Angnet 19, I«C9. 1 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



137 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 



ot 



Week, 



Th 



P 



S 



Son 



M 



Tc 



W 



A0GUST 19-25, lf69. 



IS Sunday after Trinity. 



Wotton-uuder-Edpe HorticnUnral Show. 

 Biirton-on-Trent Horticultural Show. 



Averaue Tempera- ''?'°,'° 



ture near London. 



42 years. 



Day. 



73,2 

 72 9 

 7.'.6 

 717 

 71,9 

 71,6 

 74.2 



Night. Mean- Daya. 

 49.0 81.1 I au 

 61.7 

 60,3 

 60,7 

 60.5 

 69,8 

 62.0 



50.1 

 480 

 49.8 

 49.1 

 48,0 

 49,9 



14 

 16 

 21 

 16 

 16 



Son 

 Rises. 



m. li, 

 63al4 



San 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



ni. h. 

 l;!af7 



11 7 



9 7 



7 7 



B 7 



S 7 



1 7 



h, 

 2nf 6 



Moon 

 Bets. 



m. h. 

 47 af 1 

 45 2 



Davs. 

 12 

 13 

 14 

 O 

 16 

 17 

 18 



CIOCI! 



before 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Vealr. 



281 

 1!32 

 233 

 284 

 235 

 236 

 237 



From observations taken near London during the last forty-two years, the average day temperature of the weeli is 72 6- ; and its night 

 temperatnre ^.2", The greatest heat was 89', on the 25tb, 1859 ; and the lowest cold 82°, on the 21st, 1850. The greatest fall of rain was 

 0.96 inch. 



POTATO FAILURE— PRODUCE IN CORNWALL. 



osj;*— «aia EVERAL correspondents have written in the 

 ^T^^^^ Journal upon the Potato failure of this sea- 

 irw,^^^^^ son, anil however they may have ditfered 

 npon the speculative question of tlie causes, 

 they are unanimous as to the character of it. 

 To add to the facts already recorded on this 

 point, it may be of service to your readers to 

 know that throughout the western part of tlie 

 county of Cornwall the same irregularity of 

 growth has occurred. 

 This, however, was not the case with the early crop, that 

 planted all along the soutliern skirting of the county, the 

 Mount's B.iy district more particularly, in .January, and 

 wliich in April commences to tiud its way to the London 

 and other markets, where costly rarities have an outlet ; 

 but it was found in the second crop — that planted about 

 the second or third week in March. This year, owing to 

 the unusually severe frost which visited us about the 14th 

 of March, nearly the whole of what looked one of the 

 most promising early crops ever grown in the west was 

 destroyed. One grower alone computed his loss to he 

 nearly .£2000. The second crop was put in shortly after 

 this frost, its usual time being about the thu-d week in 

 March. 



In my own experience (having experimented on an acre 

 of ground), in tlie first week in January I planted Rivers's 

 Royal Asiileaf, Hyatt's Prolific, Johnson's Kidney, Devon- 

 shire Kidney, Flukes, and two sorts of Kidneys of local 

 celebrity as early sorts ; these all flourished to perfection 

 until cut down by the frost referred to. I found numbers 

 of tubers had formed from 1 to li inch long. The second 

 crop was of the same kind, taken from the same stock of 

 selected tubers which had been sprouted with all the 

 precautions recommended by careful growers, saved the 

 same time, and throughout shared precisely the same 

 treatment as the sets of the tirst crop ; nevertheless, whilst 

 the first crop had no break in it and grew luxuriantly, the 

 second had many and long gaps in the rows, and the 

 haulms that showed themselves were stubborn, ungenerous- 

 looking fellows, totally unlike their fraternity of the first 

 planting. Nothing could exceed the vigour of the shoots 

 at the time of pUrnting; the conditions of aspect and soil 

 were the same, both were planted in ground sloping to the 

 south and naturally of a dry character. 



Observation and inquiry lead me to regard the opinion 

 of "J. W., T.incoln" (see page 40, July 1.5th), where he 

 attributes the failure to over-ripeness of the seed, as the 

 one most in keeping with the facts. The condition of the 

 tubers, owing to the exceptional heat and sunshine of last 

 year, was such as to require these being planted two or three 

 months before they were. Those treated with early plant- 

 ing did well ; those kept later failed. A certain amount of 

 exhaustion must have taken place pi'ejudicial to the plant, 

 after a certain stage in the keeijing of the tubers, or I 

 do not see why, throughout so large an area of Potato- 

 growing country as about one-half of the caunty of Corn- 

 wall, we could witness the facts I have stated. 

 Ko. 1S8.-V0L, XVn., New Series. 



Thinking it might possibly interest some of your readers 

 to have some idea of the quantity of early Potatoes sent to 

 London and the north during the season, fi-om the Scilly 

 Isles and West Cornwall, I give the figures as kindly fur- 

 nished me by the Superintendent of the Cornwall Railway 

 — to the end of June 39,06-1 baskets, containing 1783 tons. 

 Of this the Scilly Isles coulributed. owing to the unfavour- 

 able season, only about 20 tons of early crop. The first 

 consignment left on the 17th of April. This quantity is 

 much below ordinary years. There also passed over the 

 line during the past Broccoli season 1^5,075 baskets, con- 

 taining 9357 tons. 



With your permission I may again return to the matter 

 of Potatoes, as several new kinds have been put on their 

 trial in this district — Patterson's Seedling, some American 

 sorts, &c. — and when I can ascertain the results of the 

 tests, you are welcome to the iuforraatiou. — Cornit.ia. , 



WAYSIDE JOTTINGS.— No. 1. 



I ii.wE been induced to forward the following notes, 

 copied almost verbatim from my diary of rambles, princi- 

 pally botanical, nndertaken in the few leisure hours that 

 I can spare from professional duties, in the hope that they 

 may prove interesting to such of the readers of Thk Jour- 

 N.u. OF HoRTicuLTCRE as are imbued with a love of natural 

 history. I would not be understood to put forward any 

 claim to be looked up to as an authority on botanical 

 m.atters, but rather as a learner, who would submit hia 

 exercises for correction and improvement by other corre 

 spondents of your Journal who hnve greater experience. 

 Living, as I do, at the north-western extremity of England, 

 and acquainted only with the plants commonly found in 

 the Cumberland valleys. I should feel obliged by a friendly 

 comparison of notes with gentlemen from other quarters 

 of tlie kingdom. Interesting as your weekly notices of 

 flowers and flower gardens are, I think there is room for 

 original remarks on their humbler congeners of the moun- 

 tain bog or the meadow, and such notices, with all diffi- 

 dence, I propose from time to time to place at your service, 

 to print or barn them according to your estimate of their 

 merits. 



Having heard from a friend of botanical proclivities that 

 an excellent field of observation presented itself at Dub- 

 mill, on tlie shore of the Solway Frith, I determined a few 

 weeks ago to make an examination of the neighbourhood. 

 A walk of something over six miles brought me to the 

 place. An old-fashioned litt'e mill, with a farm of average 

 extent for this part of the world, stands close to the shore, 

 divided from the shingle only by the road leading from 

 Maryport towards Silloth. A mossy broo'-; which turns 

 the mill discharges itself into the Sohvay just below. 

 About a quarter of a mile inland I found an uninclosed 

 piece of moorland studded over with large ponds of water 

 deeply tinged with the colour of the surrounding peat 

 mos«. Open cuts, serving the double purpose of landmarks 

 or boundaries of property and outlets of the superfluous 

 water in rainy seasons, strettdied across the moor in dif- 

 I ferent directions. The water in some of these " soughs," 



Ko.lo'.O. -Vol. XLII., Old Sebi: s. 



