74 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



I July so, 1868. 



fruit is always at their point when the little red blossom bnds 

 appear. Owing to the dry season the catkins, or male blos- 

 soms, are now forming on long shoots of the present season — 

 that is, on shoots from 12 to 30 inches in length. In pruning 

 the Filbert treat it as a Gooseberry bush, leaving plenty of 

 slender shoots, and shortening and removing the stray succu- 

 lent shoots. The female flowers will appear on the small 

 well-ripened side shoots and buds.] 



POTATOES SUPERTUBERATING— ESTIMATE 

 OF VARIETIES. 



You would confer a very great benefit on all classes if yon 

 could give any advice as to what is best to be done with the 

 present Potato crop, which is beginning to grow, the young 

 Potatoes throwing out spears. Would it be best to take any of 

 the crop up, as, for instance, those that are nearly ripe, such 

 as Milky White and Kings, or must they be left to take their 

 chance ?— H. C. Eiplev. 



[We sent the above to one of the most experienced of Po- 

 tato cultivators, and he has sent the following very instructive 

 reply. — Eds. 



I am sorry to learn that the Potatoes in Mr. Ripley's neigh- 

 bourhood are showing symptoms of supertuberating ; never- 

 theless, Mr. Eipley may take heart, for hereabouts the later 

 sorts are generally doing so, although as regards the haulm 

 they are wonderfully vigorous considering the drought, and at 

 stool after stool of the very late kinds that I have inspected, 

 not a symptom of a tuber larger than a horse bean is to be 

 found. I advise in such cases that they be allowed to remain 

 unmoved, as there may be just a chance of a crop maturing 

 before the frost comes ; root and branch are each waiting for 

 the coming of rain. With regard to those Potatoes which Mr. 

 Ripley mentions as beginning to grow, the young Potatoes 

 throwing out spears, let me advise him to have them taken up 

 immediately, and rub off the spears, then sow the ground with 

 Turnips, or crop with the Cabbage tribe. To leave the Pota- 

 toes to take their chance would be equivalent to allowing the 

 tubers that are nearly ripe to exhaust themselves of their pre- 

 sent nearly matured nourishment by reproducing a progeny of 

 undersized supertubers. Let me advise also that the crop 

 should be lifted early in the morning, or when the sun has 

 lost its power in the afternoon, otherwise it will be found, if the 

 tubers are allowed to remain exposed in the midday sun, that 

 their flavour will be completely destroyed. I would rather dig 

 Potatoes in a pouring rain than in a broiling sun ; in fact, when 

 dug in a Scotch miet and stored moist, providing they are 

 healthy. Potatoes keep best and also preserve their flavour best. 

 I have many kinds of Potatoes under cultivation in different 

 soils experimentally. I will give instances of extremes. On 

 field stonebrash, in a neighbouring parish, Wootton, from my 

 Onwards, an early second early sort, to the Cornish Kidney, a 

 very late kind, tlie following is the result : — My Onwards I had 

 dug up quite ripe on the 10th inst., and very excellent they are, 

 though not so prominent for size as they would have been in 

 a " dripping time." The patch is now sown with Turnips. 

 The Emperor Napoleon, or Early Emperor, is producing a good 

 crop of tubers, but it is sadly spearing. I shall have the 

 sort taken up directly. Almond's North Riding Beauty, a 

 rather early Regent, has tubers about the size of horse beans, 

 and the Cornish Kidney has nothing distinguishable but a 

 mass of roots, with the old sets as intact as they were on the 

 day when planted. My Regents are growing in a field of better 

 soil, too far distant to allow an inspection at present ; I will 

 give a report of them shortly. Mr. Radcl.ille has some of 

 wh^t I consider to be the best ; doubtless he will also favour 

 us with their behaviour. 



I have examined the Potatoes in numerous cotters' allot- 

 ments, and the following may be considered as general features 

 of field crops about here. Early and early second-early sorts 

 small, but matured without sprouting. Those of the second 

 earlies about three parts ripe are supertuberating badly, and 

 on the late sorts scarcely a formed tuber is to be found. What 

 the result may prove for them it is diflicult to say ; but the 

 disagreeable fact clearly to be seen is that the breadths planted 

 with late sorts are thrice the extent of those planted with second 

 earlies. 



In the rectory garden, a sound dark loam I have, on the 

 ridge-and- trench plan, thirty-eight kinds growing under my im- 

 mediate observation, both for good quality and for compa' '-on, 

 besides forty-two new seedhngson trial, and six Potato-giHlting 



experiments. After this year I think of concentrating my 

 attention entirely on my own seedlings, therefore I will now 

 give the names and features of the thirty-eight. 



The figure 1 in parentheses after the name denotes Early ; 

 the figure 2, Second Earlies ; 3, Late varieties. The kinds 

 that are beginning to supertuberate I will signalise by an 

 asterisk (*) ; those condemned by an obelisk (t). 



Mitchell's Early Albion Kiilney (1). — Excellent ; dead ripe. 



Early Ten-week {1}. — Very good ; dead ripe ; syn. Early Betty. 



Hogg's Early Coldstream "(1). — Excellent; dead ripe. 



Sbutford Seedling (1). — Very good ; tops green with laterals. 



Webb's Telegrapb (1). — L>ead ripe. 



Sntton's Racehorse (Ij. — Excellent; tops still rather green, but no 

 laterals. 



Thomas Almond's First Early (1). — Very good; dead ripe. 



Mona's Pride (1). — Excellent; dead ripe 



Birmingham Prizetaker (Ij. — Excellent; tops quite green, but no 

 laterals. 



Gardner's Premier (1). — Excellent; dead ripe; not yet in com- 

 merce. 



Walnnt Leaf (1). — Very good ; dead ripe. 



Old Early Ashleaf, true (1). — Excellent; dead ripe. 



White Blossom Ashtop (1). — Dead ripe. 



Fenn's Rusbbrooke {1). — An improved Ashtop for pot culture, not yet 

 in commerce ; dead ripe. 



Fenn's Rector of Woodstock (1). — Not yet in commerce ; dead ripe. 



Fenn's Onwards ('2). — Not yet in commerce; some of the tops 

 rather green with laterals ; ripening off. 



Rivers's Royal Ashleaf (*2). — Excellent ; ripening off. 



Rintoul's Early Don (2). — Veiy good ; ripening off. 



*Edgecote Second Early ('2,1. — Vigorous tops, quite green. 



Hague's Ividney (2). — Ripening off partially. 



Transell's Seedling (2). — Round ; dead ripe ; excellent. 



•Sussex Kidney (2). — Dead ripe. 



Beehive (2). — Vei-y good ; tops quite green, no laterals to the stalks ; 

 a " brother bee-keeper's " Scotch seedling. 



Daintree's Baker's Dozen (2). — Excellent; ripening off; not yet 

 in commerce. 



*Almond's Yorkshire Hero (2). — Vigorous ; tops quite gi-een. 



♦Wheeler'.? Milky White (2). — Very good; tops partially ripening 

 off, the remaiutler green with laterals. 



■fEmperor Napoleon (2). — Tops quite a forest of green laterals. 



♦Taylor's Yorkshire Hybrid (2J. — Tops quite a forest of green 

 laterals. 



Dean's W^aterloo Kidney (2). — Excellent ; ripening off. 



♦Dawe's Matchless (3). — Enormous dark green tops, no laterals. 



•Patersou's Scotch Blue (2j. — Dwarfish tops, quite green, no laterals. 



♦Patersou's Victoria (3). — Enormous tops, quite green, with no 

 laterals. 



Dean's Improved Ashleaf (2). — Very good ; ripening off. 



*" Ainsworth's " KidneylS), — Monstrous dark gi-een tops, no laterals. 



Royal Albert (21. — Round; very good; dead ripe. 



A variegated-foliaged Potato (2). — Only variegated when young; I 

 shall cast it away. 



+.^n Australian Potato (3). — Monstrons light green foliage without 

 laterals. 



-^01d Cobbler's Lapstone (3). — Vigorous foliage, quite green, begin- 

 ning to throw up laterals. 



After thirty years' attention to the culture of the Potato, yon 

 may conclude that I should not retain au uncertain kind. If 

 any supertuberation shows in the trials of my seedlings I de- 

 stroy them without mercy. A Potato that will supertuberate 

 this year may prove an excellent sort next year and the year 

 after, but in seme succeeding season, sooner or later, it is sure 

 to supertuberate again, and so seriously destroy the hopes of a 

 crop. This is the case of the Lapstone and all its family. 

 I have repeatedly proved it, and although from the superior 

 appearance and quality of this kind I always grow it, it is never 

 to an extent to trust it. 



Again, a Potato that will supertuberate one season is more 

 liable to suffer from the disease in another. Do not the Lap- 

 stones confirm this ? If another example is wanted, take the 

 Emperor Napoleon. Four years ago when I first grew this 

 kind it supertuberated so badly that I could scarcely save seed 

 enough. The second season 1 was in a similar case from the 

 disease. Last year from the same cause I found myself in the 

 same position, and for the present I believe if I am rewarded 

 with a dozen of its tubers free from supertubers, that will be 

 the outside, and this from two soils as opposite in their nature 

 as it is possible for them to be. Equally objectionable from 

 the same defect are Old Betty and Early Ten Week, Mitchell's 

 Early Albion Kidney and Sutton's Racehorse, Old Walnnt- 

 leaf and Thos. Almond's First Early, Taylor's Yorkshire Hero 

 and Edgecote Second Early, Daintree's Baker's Dozen and 

 Dean's Waterloo Kidney, Dawe's Matchless and " Ainsworth's " 

 Kidney. 



