490 



JOURNAL OF HOETIODLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENEE. 



[ June 24, 1875. 



here was exceedingly bright and good. In the class for new 

 Boses MiSBrs. Paul & Son were first with Wilson Saunders, very 

 fine; Japitaine Christy, good; Madame Nachnry ; Ingenieur 

 Madele ; i'rangois Courtin; Kobert Marnock, good ; Annie Lax- 

 ton ; Sultan of Zanzibar, good, and as dark as Mons. I'Africane 

 can desire ; and Mdlle. Marie Finger, very like Mdlle. Eugenie 

 Verdier. Mr. Turner was second with Jules Farre, Miss Has- 

 sard, Oxonian, Warrior, Peach Blossom, Bev. J. B. M. Camm 

 (good), Wm. Gates, Beauty of Thame (dark and fine), J. S. Mill, 

 General Chanzy, and Beauty of Slongh, a promising full rose. 

 Want of space compels me to pass over the other classes. 



A tent was set apart for Table Decorations, which, as they 

 always are at Exeter, were very good. The prizes were awarded 

 by a lady who has been herself a most succestftil exhibitor, and 

 yet some of the decisions were much questioned. The first prize 

 for three stands, which was awarded to Miss E. Wish of Broad 

 Clist, was far too large in the base — there would have been room 

 for nothing else on the table ; while we thought that had Messrs. 

 Veitch taken away the Anthurium Scherzerianum from the top 

 they would have been far the best. There was one single vase 

 which obtained the second prize, which was charming ; it con- 

 tained some sprays of Spirtea, Bhodauthe, Clerodeudron Bal- 

 fourianum, and some Grasses. The stands of wild flowers were 

 also very good. 



The Show was a very successful one, and all who had to do 

 with it may be congratulated on a result which at one time 

 seemed doubtful. For myself I can only tender my hearty 

 thanks to all those brethren in the craft who gave me, as they 

 always do, so kindly a welcome, and make my Exeter trip one 

 of the pleasantest 1 have in the year. — D., Deal. 



I Beauty are looking very uncanny after having arrived at a foot 

 or more in height ; even some of the stools of Thorbnm's 

 Paragon are dying away, imported seed of this season (?) 



t Bresee's Prolific and Early Kose, being some of the first im- 

 portation, sxe ■perluips acclimatised. 

 I will write to you again when I have experienced the worst 



[ that is likely to happen this season. News has just arrived to 

 me from Banbury that the contagion is there, so I fear we 

 shall hear of its becoming general. I hope and trust our 



I "cousins" will not introduce here their Colorado beetle. 



. Oar English Potatoes about here, including all my new seed- 

 lings, are looking unexceptionably well and robust. One of 

 my friends says he is digging Mona's Pride "as big as his 

 fist," and that is none of the smallest. I have not seen 

 them — that is, the big tubers, but his growing crop above 

 ground certainly gives augury for a fine produce, though 

 should the present tempests and the electrical state of the 

 atmosphere continue I shall have to write you ere long to 

 complain about them becoming diseased also, by which you 

 will observe that I still stick to my creed. Well, nothing 

 would give me greater pleasure than to shake "our Editors" 

 by the hand, and to chaperon them over my crops, and a few 

 other things besides Potatoes, which they would feel an in- 

 terest in should they shape their course this way. — Kobt. Fbhn. 



NEW DISEASE AFFECTING AMERICAN 

 POTATOES. 



I, WITH yourselves, regret this disease, though I feel glad 

 that the warning came from the right men in the right place. 

 Early this spring it was fully expected that my position here 

 would have been disturbed, but I took the precaution to rent 

 some garden ground at Old Woodstock, in which to grow and 

 make sure of my new seedling Potatoes. An extra plot also I took 

 to my aid, on purpose to grow the modern Americans, a piece 

 of ground noted for the good products of our English esculents. 

 But about three weeks ago I observed something was going 

 wrong amongst the Yankees. I mentioned this by writing to 

 my chief Potato-cultivating friend who grows them, asking 

 how his were " coming up." The answer was, " fairly well." 

 Now my disagreeable information is that three parts of my 

 American sorts are " gone off," and that just after their ap- 

 pearance above ground, something after the fashion which 

 used to occur iu our younger days called " bobbin jones," re- 

 sulting from heap-storing, frequent spurting and cutting the 

 seed — viz., young shoots struggling just above the soil, then to 

 curl up within, and be seen no more. The present complaint 

 could not be from the cause of " bobbin jones," for I had 

 petted the sets and kept them in single layers in wooden traya, 

 and not a shoot on them was suffered to take any bruise, ex- 

 cepting that I felt compelled to cut what Mr. Badcljffe has 

 christened the " whoppers ! " But I dusted lime over their in- 

 cised surfaces before planting. However, the curling kept on ; 

 my men said it must be the continued moulding slightly over 

 head and ears, to guard againet night frosts the Americans did 

 not like ; but I felt confident it was not that, so about ten 

 days ago I stayed all " fretting " and ordered every shrivelled- 

 foliaged set to be forked up, and at once sowed some Beck's 

 Improved Snowball aud Orange Jelly Turnip seed on their 

 sites on the ridges. My surmisings by this procedure were at 

 once clinched, and I await for a further knowledge of the cause 

 from Mr. Berkeley. 



The cut sets as dug up were as sound as they well could be, 

 after being some weeks buried within the soil, but the uncut 

 tubers were as sound apparently as when they were planted, so 

 much so that I presented them to my landlord's pigs. But the 

 young shoots? They were withering away, having a brown 

 sere appearance just up to 2 inches from whence they issued 

 from the sets, and tubers. That was the cause of the mischief, 

 But what lused that ? At any rate it will prevent me achiev- 

 ing a crop of " whoppers." 



The sorts I have this season are Extra Early Vermont, Snow- 

 flake, Late Kose, Brownell's Vermont Beauty, Willard's Seed- 

 ling, and Thorburn's Paragon. Of the crops of my neigh- 

 bours the freest from the contagion are Bresee's Prolific and 

 Early Eose, two sorts, luckily for them, most in cultivation 

 hereabouts, and I hope all those that mean to die off have 

 done so, though my whole planting of Brownell's Vermont 



This seems to be prevalent in nearly all parts of the country. 

 I left a bundle of haulm at the office (171, Fleet Street) on the 

 first week in June : some of it was from the gardens at Lox- 

 ford, and the other portion was brought to me by an amateur. 

 It has appeared here only on the American sorts ; a small 

 patch of Extra Early Vermont in the middle of a field has it 



' bad — nearly half destroyed. On the warm sheltered borders it 

 is the same. Hyatt's Prolific on one side and Veitch's Eoyal 



' Ashleaf on the other are sound, while the American is badly 



I diseased. The disease may not be infectious ; if it is, it will 

 be a great pity that any of the American varieties were intro- 

 duced. The experience gained at Loxford is all against them. 



[ A high price was paid for Early Kose, and alter growing it for 

 two or three seasons it was rejected as a miserable failure. 



! We have now tried what was thought the next best red early 

 sort — the one named above — and it cannot this year be dis- 

 tinguished from Early Eose either in haulm or tuber, and the 

 disease to boot ; it will probably go to the pigs Uke all the 



j rest of them. No more Americans if I can have my way. — 



I J. Douglas. 



[Since thd announcement made last week we have examined 

 more closely the Potatoes growing, or rather dying, in the 

 gardens of the Eoyal Horticultural Society at Chiswick. There 

 can be no question but that the disease now established there 

 is exceedingly virulent and destructive, and, like all other new 

 diseases, mysterious. This new disease is not now seen for 

 the first time at Chiswick, and we had no difficulty in re- 

 cognising its identity with occasional and limited examples of 

 an affection pertaining to the Early Eose which we have seen 

 in different parts of the country during the past two or three 

 years. 



We think many cultivators must, in past years, have ob- 

 served iu their vigorous plantations of the variety named a 

 root here and there wither and die. The foliage becomes 

 spotted, the stem discoloured, and in a few days not a vestige 

 of green is left ; in fact, to use a familiar term, which is exactly 

 appropriate and expressive, the plants have "damped off." 

 When this occurs, which is commonly the case when the young 

 tubers are just forming, the crop is necessarily ruined, not 

 because the tubers necessarily decay, but because their growth 

 is stopped before they have attained a size fitting them for 

 any useful purpose. Now that (of which isolated instances 

 will have occurred and be in the recollection of those who 

 have cultivated this variety from home-raised seed tubers), is 

 the identical disease which has spread so extensively as prac- 

 tically to destroy the crop at Chiswick. 



Mr. Barron might, as a matter of curiosity, have directed 

 attention to the disease existing to a limited extent in previous 

 years, but, as a practical man, he was cautious in raising a 

 feeling of alarm, aud wisely waited for evidence. This evidence 

 is now forthcoming, and proves beyond any manner of doubt 

 that the American varieties of Potatoes grown from home- 

 raised or English seed are specially liable to a visitation which 

 may, as instances at Chiswick prove, render the crop worth- 

 less. The information we gave was not a moment too soon, 

 for the disease is an established fact, not as a pathological 



