March 28, 1867. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICOLTDBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



223 



number of your readers in tbe west of Scotland ; in blooming 

 Auriculas, Tulips, and Ranunculuses, he was not easily beaten, 

 and to have a nice edging for his plots, he hit upon the foDow- 

 ing device : — 



Jock being a pretty good judge of wethers, knew well when 

 to plant himself among the fleshers, to secure a crop of the 

 needful — viz., sheeps' trotters, and by the armful, too, for he 

 was an adept at " felling twa dogs with one bone," first by 

 producing good Scotch Kail with the trotters, and then the 

 sheep shanks served to make the edging in the following man- 

 ner : — He put the shanks into the earth to the joint, one by one, 

 close to each other, and they produced one of the neatest of 

 edges I have seen, and would afford a good pattern for a potter 

 to copy from for an earthenware edging. — Stewauion. 



YORK REGENT POTATOES. 



The following is extracted from a communication to the 

 Eev. W. P. Eaddyfte :— 



"After the disease of Potatoea about twenty years ago, great 

 quantities of Potatoes were sent to London from Yorkshire, of 

 a breed called Scotch Boughs, on account of the roughness of 

 their skins. They created a great noise in London under the 

 new name of York Regents, given them by the cockney dealers, 

 and commanded a great price in the market. Some few gentle- 

 men sent to London for some of them back again, and found 

 them nothing but Scotch Boughs, called also Buffianers. 

 Hence the name of Y'ork Eegents. The farmers and country 

 people about here grow scarcely any sort but Scotch Boughs, 

 Buffianers, or Ruffs, as the same Potatoes are called. Thousands 

 of acres are grown, and these are bought up by men who come 

 round among the farmers, and are called 'Potato Badgers.' 

 They send them aU to London under the name of York Eegents. 

 All round Potatoes sent to London are named by the dealers 

 ' York Eegents, ' because they command a better price under 

 that name. Mr. Booth, of Killerby, obtained a new Potato out 

 of Scotland last spring; they are very large, white, good, and 

 good croppers. He sold twenty acres of them to a London 

 dealer ; and they were all sold as York Eegents ! Y'ork Regents 

 have a rough skin at one end like scales. If your Y'ork Regents 

 are smooth like a Dalmahoy, they are not the right sort. I 

 could find you twenty sorts of the so-called York Eegents ; 

 some white, some yellow, some good, some bad." 



Mr. Kadclyffe then adds — " I commenced planting here 

 (Okeford Fitzpaine) February 13th, under grass clots, having 

 previously washed the ' cuts ' with vitriol and water. The 

 vitriol discovers a bad Potato within half an hour of its appli- 

 cation, by causing discoloration. It may, moreover, remove 

 any fungus about the set. I at present fancy that the disease 

 arises from imperfection of the cellular tissue. Potatoes re- 

 quire rain at the end of May, and none afterwards. Heavy 

 rains in July, when the temperature begins to fall, I think pro- 

 duce the calamity by filling the Potato with more sap than the 

 leaves can elaborate ; and hence as an effect the leaves decay." 



CUCUMBER FAILURES. 



I HAVE had to cultivate winter Cucumbers for some years and 

 in various ways, and I am confident that deep borders and 

 over-watering are the great mistakes in winter Cucumber- 

 growing. 



Last summer I had the pleasure of looking over the splendid 

 gardens of Earl Ducie, at Tortworth Court, under the manage- 

 ment of Mr. Cramb, the intelligent and skilful gardener. 

 After traversing house after house we came to that devoted 

 to Cucumbers, and I must say it was the most masterly 

 example of Cucumber-growing which I ever witnessed. 



The house, a large one to be devoted entirely to Cucumbers, 

 is a lean-to, with a pit running quite to the front. This pit 

 was filled with leaves for bottom heat, but I forgot to ask if 

 there were pipes under the bed or not ; and the plants were in 

 pots of rather a large size, which were half plunged in the bed 

 of leaves at equal distances. I was partioiilarly interested in 

 the system of pruning and training adopted ; the plants ap- 

 peared to be allowed to run three parts up the house, and 

 being then stopped developed at every joint shoots which were 

 themselves stopped at a few joints. Although planted twelve 

 months every plant was perfectly clean, healthy, and in no way 

 interfering with its neighbours, and there were several scores 

 of fuUy developed fruit. 



I have adopted the same mode of cultivation— namely, 



growing Cucumbers in pots plunged to half their depth, and I 

 have succeeded where I always failed before on the border 

 plan. 



My conveniences being small, about the middle of September 

 I prepared three 12-inch pots by well draining them, chiefly 

 with the sittings from the potting bench, and filling up the re- 

 maining space with good loam and leaf mould. I planted the 

 Cucumbers at once, and the result has been most satisfactory, 

 although the temperature was often down to 5.5° at night. 

 The plants grew rapidly, and set plenty of fruit, which swelled 

 out to their full size, and I have not had one of those wretched 

 club-headed fruits so common in winter, and which are a sure 

 indication of something being wrong at the roots. One ad- 

 vantage from the pots is that the roots find their way out at the 

 holes in the bottoms of the pots and run among the fermenting 

 leaves, consequently watering is rarely wanted. The plants 

 are not particular about temperature for a few hours if the 

 roots are under favourable conditions and thriving. I would 

 rather find the temperature of my house rather low than strive 

 too much against the weather, but I find a few mats of great 

 service in frosty weather ; it will not then be necessary to shade 

 from the first gleam of sunshine that may occur, as is often 

 the case when the plants are in wet borders and weakened by 

 fire heat. — Chaeles Edwahds, The Gardens, Springfield, near 

 Bristol. 



GARDENERS DELIGHT PEA— NAITJI ORANGE. 



Much appears in " our Journal " about early Peas. Shall 

 I be voted a Goth if I own that I care more about the later 

 sorts ? At any rate there is one sort I have not seen named 

 in your pages which I should like, with your permission, to 

 introduce to the notice of all whom it may concern. 



I think it was about the year 1850 that my factotum Jaroes 

 called my attention to some remarkably fine vigorous stalks of 

 Peas growing amongst a row of Veitch's Perfection — there 

 might be a dozen of them. The pods tiimed out to be of a 

 corresponding size, literally stuffed with great handsome Peas. 

 I requested that every pod might be carefully saved ; this was 

 done, the seed sown in the following year, and a splendid row of 

 Peas I had. They turned out to be very prolific, fine in flavour, 

 and a beautiful colour when dressed. I became curious to 

 know what sort had been thus introduced to me, and consulted 

 all the gardeners I met with just at that tirae.^ I happened to 

 have the officials and gardeners connected with our Cottage 

 Gardening Society lunching with me, and of course the new 

 Pea was closely examined and discussed, and greatly admired. 

 There was much good-humoured disputing on the matter, but it 

 soon became evident that no one knew the Pea. 



I then sent a small quantity of seed to Mr. J. Smith, now 

 curator, Royal Gardens, Kew, but who at that time had charge 

 of the gardens at Sion House. He told me afterwards, when I 

 had the pleasure of seeing him, that after he had once sent a 

 supply of my Peas to the house there was a constant demand 

 for them, and the cook leaving soon afterwards to take the 

 management of a club, entreated Mr. Smith to give him " if it 

 were only half a pint " of seed, that he might be sure to have 

 the sort for his own supply. The succeeding cook became an 

 equally warm admirer of what was then known at Sion as the 

 " Cornish Pea." 



On finding from such high authority as Mr. J. Smith, in ad- 

 dition to the eagerness with which the Pea was sought after by 

 various friends, that it was not mi rely a fancy of my own, and 

 of James, but that it was superior to the ordinary sorts, I took 

 small packet to Mr. Pince. of Exeter, iu the spriug of 18GS, and 

 requested he would be so good as to grow it for his private 

 table, and let me know what he thought of it. In July I re- 

 ceived the following letter from him, the postscript being in his 

 own handwriting : — '• We are very much obliged for the Peas 

 sent us some time since under the name of " Gardener's 

 Delight," which we sowed and are daily gathering, and have 

 no hesitation in saying that it is the finest and best-flavoured 

 Pea we have ever seen. We shall esteem it a great favour if 

 you will furnish us with its history, or inform us where the 

 seed is to be procured." — " Mr. Pince presents his respectful 

 compliments and thanks to Miss P. for the delicious Pea of 

 which she kindly sent him some seeds.'' 



I wrote Mr Pince in reply, and sent him two quarts of seed 

 to add to his own supply, on condition that he would introduce 

 the " Gardener's Dehght " (the name I hud given the Pea from 

 the admiration bestowed upon it), to the public as soon as pos- 

 sible. In October of the same year Mr. Smith called on me, 



