March 10, 157,3. ) 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



185 



The baisonge, found on a species of Sage in the East, are 

 gathered and sold for food. They are sweet, and said to make a 

 famous sweetmeat with sugar or honey. — {English Mecluinic 

 and Mirror of Science.) 



SULTAN PINK KIDNEY POTATO. 

 Ik reply to " G. E.," I purchased a quantity of the Sultan 

 Pink Kidney from the raiser, Mr. Rackham, last season. I sold 

 part, and planted about li bushel myself in good soil. My 

 crop was fair, but nothing equal to the description given of the 

 variety, and when boiled the tubers were very close and waxy. 

 Only last week two gentlemen who purchased from me were 

 complaining of them. The remark one of them made was, 

 ' ' Those Sultan Potatoes you sold me are very bad ; when 

 boiled they are like soap."— J. Kitlet, Seedsman, Ecclesliall. 



In answer to " G. R.'s " inquiry respecting this much- 

 vaunted Potato, I purchased some of the raiser last season, 

 and as soon as received cooked a few for trial, and found them 

 very close, yellow, and of a strong earthy flavour. I, however, 

 planted one bushel and obtained a very fair crop of good-sized 

 handsome .tubers, but of the very worst quality possible — so 

 bad that they were at once consigned to the pigs. — Fbedk. I. 

 Gadd, Salvington Nurseries, near Wortliing. 



MACHINE-WORKED VENTILATORS. 

 As Mr. Pearson cannot show the machinery by which he 

 lifts the ridge of his new heated frame, I here enclose you two 

 plans which may prove useful to some of your readers who 

 may have been disappointed at not being enlightened on this 

 point 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 1 is wrought by a lever and rope, or chain passed over 



two pullies. The ridge ventilator is supported by two iron 



plates, 1 foot long, a. a ; they are fixed by means of iron bolts 



through their ends, so as to work as a sort of doable hinges. 



Fig. 2 would be a more expensive plan, as so much iron is 



required to make a good job of it ; 



but a ridge of 100 feet can be 



raised by this plan, with a good 



large crank on the end of the rod 



on which the notched wheels are 



fixed. 



Is there much that is original in 

 the " new heated frame ? " In the autumn of 1865 (November, 

 if I am not mistaken), there appeared in your pages a sketch of 

 something similar, the differences being that they were termed 

 " pits," and bottom heat was applied. This article was by 

 "A JonBNEYlUN." — B. J. G. P. 



GROWING POTATOES ON THE RIDGE-AND- 

 TRENCH PLAN. 



If my experience of this valuable system of Potato cultivation 

 is of any advantage to " Poplar," (see page 112), he is welcome 

 to it. On a light, deep soil I find no increase in produce by the 

 ridge plan over the level system of planting, the rows in each case 

 being the same distance apart. On a light, shallow soil the 

 value of the ridge over the flat system is very decided and un- 

 mistakeable — a natural result of the increased depth of soil 

 gained. On a strong, heavy soil the ridge plan nobly sustains 

 its supremacy. I had a better yield on the light, shallow soil 

 from the ridges unmanured than on the level manured. I 

 have not tried the heavy soil by this test, though I have little 

 doubt the ridge plan would hold its own. A garden which 

 would grow nothing but green crops, and Potato tops 6 feet long, 

 nearly tuberless, on the level plan, has on the ridge plan pro- 



duced a capital yield of Potatoes. Generally speaking, I feel 

 it bordering on presnmption to add anything on this matter 

 to the far greater experience and thoroughly reliable testimony 

 of Mr. Fenn ; but in his reply to "Poplab" he distinctly 

 states that the plan on light soil is beyond the pale of his ex- 

 perience : hence these supplementary notes as to this particular 

 soil, and confirmatory of the general excellence of the prin- 

 ciple of planting Potatoes on ridges. — J. W. 



WAYSIDE JOTTINGS.— No. 4. 



I WA3 obliged to conclude my last paper (see vol. rvii., page 

 520) rather hurriedly, and without completing my " jottings " 

 for the day. Before descending from the elevated ridge of 

 Millstone Moor, I sat down to rest awhile on one of the many 

 projecting pieces of limestone rock which crop out at intervals 

 above the surface along the crest of the hill. The gentle breeze 

 that prevailed was really invigorating — the more so, perhaps, 

 that I had suffered from the sultry atmosphere which prevailed 

 in the narrow lanes by which I had mounted to my present ele- 

 vation above the valley of the Ellen. The prospect was indeed 

 an extensive one. Directly in front, in a south-east direction, 

 and apparently some half-dozen miles away, was seen the 

 majestic form of Skiddaw towering like a giant over the heads 

 of his neighbours, grouped around him in every imaginable 

 variety of form. Some of the peaks seemed quite sharply 

 pointed ; others, again, presented the form of hummocks more 

 or less rounded or flattened. Occasional gaps or openings were 

 also visible, at the bottom of which, though shut out from 

 actual view by intervening elevations, I knew there nestled 

 some of the most picturesque and lovely of our northern lakes. 

 Behind me, to the northward, lay the waters of the " brimming 

 Solway," as the Frith was once happily styled by the late Earl 

 of Carlisle, and on the opposite shore rose the mountains of 

 Kirkcudbright and Galloway, the loftiest being Criffel, near the 

 mouth of the Nith, the rival of Skiddaw. 



Having fully satiated myself with the beauties of this charm- 

 ing prospect, I descended at first on the northern side towards 

 the village of Gilcrux, and in some fields, the soil of which 

 seemed of a clayey and anything but fertile character, I found, 

 to my surprise, a very large quantity of Primula farinosa (the 

 Bird's-eye Primrose) growing promiscuously over the field. I 

 had always accustomed myself to look upon this pretty little 

 plant as peculiar to the boggier meadows of the lake districts, 

 and its presence here in such plenty was a surprise to me. I 

 well remember my boyish efforts to introduce this gem of the 

 meadows into a little oorner of my father's garden, which I 

 had been permitted to appropriate for my juvenile experiments 

 in floriculture. Notwithstanding a long course of artificial 

 watering, and a careful filling up of the bed with the boggy 

 soil in which I found it luxuriating in its natural wildness, I 

 could never succeed in preventing it from degenerating, and 

 assuming a sickly hue, indicative of anything rather than the 

 improvement I proposed to myself to effect in its appearance 

 by cultivation. 



I next made a cursory examination of the southern face of 

 the hill, but meeting nothing worthy of notiee, I started on my 

 way towards the village of Biindcrake. In a narrow lane lead- 

 ing from the farm of Millstone Moor towards the Cockermoath 

 highway I found a profusion of Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum 

 (Black Spleenwort) growing from the bottom of the wall on one 

 side of the lane. At the village of Biindcrake, among some 

 dry walls surrounding the numerous little crofts belonging to 

 the villagers, I found a fair sprinkling of Saxifraga tridactyliten 

 (Rue-leaved Saxifrage), a plant sometimes found in considerable 

 quantities on some of the very old sandstone roofs of out-build- 

 ings in many parts of Cumberland. The day had by this time 

 reached high noon, and the temperature of the atmosphere 

 was sufficiently warm to prompt me to seek shelter from the 

 sun's scorching rays by pluogiDg into the woody ravine which 

 stretches away from the village towards Isell and the Derwent, 

 not without some expectation of a good find in so promising a 

 locality. A9 I advanced the ravine grew deeper, and it3 bottom 

 more rugged. On reaching the bottom I found the edges of 

 the little brook fringed with a profusion of Ramsons (Allium 

 ursinnm), the smell of which when crushed by my boots was 

 not very agreeable. Springing from the clefts of the rock on 

 either side were some fine specimens of Polystichum aculeatum 

 (Prickly Shield Fern), the fronds of which hung in a drooping 

 fashion peculiarly graceful. 

 In the very deepest of the glen, where the brook formed a 



