March 16, 1876. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUBi: AND COTTAGE GABDENEB, 



313 



the last days of the tree, but I was not in time to seoure a 

 fragment of it as a memento when I learnt it was cut down — 

 the fire had done its work on the rare old trunk. It is rather 

 remarkable that Ilaigh and Kemster, both cobblers, should 

 have handed down to us one of the best Potatoes and one of 

 the best Apples that we possess. Peace to their manes I But 

 I thought it rather hard when I read " Blenheim Orange," 

 monopolising the name, and poor old Kemster put down in the 

 middle of a lot of aliases in a contemporary a few weeks since. 

 Such is the way of the world. I have been led into a digression, 

 but I made mention of my house more than anything else for 

 analogy of soil with my other holdings ; and we may presume 

 the gardens belonging to it have been under some sort of cul- 

 tivation verging upon six hundred years. I had the ground 

 bastard-trenched and composted well with a collection of dry- 

 earth-closet soil, and just before I planted the Potatoes had it 

 surfaced with lime quick from the kiln at the rate of a hundred 

 bushels per acre. One garden I reserved for the Americans, 

 and in the other I grew my new four-year-old seedlings now 

 under probation, and had both gardens under the ridge-and- 

 trenoh plan. No Potatoes could have given greater promise than 

 my new seedlings, and if the season had kept on propitiously 

 I should have tried to have bribed you to come and see them ; 

 but fully three weeks before they had arrived at their prime 

 the rains descended and the disease smote them in the haulm, 

 which caused me to " pipe all hands " and have the tubers out 

 of the ground, wet or dry as we could, and as quickly as possible, 

 or you may depend upon it I should not now have so fine a 

 sample of seed to look upon as I possess, comprising the one- 

 third out of the American sorts ; and I lost about one-sixth of 

 my seedlings from old Woodstock, if loss it can be called, as I 

 boiled down every specked tuber directly after they were taken 

 up, slightly salted them, rammed them into an old water- 

 barrel, and ktipt a keen eye upon the sound stock as they lay 

 thinly spread-out iu a loft. By thus proceeding I did not 

 have two pecks of my English sorts all through the season 

 that wore uuuseable, and those I burnt iu the copper furnace 

 to assist in boiling their less affected prototypes. 



After finishing the garden liftings I immediately turned my 

 attention to the fields, as the haulm of my seedlings there was 

 becoming affected. I found the tubers much worse diseased 

 there than they were in my garden grounds. This caused me 

 again " to pipe all hands," and fork all out with the utmost 

 dispatch possible, the ridges and the unoccupied alternate 

 trenches facilitating admirably. On visiting the diggers next 

 day I was most agreeably surprised, for, excepting about a 

 dozen square yards at each of the places I previously probed, 

 the Potatoes were nearly free from the murrain. Upon inquiry 

 I learned that upon those superficies I made probing upon, 

 near to the gate, had been " shot " some loads of crude night 

 soil a yoar or so previously. Nevertheless, I told the men to 

 keep on taking-up the Potatoes as sprinklings of diseased 

 tubers kept making themselves manifest. I had in result, 

 however, good cause for congratulation. My Onwards seedling 

 turned out the finest crop I ever had of it, and my Bountiful 

 along with it, and also a good many sorts of my newer seed- 

 lings were quite free, and a finer lot of Rector of Woodstock 

 could not be— too large in their tubers, in fact, taken as a 

 whole to please me, as I care more for a gentleman's table 

 than I do for a lot of huge samples to astonish the natives 

 upon the exhibition table. Thus ends the history of this field. 

 Stay, no not quite so. My very good neighbour Mr. Godden 

 accommodates me by letting me have about an acre of land 

 near home to prove my seedlings upon. Now he had growing 

 iu the same field not 100 yards from my plot a large plot of 

 Rector of Woodstock, planted according to the custom of the 

 neighbourhood. His seed was good, and it had been properly 

 kept in single layers and cared for throughout, but to no pur- 

 pose ; the disease smote the haulm, but the Potatoes being 

 planted on the flat too close together, and withal allowed to 

 remain iu the ground till the haulm was withered and gone, I 

 do not think my friend was enabled to secure more than a 

 third of the crop in a sound condition. And this was the same 

 with several other kiuda, comprising Breadfruit, Lapstones, 

 Pdterson's Victorias, Breaee's Prolific, &e., on the same ground. 

 I mention this circumstance hoping it may meet the eyes of 

 your correspondent the " Donbak Regent," and also in order to 

 re-assure " D., Dial," from whom I ask pardon for addressing 

 as " Mr. Deal " when I met him last autumn at the Alexandra 

 Palace. 



Again I had last season another large plot of Potatoes 

 much farther afield oa the stouebrasb, a poor soil which it 



runneth not in memory of ever having Potatoes grown there 

 before. I grew mine there specially for seed, and calculated 

 from the circumstances to secure a healthy crop. Not so, 

 however. They were stricken iu their haulm as soon and aa 

 badly as any, and the tubers became the worst afliieted by 

 consequence of our not being able to take them up till those 

 nearer home out of richer soil were completed lifting. Now 

 here is a moral. Of late years I find that when Potatoes are 

 left in the ground after they are ripe, if their haulm has been 

 ever so free from disease the tubers will incur disease more 

 or less. They may look all right, and they won't go rotten to 

 signify for eating, still they will have contracted disease — zoo- 

 spores, resting spores. But under the operations of the kuife 

 when in use for culinary purposes, internal measly black spots 

 can frequently be detected throughout their whole internal 

 tissue, but never in those that are taken up early from the 

 soil and before they become quite ripe ; and this at any rata 

 warns us not to choose our seed but from early-lifted tubers. 

 I observed when cutting my American Potatoes into sets (large 

 tubers must be cut for planting) last spring, a great many of 

 them looked very measly as above. I destroyed those show- 

 ing thus, for althougti it was before Mr. Worthingtou Smith 

 had enlightened us I knew it could not be a healthy sign. 

 Those of them which I did plant were of course affected, 

 though not sufficiently so to be detected by the naked eye. 

 X grew the seed myself excepting one sort, the Thorburn'a 

 Paragon ; and the year before last I left my Potatoes longer 

 in the ground than usual, on account of this freedom from 

 disease and in anticipation of a party of friends coming on a 

 journey of inspection. This was the cause of my American 

 seed becoming spotted, and these spots I strongly suspect are 

 Mr. Worthingtou Smith's resting spores, and these resting 

 spores came early to life last spring. If the above surmises of 

 mine are correct, and our scientific guides can soon enlighten 

 us. Potato culture can be made soon to resolve itself into 

 more certainty by using seed not perfectly ripened (or even 

 very unripe indeed, such as I showed at the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society's Summer Exhibition at Bury St. Edmunds, and 

 planted and wrote advice about the following season). Secure 

 good tilth ; take care of the seed during winter by storing it in 

 singly in layers ; use early-ripening sorts as a rule ; plaut on 

 the ridge-and-trench plan ; place on good holding soil, and lift 

 the moment the disease strikes the haulm ; and here we are 

 beginning to resolve the cultivation of Potatoes into a nut- 

 shell. — Robert Fenn. 



OUR BORDER FLOWERS— CUDWEEDS. 



Not very numerous are the members of this family of plants, 

 but there is much about them that is interesting to the culti- 

 vator of border flowers, and both on festive and mournful 

 occasions they assist ns in accomplishing our designs, and are 

 attractive and emblematical. Seldom do we meet with these 

 plants receiving careful cultivation, but they are generally left to 

 take their chance in obscure corners. It ought not so to be, for 

 there is merit in some of our old favourites the Everlastings. I 

 have often admired a Clover field studded over with Gnaphalium 

 germanicum, with its erect habit and woolly appearance; but 

 more attractive still is Gnaphalium margaritaceum. If left to 

 its own way it is of straggling habit, but neatly staked it be- 

 comes a fine border plant, and requires room to develops 

 itself. It continues long in bloom, affording a good supply of 

 flowers, which are very useful for bouquets and for drying for 

 winter nee. Gnaphalium rectum, as it is seen in plantations 

 in limestone districts, is a very interesting plant to the col- 

 lector. There are others, too, of this family that ought to be 

 more frequently met with, and are deserving of far more notice 

 than they are at present receiving. 



Gnaphalium Leontopodium carries off the palm. It is a 

 splendid subject for the rockery, and the wonder to me is that 

 it is so seldom met with iu cultivation. Well-drained sandy 

 loam with leaf mould and limostone grit will afford it an 

 element to develope itself in. It may be increased by division 

 iu the autumn, and when well established cannot fail to be 

 admired. — Vebitas. 



"THE ROSE GARDEN." 



I HAVE just received this work, written by Mr. W. Paul. It 



should be in the hands ot all devoted lovers of the Rose. The 



portraits are lovely and tempting. I fear, however, few of us 



could grow the Roses as lovely as they are lepresented. The 



