December 2r>, 1860. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



481 



the crop would not have been so Rood, either in quality or 

 quantity. 



There is little or no danger of damaging the crop in the re- 

 moving of the superfluous slnuvx, and the cost will not exceed 

 in any district of this country u\. per imperial acre. 



The Potatoes were dug up on the 8th of August last. The 

 produce of the cut sets weighed 15 lbs., of the small whole sets 

 23 lbs., and of the large whole sets 31 lbs., each of the lots 

 being raised on 10 square feet of ground, At the same rates 

 an acre would produce from the cut sets seventy-two bags (or 

 1152 stonesi, from the small whole sets 111 bags, and from 

 the large whole sets 150 bags. The proportion of out seed re- 

 quired to plant an acre is six bags, of the small whole Potatoes 

 nearly ten bags, and of the large whole Potatoes twenty-four 

 bags. The same variety of I'otatoes planted was sold this 

 year by retail at 3s. per stone. At this rate the cost would be 

 (per acre), for the cut seed, £14 8s. ; of the small whole seed, 

 £28; and of the largo whole seed, 857 12s. 



Supposing the produce of the different sets to be sold at the 

 Battle price per acre, they would realise respectively £172 16 . 

 £2b'(j 8*"., and E360. It will thus be seen that after deducting 

 the extra price of the seed, labour, and per-eentage thereon 

 from the latter sums, a handsome balance will be left in favour 

 of the whole sets. 



It has been often asserted by persons who are looked upon 

 as good authorities that the only way to avert the disease is 

 to plant no Potatoes but those that are ready for storing in July. 

 Upon this plan I havo acted for the last sixteen years, and 

 during that time I have not lost one Potato by the disease 

 until last year, when I met with a considerable loss, owing to 

 having been too long in digging them up. 



The Potato best suited in my opinion to avert the disease, 

 and to remunerate the grower is Smith's Early, frequently 

 called " Smith's Curly," probably from its producing long nar- 

 row curly leaves similar to those of the Ash-leaf Kidney. 

 It resists spring frosts better than any other variety known 

 to me, ami produces a large quantity of Peach-coloured bloom 

 about the beginning of June, a thing not common to early 

 Potatoes. It is, however, the earliest Potato that I know of, 

 being round in form and of a large size. 



Some parties in this district, however, have not succeeded 

 so well as could be desired in the growing of this Potato, hav- 

 ing cut their sets after the sprouts had been once or twice 

 broken off them ; therefore, nothing but a poor bhmky crop 

 could be expected. If growers treat them in the way recom- 

 mended they will be amply rewarded. — James Doebie, llenfreu: 



March (or A]>rilj to mark each flower as it comes out, and to 

 -end the lists to you either at the end of each month or at the 

 cud of the spring. 1 hope that you will give the lists a place 

 in your columns. 



1 will add that, to make such lists really useful, it will be 

 necessary to observe three points — to put down every flower as 

 it eomes out, whether ornamental or not ; to put down tho date 

 when first seen in flower; and for each writer to give hi L 

 ftddn ,b ii. ii, il, ,wers an ti ulv oi in,- flowers in some parte, 

 which are summer flowers in others 



The specific name and not the generic only should be given. 

 In tho Narcissi, for instance, some species flower in February, 

 or even earlier, and some are as late as May. — H. N. E., 

 Bitton licinuh'. 



[We will readily devote the necessary space not only for 

 lists of plants flowering in the spring, but of those flowering in 

 each of the twelve mouths. Wo shall be obliged by onr readers 

 — the more, the more useful— sending us a list of the flowers 

 11 m( the dates of their appearing in each neighbourhood. The 

 list should be sent at the close of e*ch month, and in this form : 

 Name. 

 Snowdrop 



—Eds.] 



Date of [lowering. 

 January 5 



Place. 

 Teigmnnuth. 



ORCHARD-HOUSE ON A SITE WITHOUT SUN 

 IN WINTER. 



My garden slopes to the south, but almost at the bottom of 

 it rises a hill very abruptly to the height of 300 or 400 feet, 

 so that at this season the sun at midday barely touches the 

 wall farthest away from the hill. All the remaining part of 

 the garden is without sun, and will be so till February or 

 March. Do you consider it very disadvantageous for an 

 orchard-house without artificial heat, or a heated vinery to be 

 erected in such a garden '.' and do you think that the incon- 

 venience of having such buildings at some hundreds of yards 

 from the gardens and gardener's dwelling, would be compen- 

 sated by having more of the winter sun '.' We have here 

 (south-west coast of Ireland), very little frost but much raiu, 

 the fall ranging between 60 and 70 inches in the year. — K. K. 



[If you eould do nothing else, we would not hesitate to place 

 an orchard-house or a late vinery against the wall, which the 

 sun now barely touches at midday, but which will receive 

 more sun as the days lengthen ; but having a position some 

 hundreds of yards from the gardener's dwelling, where you 

 could command the winter's sun, we would much prefer that 

 for general purposes. 



LISTS OF SPRING-FLOWERING PLANTS. 



I believe many of your readers are interested in winter and 

 spring-flowering plants, and I wish, with your permission, to 

 propose a plan by which we may obtain a good and complete list 

 of them. A few years ago I sent you a list, which you published, 

 but I could now send you a far fuller and more accurate one. 



I would ask those of your readers who feel an interest in this 

 class of plants to put down on the 1st of January the names of 

 all plants then in flower, and from that date to the end of 



VINE BORDERS. 



I head in the Journal of the 11th inst., page 449 : " When 

 borders are outside it is much against the Vines when these 

 borders are soaked with cold rains ; and it is very unfavourable 

 to the keeping of late Gropes when the whole system of the 

 Vines is charged with moisture." Again, Mr. Fish says in 

 the next paragraph but one : " All houses intended for early 

 forcing, with borders outside, should have these borders securely 

 protected from the changes of our climate.'' 



Since reading the account, page 420, of how Mr. Miller, an 

 amateur gardener at Bishop Stortford, has formed his Vine 

 borders, I have looked through the books — from Mr. Pearson's 

 little one, in which he recommends green turf, which from 

 many soils would make the worst possible Vine border, to 

 Thompson's big one ("The Gardener's Assistant," a capital 

 j book) — and in no book or periodical can I find any method of 

 making raised Vine borders like those at Mr. Miller's, so as to 

 occupy the whole area of the inside of the house. No method, 

 in my opinion, so sound and common-sense-like has ever been 

 broached, reminding one of the great revolution in Vine cul- 

 ture brought on by Crawshay, when he, a brewer in Norfolk, 

 originated or practised successfully the spur system of pruning 

 Vines. It is curious that to amateurs in science we are often 

 indebted for great advances. It is, however, very probable that 

 inside raised borders, having no communication with the out- 

 side, are in existence. Let us hope that, if so, some one will 

 tell us, through your columns ; the method of making them 

 seems so simple. 



In page 450 Mr. Fish seems to think that such borders have 

 been recommended, but would not do for the amateur, who is 

 in the habit of making his vinery a greenhouse summer and 

 winter. No amateur with a grain of gardening sense would 

 keep his greenhouse plants under the shade of Vines in sum- 

 mer. He may grow a few summer annuals, but not enough to 

 givo much " splashing and dropping." The truth is, raised 

 inside borders will be one of the great blessings of the age to 

 amateur Grape-growers, who often, as I have seen, have their 

 little vineries neatly paved inside, and a hideous mound 

 " dressed " with manure outside, probably in or near to their 

 flower garden, calling forth daily an apology from the educated 

 amateur gardener as to the necessity of giving food, however 

 disagreeable, to his Vines to make them bear fine fruit. Out 

 upon such ways ! Let every lover of Vine culture imitate and 

 improve upon Mr. Miller's system of border-making, so that 

 the vinery may be in the centre of the flower garden without 

 disfiguring it. How slow we gardeners are. If this had been 

 an improved method of cotton-spinning instead of Vine-border- 

 makiug, it would have been in a few years spread over the 

 whole world, and have made two or three Arkwrightean for- 

 tunes ; but because it is the gardening invention of a clever 

 man of business, it will be long mumbled about before it is 

 swallowed. — Forwards. 



The Royal Ashleaf Kidney Potato. — Allow me as a favour 



to ask your correspondents not to place my name to this 



' excellent sort. It was raised from seed by the late James 



