a set of four eaidy varieties. 

 Coldstream Early is now placed first upon my books, it 

 having beaten my previously crack sorts, Mitchell's Albion 

 aud Shutford Seedling. 1 saw, also, that Mr. B. Budd, 

 gardener to the Earl of Darnley, was within very little of 

 taking a first prize with it at the Great Show. 



However, some varieties of Potatoes I have had in cul- 

 tivation for years, others for a few seasons on trial only, 

 but these I have, nevertheless, proved on difi'erent kinds of 

 soil, and a few sorts are quite new to me, having been only 

 one year on trial. I do not think we are justified in con- 

 demning a variety of Potato until we have proved it for 

 two or three years on diifereut descriptions of land. If it 

 continues to prove a bad flavourless sort on soils varymg 

 from heav}' to light, then we may fairly speak badly of it. 

 It is a great satisfaction for me to find that to many of the 

 sorts I have tried, and wliich 1 have recommend 'd in these 

 pages, excellent characters are given by those who have 

 cultivated them in soils entirclj' difi'erent in texture from 

 that of this garden, where I grow them very good. It 

 consists of a still', stony loam, about 30 inches deep, rest- 

 ing upon a subsoil of clay that holds water like a basin, 

 and it is much shaded by trees. I was formerly much 

 puzzled to gi-ow a Potato fit to be eaten, aud, in fact, I 

 never could induce a coai-se-foliaged kind to yield me a 

 crop at all. It ■was all tops and no bottoms till sixteen 

 years ago, when I first began to feel my waj- on the ridge- 

 and-trcnch plan with a coarse-topped kind called Cornish 

 Kidney, and my man at that time — poor .John Brotherton — 

 reported iu tlie neighbourliood that I was " going to grow 

 Potatoes upon raised banks sufficient to form a Roman 

 encampment ! " but he was an old soldier, and, I fear, 

 sometimes shot with a rather long bow. 



Whilst wTitiug this paper I have received a letter from 

 a gentleman, a perfect stranger to me, but a great con- 

 noisseur of Potatoes, who lives near Bar Point, on the coast 

 of Devon. The letter comes in so appropriately in respect to 

 wliat I luive stated above that I wUl quote an extract here. 

 " The Yorksliire Hero I was getting forward, so the germs 

 are set, j'et I toU pack it most carefully for you : the Worth 



No. 958.— V«L. XXXVn., Old SeriE. 



