October 1, 1868. 1 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GAKDENER. 



239 



Potatoes in l.sti8, was o3!1,954 acres, against 4!t2,217, in 18C7, 

 and 4!)8,Sl;!, in 18C0. The average under Hops, in ISOS, was 

 Gl,488 acres, against 04,284, in 1807, and 50,iJ7H, in IKiiO. 



NOTES ON TEACH AND NECTARINE 



GROWING. 



{Concluded from page 221.) 



Protection. — The main object of protection is to keep the 

 blossoms dry. On the tops of hills, where hoar frost does not 

 prevail as it does in valleys, less protection is needed. Thatched 

 mud walls do not require so much protection as brick walls 

 with narrow copings. Fir boughs may sufiice for such situ- 

 ations and circumstances, but in valleys they will only hni'bour 

 the damp without keeping it out of the blossoms. It the 

 blossoms are wetted and a frost succeeds, they will wither away 

 as soon as the sun is powerful. I have often been amused at 

 seeing these trees protected (?) by rabbit nets. As well might 

 a shepherd on Salisbury Plain put a hurdle against his back to 

 keep out a driving rain ! To make up for the loss of night 

 dews I water my trees, which are protected by sheets. These 

 sheets I put on soon after Christmas to prevent the whole tree 

 being injured. People suffer rain and snow to fall on their 

 trees, a thaw melts the snow, which subsides to the knots, a 

 frost comes on before the tree is dry, and canker at the knots 

 ensues. Canker is more from without than from within. The 

 skin is killed at the knots, where the passage of sap is always 

 difficult, and hence canker and gum are produced. Strong 

 roots are not the cause of canker, but merely ancillary. I am 

 inclined to think that glass copings resting on brackets, and 

 removeable at pleasure, would be a good plan. In cold, wet 

 sunless summers they would greatly help to ripen the fruit, 

 also the wood. The success in the future year depends mainly 

 on the management and ripening of the wood of the current 

 year. Peach and NOvtarine trees should be mulched, at any 

 rate during the first winter and summer after planting. 



The Forms of Trees. — I think the fan form is best. I, 

 however, use cordons, also trees on high stems to go between 

 the trained trees, which should not be suffered to grow higher 

 than 7 feet, with 14 feet expanse. By allowing trees to ramble 

 high and wide, especially with long-pruning, their centres and 

 bases become bare, and their miin stems like rake-handles. 

 It is a good plan to fill up spaces between the trees with 

 single, double, or triple cordons placed perpendicularly. If 

 cordons are placed at an angle of 45", you must plant so as 

 not to be obliged to strain them with tight ligatures, whjch 

 will stop the circulation of the sap and produce gum in pro- 

 portion lo the sap. I plant mine upright. 



PiEMOVAL OF Leaves. — After the crop is gathered, the sooner 

 leaves can be removed without violence the better, to let in the 

 sun and air to harden the bark and buds. In a cold sunless 

 autumn this is a material point. Last year I cut all my leaves 

 in half, without any injury that I can perceive. This vear I 

 have done the same. I see it is recommended by Mr. Earley. 

 I am glad to have his confirmation, for I did not know whether 

 it was right or wrong practice. It should not be done while 

 there is a flow of sap. I cut my leaves in half on the 7th and 

 8th of September. Before this was done the leaves were so 

 green and thick, that some of the wood looked tender. 



Tiling the Roots. — After cropping is over, keeping the roots 

 dry greatly helps the tree to harden its wood, also to ripen it 

 and prevent late, useless, secondary growths. To effect this 

 I shall lay four or five loose tiles, overlapping each other, over 

 the roots near the stems. Unless the winter is very severe 

 they would be sufficient protection to the roots without any 

 further mulching. 



Insects. — So far as my experience goes, I have never found 

 any trouble except from scale and red spider. Till I came 

 here I never saw the former. Both have been very troublesome 

 this season, so favourable to these pests. They have, however, 

 done no material mischief to my trees. The best remedies are 

 hand-killing the scale and syringing, and constantly syringing 

 the trees affected by red spider. At one time there were a few 

 Peach aphides, of a duller colour than the Rose aphis. These 

 were destroyed by hand-killing and syringing. In syringing, 

 people should jet the water sideways ; first one way, and then 

 the other. It is of no use to stand opposite the tree, as red 

 spider and aphides are concealed under the leaves. All curled 

 leaves should be taken off, as the insects conceal themselves 

 and propagate under the edges of the leaves, where water cannot 

 touch them. As the fruit is nearly all picked, I have cut off 



half of every leaf, in order to better reach any remaining ene- 

 mies. I have also poured from a watering pot blue vitriol and 

 water over the leaves so cut. I am persuaded that the spring 

 and autumn, no less than the summer, are the times to keep 

 insects down. They propagate with wonderful rapidity, and the 

 neglect of syringing only for a few days will bo followed by a 

 dense population. In order to d'.tcct them, people should have 

 a magnifying glass. When the leaves look yellowish on the 

 upper side, and silvery on the under side, the mischief is done. 

 The leaves will not recover their colour. I admire Mrs. Pol- 

 lock and Lady Cullum Pelargoniums, but I cannot admire bi- 

 color or tricolor Peach and Nectarine leaves. 



Fungi. — I never remember seeing out of door? any on my 

 Peach and Nectarine trees. I believe mildew is the more com- 

 mon disease, and confined to glass culture. Glandless leaves 

 are said to be more affected by mildew than those which have 

 glands. The reason, I believe, is that viscid secretions, where 

 there are no glands to carry them off, pass through the leaves, 

 that the spores adhere, and in due time, when the weather is 

 favourable, root into the tissues of the tender leaves. Where 

 there are glands, these secretions pass off by the glands. Pro- 

 bably sorts with glands have leaves with closer tissues. I have 

 always observed that Rose plants which have close-textured 

 glazed leaves, are not so much affected by mildew as others. I 

 never remember seeing any on Solfaterre Hose. I mean to 

 dress my trees again after Christmas with blue vitriol and 

 water. Two ounces of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper), to 

 three gallons of water, could do no harm, and might destroy 

 much that would prove injurious. Soft-soap, which contains 

 arsenic, dissolved and added to water, is, I should think, a 

 good winter dressing. With regard to the blue vitriol and water, 

 observe it is only an experiment, and not a recommendation, 

 At any rate, whether our foes are insects or fungi, the sooner 

 we are free of them the better. We may be assured that what- 

 ever does harm to the foliage during the time of growth will 

 injure the health of the tree, decrease its longevity, and spoil 

 to some extent the flavour of the fruit. The value of leaves, 

 as respects flavour, is seen in the dift'ereuce between a Peach 

 or Nectarine that has a terminal leaf, and one that has none. 

 More care must be taken of the foliage. — W. F. Rauclyi'pe, 

 Okeford Fit^pniiic. 



POTATOES SUPERTUBERATING. 



Yonii correspondent, " A Wiltshire Farmer," requires ad- 

 vice, as the earliest-formed tubers have numerous youug tubers 

 issued from thera. I reply. Allow the crop to remain undis- 

 turbed, as there may be just a chance of the young immature 

 tubers becoming ripe before the frost come. On them " A 

 Wiltshire Farmer " must now rely for a table supply, as the 

 first tubers, from which the youug tubers issue, will on cooking 

 be found centred with fibre as tough as boiled straw, and worse 

 than a boiled Dahlia tuber. At taking-up time these old tubers 

 whence the youug ones sprang should be separated, and boiled 

 down at once for lean store pigf, making the mess palatable by 

 adding salt, with bran or pollard. 



I presume fresh haulm is not growing from the young tubers, 

 as it frequently does this season, for in that case the sooner the 

 whole crop is out of the ground the better, and the supertubers 

 merely kept for seed, as I explained in page 146 of this Journal. 



I promised to say something about my class Regents, and I 

 now take the opportunity. 1 took them up last week from 

 three different soils — namely, a light loam, stone-brash, and a 

 gravel-brash, well dunged. 



.^.Imond's North Riding Beauty, Regent (second early) — I 

 watched them narrowly, and dug them up the moment they 

 began to " spear," or they would have thrown up a thicket of 

 young tops without forming supertubers. 



Grjffe Castle Seedling, the best of all the Regents (I shall 

 grow no other of them for the future), is a capital crop. I be- 

 lieve it would have remained in the ground till next spring 

 without " spurting." 



York Regents were a thicket of sprouting gi-eenery, with no 

 crop at all, and of Sutton's Finest Regent, there was a miser- 

 able supertuberated crop. 



Walker's Second Early Regents supertuberated very badly, 

 and had feathers to their bonnets. 



Prolific Regents were small Potatoes, and a few in a hill. 



Scotch Rough Whites supertuberated. A miserable crop, 

 rough enough in all conscience, having cracked skins to au 

 unlimited extent. 



So much for Regents. The class served me the same in 



