January 2, 1868. ] 



JOUBNAL OP HOBTICULTUEB AND COTTAGE GAEDENER. 



budded early in the season, a plant is formed at once ■which 

 should be removed in the autumn ; and planted in such a, soil 

 as mine, the bud should not be less than 4 inches below the 

 surface. I think " Countuy Curate " will lind, that if he 

 plant deeply enough roots will be formed much more rapiilly 

 than when the junction is too near the surface ; care must, of 

 course, be taken that the root of the stock is not buried in wet 

 cold soil, which will be very likely to cause the death of the 

 plant. If Manetti stocks are budded late in the season, it is 

 better to leave the bud dormant all the winter. This is done 

 by deferring till the following February or March the cutting 

 off any of the stock into which the bud is inserted. In severe 

 winters some casualties may occur in late budding. 



In October last I examined the roots of aliout fifty of my 

 oldest plants, now gi'own strong. In most of the budded plants 

 of more than three years old, roots had been formed upon the 

 stems, springing from the point of union and that part of the 

 first shoot below the surface. In the grafted plants which were 

 bought, plants of the then new Muds, and propagated under 

 glass, no such roots had been formed, although it is quite 

 probable that they will be produced. Not wishing to remove 

 the plants, I cannot say whether the stocks of those plants which 

 have roots formed from the Kose are dead or not. I cut off 

 several stems with roots on them and transplanted them to 

 another place. As " Country Cur.\te " would probably like 

 to know what kinds have formed roots of their own, in the 

 way above described, I subjoin the list : — Genital Jacqueminot, 

 Jules Margottin, Caroline de Sansal, Ceoile de Cbabrillant, 

 Senateur Vaisse, Due De Gazes, Princesse llathilde, Triomphe 

 d' Amiens, La Ville de St. Denis, Triomphe de Paris, Cardinal 

 Patrizzi, Louise Odier, Eugene Appert, Francois Arago, 

 Empereur de Maroc, and Louise Carique. — Adolphds H. Kent, 

 llleckinr/ley, Ridlull, Surrey. 



POTATOES. 



I AM obliged to " Upwards and Onwards " for his article at 

 page 485. Apples and Potatoes are the most valuable of fruits 

 and vegetables, because they can be cooked in more ways than 

 any other. 



As regards Potatoes, with me a dinner cannot be excellent 

 without a good mealy Potato. The Potato lists will soon be as 

 burdened with sorts as the Rose catalogues. Of course each 

 new sort is said to be the best early, mid-season, or late Potato 

 known. The difficulty is selection. Moreover, much depends 

 on the taste of a person, the soil, culture, and seasons. As 

 regards resistance of, or escape from the Potato disease, I do 

 not beheve that any sort can be said to be thoroughly delnant. 

 The earliest ripeners are as a class the most defiant. I beUeve 

 that the disease has outwitted everybody ; it certsiinly has up- 

 set all my calculations. I have known sorts much stricken one 

 year give the soundest Potatoes the next year, and i-ice versa. 

 Till we find out the nature of the disease we shall never per- 

 haps find the cure or prevention. Digging Potatoes before 

 they are ripe is a great folly ; you wiU lose just as many by it, 

 and you will spoil what otherwise would have been good. They 

 will be watery or waxy, the latter is to my taste the more 

 offensive. 



I must here observe there is but one way to cook and serve 

 up Potatoes — namely, to steam them, and send them up in 

 their jackets. ^Vhen they are " done " the steam must not be 

 stopped down upon them, or they will be soddened. Out of 

 the number of professed cooks how few can cook a Potato well ! 

 how few can roast a chicken or boil a leg of mutton as it ought 

 to be done ! Give me a duck or chicken roasted by a farmhouse 

 cook ; the maid Imows nothing of " made " dishes, and hence 

 she attends to and properly bastes these great luxuries. 



Let me, however, turn to selection. Mr. Eivers's ideas of 

 selection are that the Royal Ashleaf is the best to begin with, 

 the Lapstones to go on with, and the Flukes to finish with. If 

 I were to select a few only I would select the Koyal Ashleaf to 

 begin with, Fortyfolds, and an admirable Kidney Potato sent 

 here by a Yorkshire friend, said to be raised from the Ashleaf 

 and Lapstone, to go on with, and Salmon Kidneys to end with. 

 The last are the best latest Potatoes that I have ever eaten ; 

 they require high cultivation, and prefer strong land. I fear 

 that people estimate Potatoes by size and crop rather than 

 quahty and crop. What is the use of the crop if the quaUty 

 IS bad ? The qrtalitas vocis means a fine name, the qualitas 

 rei means a good thing. In how many instances have we been 

 beguiled by the qualitas vocU I Be guided rather by the nature 



of things than by their names. If a commodity is good I care 

 not whether it be called Noblesse or Stump the World. The 

 former is aristocratic, the latter democratic, or rather mundane. 



The following are also first quality Potatoes: — Brt-: iifririts. 

 Early Mans, or Mauns, Dalmahoys, Flukes, Prizetakt- ;, Red 

 Kidneys, and Silver Skins; the last are the nicest lo.. ring of 

 all the Kidneys. These are good Potatoes, and good crojipera : 

 — Mona's Pride, Early Handsworth, Scotch Rocks, called here 

 also Scotch Downs. 



Taking this season up to the present time I have not had 

 anything, for crop and quality, equal to the seedling Kidney 

 raised from the Ashleaf and Lapstone. Its formation is strictlj 

 " renal." 



As regards planting, I think Kidney Potatoes, especially 

 those that have mole's eyes, should be planted shallow, and 

 should not be planted till the eyes have started. They should 

 not be cut, or cut very much. I think that in dry seasons if 

 Potatoes were watered they would ripen earlier, and be safer 

 from the disease. I some years ago watered my Royal Ashleafs 

 just as I water my Roses, and they had not one diseased tuber. 

 Potatoes keep better, and are better flavoiired, when dug after 

 rain. — W. F. Radcltffe, Tarrant Eushton. 



GARDENERS' WAGES. 



The education of gardeners is a question that has been freely 

 discussed, and its importance I must admit. Education is very 

 necessary in order that the employed may give satisfaction to 

 the employer ; for what a great pleasure it must be for a lady 

 or gentleman to walk through the plant-houses accompanied by 

 an intelligent gardener who can give a descriptive account of 

 each plant that may be noticed. Yet this is expected from a 

 class of men worse paid than many labourers. Take for in- 

 stance one of hundreds of cases. A lad wishes to become a 

 gardener ; the first consideration, as a matter of course, is to 

 find him a place in a first-class estabhshment, which can 

 generally be managed by paying a premium, say £10, more or 

 less at times, to the head gardener, the lad receiving .8s. or 10s. 

 per week for three, four, or five years. His duties for the first 

 twelve months will be to attend to the fires, wash pots, and occa- 

 sionally clean plants in the houses. From that he gradually 

 ascends the ladder step by step, by being called to the potting- 

 beuch, tying plants, and assisting the foreman in the venti- 

 lation of the several houses. I will suppose his age now to be 

 twenty. After serving five years he seeks and obtains a. 

 situation as under-foreman, at the advanced rate of 15s. per 

 week. This situation he holds for a like time, taking notes fo 

 everything of importance carried on, taxing his memory with the 

 names of thousands of plants, their distinct treatment, &c. 

 From this he obtains a foreman's place as a finish off, at 18s. 

 per week. He holds this until he is nearly thirty years of age, 

 and often till later in lite, before he can succeed in obtaining a 

 head gardener's place. Many gentlemen object to engage a 

 gardener who has uot had the responsible charge of a place 

 prei'iously. I need not mention, that during the whole of the 

 sixteen years passed, he has been studying the practical and 

 theoretical branches of gardening, and out of his scanty pittance 

 he must deny himself almost the necessaries of life to purchase 

 books to gain the requisite knowledge of his profession. Should 

 ho after all these years succeed in obtaining a situation as 

 head gardener, it will depend on his being free from incum- 

 brance. At the rate of 30s. per week he may think himself at; 

 the top of the tree as regards wages. 



Now. I ask your opinion. Are gardeners sufficiently remu- 

 nerated ? They are expected to know a portion of many 

 branches of science, and they work hard all through the sunny 

 part of their lifetime, both in mind and body, making old men 

 of themselves almost before they are young ones. There are 

 very few that have had much to do under glass, who do not 

 know something about rheumatism, brought on by working 

 sometimes in a temperature of from 70° to SO" for hours, and 

 then turning out to cover up the frames, or something of thai; 

 sort, with the thermometer registering 30°. Gardeners have a 

 great many years of uphill work before they can acquire any- 

 thing like a general knowledge of their profession. Then there 

 is the responsibility and consequent anxiety day and even 

 night, that is, should they have the superintendence of much 

 glass. Many a gardener, I am sure, could bear testimony that 

 during the forcing season, what with over-anxiety aud fear 

 lest anything should go wrong, a sleepless night often falls to 

 his lot. The best of us are liable to failures sometimes, with 



