Febiiiary Ul, 18Ca ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



1B6 



which I have no doubt is the cabbage moth (Mamestra bras- 

 sicn;), very destructive ami common everywhere. The perfect 

 insect appears in May ami .Time. — Fiiank Fowler, liavcnfulalc 

 Park Gardens, .Wwry, Ireland. 



rOTATO PRODUCE. 



Tnn extract which you gave from tho .Journal of the Royal 

 Agrioultiiral Society on Potato pmilnco was excetnlingly inter- 

 esting. The experiment.-! having been conducteil on so large 

 a scale, nnd with tho great care and attention which Mr. May 

 bestowed upon them, are, doubtless, entitled to great weight 

 and consideration, and are very important. Very possibly I 

 am wrong; but, still, tho deductions derived from tho result of 

 his experiments are, to my mind, somewhat contradictory, and 

 it would be a great boon to Potato-growers in general if some 

 of your correspondents would be good enough to give us their 

 experience, or tho result of any experiments they may have 

 made in tiie culture of the Potato. 1 Ciinnot help thinking 

 that it would have been useful if Mr. May had enumerated tlio 

 varieties experimented with, tho nature of his soil, the quantity 

 and nature of the manure used, and whether the plants were 

 earthed-up or not. 



I cannot quite reconcile in Mr. May's rcsnmi: of the results 

 the following deductions : — 



1. — " Every increase in the size of the set, from 1 oz. to 

 8 ozs., produces an increase in the crop much greater than the 

 additional weight of the sot planted." .5. — " That the weight 

 of the crop is proportionate to the weight per acre of the sets, 

 and that small sets will produce the same crop as an equal 

 ■weight per acre of large sets." The remainder of the deduc- 

 tion as to the fact being of limited application, is, of course, 

 indisputable. 7. — That " smaller sets give a larger produce in 

 proportion to their weight than the larger sets." 



Deductions 1 and .5 do not, according to my interpretation of 

 the experiments, coincide with 7 ; for it would appear that if 

 an acre were planted with small sets, which Mr. May admits 

 may be planted with advantage at less intervals than larger ones 

 (3 and elsewhere), and also assuming that each of tho small 

 sets would give a proportionately larger produce (7), would it 

 not clearly be a profit in the produce of the acre, and be par- 

 ticularly important to small growers, who purchase their Pota- 

 toes by measure, and who would thus obtain a greater number 

 of smaller sets, and also to those who do not keep pigs, and 

 might thus utilise all their sets, which were too small for the 

 table ? The word " produce " may possibly, as used in 7, refer 

 to the number of tubers, which would, of course, alter the 

 case ; but the experiments beiug conducted in general with 

 reference to weight, I should not think that an exception was 

 made in this instance. 



I will now state one or two facts which bear upon the sub- 

 ject, and are derived from experiments, or rather the trial of 

 some different varieties in 186(5, the following year to that in 

 which Mr. May's experiments were made, and which year was 

 in our neighbourhood rather a good one for Potatoes. It was 

 then that I first tried Potatoes without earthing-up, but my 

 gardener was wedJed to the old system ; each plan was 

 tried with several varieties, and on the same piece of ground, 

 but although the result was in favour of the old plan, I was 

 convinced that the sets had not been planted deeply enough. 

 In 18G7 I took care that they were planted from 6 to 8 inches 

 deep, and the result effected a complete conversion of opinion 

 on that point. I should bo glad to hear your opinion, though 

 I feel almost sure you will advise deep planting and not earth- 

 ing-up. The Potato which succeeded best in this way was 

 Wheeler's Milky White. This is a first-rate Potato. A few 

 Flukes came up the next year, small sets which were over- 

 looked, having remained in the ground, and the average crop of 

 these was 18 ozs. per set. Now, no small sets in Mr. May's 

 experiments could well liave produced this weight, none but 

 small sets could have well escaped notice in my case, and the 

 highest average in his experiments with *2-oz. sets was about 

 16j ozs. I tried the following Potatoes : — Uivers's Royal Ash- 

 leaf, two varieties of Flukes (I do not know their names), 

 Gloucestershire Kidney, Baron's Perfection, Flourball, Phea- 

 sant's Eye, and Snowball. According to my experience, small 

 seta of the Gloucestershire Kidney produced a larger crop than 

 the larger ones, and the same with Snowball ; but I do not 

 care about this variety, it is not sufficiently mealy. Baron's 

 Perfection gave the largest crop at about 4-oz. sets. 



I intend to mike some more extended and careful experi- 

 ments this ytar; but at present I cannot help thinking that 



the best size to plant is frora 2 ozs. to 5 ozs, that it is best 

 not to earth-up, and to plant S) inches from set to set in the 

 rows, each row being froiu 18 to 20 inches apart. — W. S. R., 

 Tlit't Florence, Cole fur d, Gloucestershire, 



LAPAGE1U.\ UOSEA AND LAPAGERIA 



SPLENDENS. 



I AM glad to seo that Mr. Douglas has been the first to write 

 on the culture of tlieso splendid plants, and I hope his remarks 

 ■will be followed by others. I am tho fortunate owner of two 

 as line plants as any in England : so says one who ought to 

 know. 



They have been left almost to themselves, and had plenty ol 

 water summer and winter. Many of my friends recommended 

 rest ; but the fact is, tliey would not rest since 1804, and were 

 growing up to last May. I then experienced a sad fright — I 

 thought my best plant was going to die, but no ; it went to rest 

 until the end of June, and in July began to show flower buds, 

 and continued flowering up to Christmas. I bought it in 1857 

 when a very small plant. 



Mr. Douglas speaks of seedlings at '2s. M., but I am afraid 

 our friends will have a long time to wait before they flower. 

 My plant above mentioned did not flower till ISUIi. It is 

 Lapageria rosea. It evidently makes strong wiry roots down- 

 wards, and likes its crown kept high. I have seen a good many 

 plauts of it, but none of the vigour of mine. I do not find 

 that it is subject to the attacks of any of the greenhouse pestg 

 mentioned, but in its younger years slugs were sure to find it 

 out ; it defies them now, for its stems aro as tough as wire. I 

 have just finished repotting one of my plants into a pot "2 feet 

 in diameter — the largest I could obtain — and I carried out Mr. 

 Douglas's advice with respect to soil. I should mention that 

 occasionally I put a little Coudy's patent fluid into the water. 

 It sweetens the soil and stimulates the plant ; and if any of 

 your readers would try it on their Primula plants that have 

 nearly done flowering, they would bo astonished at the effect. I 

 put in enough to make tho water of a pretty pink. 



As to the mode of training, I have the pots sunk into the 

 table at each end, which is 14 feet long ; a light wire arch is 

 thrown across, so that one plant meets the other, the flower 

 buds coming through and hanging down like so many scarlet 

 bells. Any one purchasing a plant I recommend to buy a good 

 plant well established. 



Lapageria sploudens flowers in clusters, whilst L. rosea has 

 only one flower at tho end of its stalk. The former has a long 

 sharp leaf, whilst that of the latter is more round and some- 

 thing like ttie leaf of Lapageria alba. Any of our friends 

 having plants of either must not lose heart at the growth not 

 beiug rapid at first, for they will be astonished some day by 

 seeing them throw up something like the head of an Asparagus. 

 Mine last year threw up four the size of a man's little finger, 

 and they are now 10 feet long. 



I never knew a flower last so long as that of the Lapageria 

 after it is cut. I gave a flower of it to a lady who wore it in 

 her hair at a ball, next night at the theatre, and had it fresh 

 still hanging on its stem a fortnight longer. It does not turn 

 brown at the tips like the Camellia. 



I have sent you a photograph of my plant. You can make 

 what use of it you like. I should say that sometimes in winter 

 the thermometer in my house has been as low as 32°. The 

 plant seems to live in extremes. — W. A. 0., Sunderland. 



[The photograph shows a very superior specimen of Lapa- 

 geria rosea ; and beneath it sits its owner, looking as bright as 

 if care had no chance with him. — Eds.] 



IS A DRY OR MOIST ATMOSPHERE THE MORE 

 CONGENEVL FOR SETTING MUSCAT GRAPES? 

 On looking over your .Journal for January 16th, I saw some 

 remarks on the above-named subject by one of your able and 

 experienced contributors. It has often occupied my thoughts, 

 but I trust that the readers of these few remarks will not sup- 

 pose that I am about to give a direct answer to Mr. Melville'* 

 question, but siiaply to state a few facts that have come under 

 my special notice at different times 



At my present situation we have a house containing twelve 

 Vines of Muscat of Alexandria, which every year are in flower 

 in the month of .\pril. I have noticed that during the whole 

 time these Vines were in flower we have had dull wet weather; 



