74 



JOUENAL Olf HOETICULTUBB AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



[ January 22, 1874. 



product of nearly double the bulk of that of the principal 

 Potato districts in the past season. 



This brings me to the other given cause of disease — wet 

 •weather and generally superabundant moisture. There can be 

 no doubt that this is the primary cause of disease, and none of 

 the methods of prevention given are of the slightest use as a 

 preventive. It is an evil which we may avoid, but we cannot 

 grapple with successfully if we wait its coming. The time 

 when the crop first sust.iins damage from a superabundance of 

 moisture is generally about the last week in August, some- 

 times a httle earlier ; but by cultivating those kinds only 

 which have been very aptly termed " early-ripeners, late- 

 keepers," the entire crop is always matured, lifted, and stored 

 securely before the fatal rains occur. It is notorious that dis- 

 ease was generally very prevalent last autumn, increasing in 

 virulence as the season advanced. By pursuing the method 

 of culture which I advocate I was enabled to lift and convey 

 to the storehouse the whole of the main crop in excellent con- 

 dition by the evening of August 16th ; thus saving it from the 

 effects of the unkindly weather which so quickly followed. 

 The valuable and interesting reports from all parts of the 

 country of the condition of the Potato crop, which were pub- 

 lished in the Journal in August and September, showed clearly 

 what complete success attends intelligent culture wherever it 

 is followed. From Dorsetshire, Worcestershire, Hampshire, 

 Essex, and Sussex the crops were reported to be in the store- 

 house on the 28th of August sound in condition and excellent 

 in quality. Long after this — late in October — Potatoes were 

 being taken up even along the south coast, and they were, of 

 course, badly diseased. Can it possibly be necessary to point 

 the moral ? — Edwaed Luckhuest. 



NOTES BY THE WAY. 



When I left London on the second day of this new year on 

 a search for health in the favoured climes of the " sunny 

 south," the thermometer stood at 50° F., the birds were sing- 

 ing as if it was spring, and the rooks, mistaking the unusual 

 season, had begun to build. My first rest was at Boulogne, 

 and the weather now became cold and wet, so that when I 

 reached Paris the great thermometer in the court of the Hotel 

 du Louvre registered 42° F. The next morning the streets of 

 Paris were bound with frost, and I was glad to hasten from a 

 state of things which I had already endeavoured to avoid at 

 home. The sun was powerful about Paris, and the days were 

 warm and spring-like, though the mornings were frosty ; but 

 by the time I reached the rich region of the Cute d'Or the 

 little hills and vmeyards were covered with snow, and on 

 arriving at Dijon I found the ancient capital of Burgundy 

 bound iiard in a black frost. 



I merely mention these facts for the information of those 

 of your readers whose ideas may hitherto have been at 

 variance with them, and who think that the farther south 

 they go the warmer it becomes. I only wish it had been so 

 in my experience. At Dijon my stay was short, on account of 

 the cold, though there is much to be seen in that interesting 

 old city. But it was not the wars and strifes of the Dukes of 

 Burgundy, the historical edifices, nor the cms of the Cote 

 d'Or (and they are very choice), which had their attractions 

 for me. I rather, notwithstanding the ungardening time of 

 the year, turned my attention in that direction to search out 

 what I could find. 



There is at Dijon an academy composed of a faculty of 

 Literature, one of Science, and one of Law; a school of 

 medicine and surgery, a hospital, and a school of art. In 

 connection with this there is also a botanic garden, situated 

 on the opposite side of the railway from the town, of which 

 Dr. Laguesse is the Director, and M. Weber is the Curator. 

 It is a small affair of from 3 to 4 acres, but it contains a very 

 good collection of herbaceous plants, arranged upon the 

 system of De Candolle, and all very carefully labelled. The 

 labels are worth imitating in our own botanic gardens. They 

 are small square plates of iron, raised on a long iron stem 

 2J feet high from the ground, so that the name is brought 

 near the eye, and feeble backs and stiff knees are not dis- 

 tressed by having to stoop close to the ground to read the 

 name, as is too frequently the case in public gardens. Some 

 idea of the extent of the collection msy be formed when, by 

 way of test, I counted the number of species of Clematis, and 

 found there were eighteen. I believe the garden contains 

 five thousand species in all. 



In the corner of the garden ia a piece of ground raised arti- 



ficially to represent a small hill, and on this is planted a collec- 

 tion of Vines, extending to three hundred varieties, consisting 

 chiefly of those employed in the various wine-growing dis- 

 tricts of France. I remarked in this garden an ingenious 

 contrivance to enable them to grow Ferns in a situation where 

 shade could not be obtained, and where, in a country Uke this, 

 in which the summers are so hot, shade is more essentially 

 necessary. It consisted of a shelter covered with laths, placed 

 about half an inch apart, effectually shading the plants, at 

 the same time light and rain are not excluded. I cannot do 

 better than supply you with a sketch of it, which will convey 

 more vividly the thing to the mind. It is H feet t> inches 

 high in front, and 4 feet at the back, and the width is 2 feet 



Fern Shelter, 



3 inches. The laths are about an inch wide, and half an inch 

 to five-eighths apart. Those at home who are troubled to 

 procure shade for those plants that require it may take a hint 

 from the garden at Dijon, and, perhaps, improve upon the 

 suggestion. A small stream runs through the garden, on 

 which some sagacious-looking old swans alternate their move- 

 ments with the garden, where they march in a stately line, 

 regarding on either side the possibility of securing a slug or a 

 worm. 



It is not only as a botanic garden that this establishment is 

 kept up. Gardening and botany appear to go hand-in-hand 

 here, as they ought to do everywhere else ; the one being the 

 helpmate of the other. There is here a collection of fruit 

 trees, illustrating all the forms of pruning and training, for 

 which French arboriculturists are famous. There are wire 

 trellises 10 or 12 feet high, and single, double, treble, and 

 palmate cordons trained to them. There are pyramids of the 

 ordinary kind, and others of fantastic shapes. There are 

 goblets of various forms, and all are admirably managed. At 

 the entrance-gate we were informed by a large placard that 

 M. Weber gives demonstrations in arboriculture, while Dr. 

 Lagnesse does the same in botany. It appeared to me remark- 

 able that while such things could be done in a departmental 

 garden in France, there is not in all Great Britain a place 

 where demonstrations in arboriculture can be obtained, not- 

 withstanding the importance of the subject to British land- 

 owners. There is something still wanting in our educational 

 system, and it is to be feared that in our solicitude for primary 

 schools, our educational boards forget the middle class and 

 the technical education of the people. I hope the day is not 

 far distant when we shall have departmental technical schools 

 among us, where the higher economics of botany and horti- 

 culture will be properly taught. 



In the garden at Dijon there is a fine hedge of Thuja 

 (Biota) orientalis, the Chinese Arbor- Vitai, which is 20 feet 

 high. I think from the upright habit of the tree and its dark 

 green foliage it is the variety which I used to know long ago 

 as tatarica, quite distinct in habit from the normal form of 

 orientaUs. Bat whichever it is, it makes an admirable fence, 



