184 



JOUKNAL OF HOBTICULTDRB AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Febraarj 26, 1874 



been violated with regard to the Potato. If an animal ia taken 

 from a warm climate to a cold one, extra care is required to pre- 

 serve it in health. This is a fact which all keepers of zoological 

 collections can corroljorate, and the greatest care is taken in 

 their institutions to keep each animal in the fnllest vigour, so 

 that they may not suffer from the change of climate and other 

 foreign circumstances by which they are surrounded, and of all 

 animals the natives of tropical countries would be the most 

 likely to fall into a state of disease if these precautions were 

 neglected." 



*' Depend upon it, one great cause of the disease is that we 

 have not sufSciently studied the native country of the Potato 

 and adapted our treatment to it accordingly. 



" I remark further, that it is a disease and not a blight, and 

 that feebleness of constitution in the Potato is the great pre- 

 disposing cause of the disease." 



" The same causes always producing the same effects. In all 

 cases when the disease sets in just as the plant is making an 

 effort to perfect its tubers it is more violent than when the 

 tubers are in a more advanced state ; this is the reason why 

 early Potatoes ripening in July are not so liable to an attack of 

 the disease as are later crops. In the first place, early kinds 

 have always been more carefully treated ; and secondly, they 

 are scarcely ever subject to the same exciting causes, arising 

 from sudden changes during their growing season." 



" I come now to the principal cause of the disease — viz., the 

 constant rnbbing-off of the shoots of the seed tubers, which 

 operation being repeated year after year has so diminished its 

 vital energies, that the constitution of the Potato has become 

 weakened and debilitated, and thereby rendered increasingly 

 susceptible of disease. And the constant iU-treatmeut and high 

 cultivation it has been subject to, combined with the sudden 

 changes of our variable climate, have brought it into a state of 

 disease." 



" As a grower, I well remember how this process has been 

 conducted, generally once before Christmas and twice or thrice 

 afterwards, and on each occasion shoots in large quantities have 

 been taken away. I once said to one of my men as he was 

 taking away a large basket full of these shoots to the muck 

 heap, 'Don't you think it will greatly exhaust the Potato to be 

 continually taking away these shoots?' He replied, 'No doubt 

 of that ; and, besides, you wo'n't have so many Potatoes in 

 measure by nearly one-third at planting time as when they were 

 first stored away.' I found this to be perfectly correct, for when 

 planting time came the tubers were reduced to about half their 

 original weight ; they had lost their soUdity, and handled like 

 pieces of sponge, consequently their life, and health, and vigour 

 must have been greatly reduced." 



" The next consideration is the storing of the tubers for seed, 

 a matter of the most vital importance, because the first shoots 

 must positively be preserved. I lay more stress upon this than 

 upon anything else, because it is of more importance than all 

 other things together, for if you put your seed Potatoes away in 

 masses and encourage them to grow out, and repeatedly take 

 away the shoots, you take away that power which would enable 

 them to resist the disease in the future. The seed tubers, there- 

 fore, should be stored as soon as they are dug up. Dry warm 

 days should be chosen for this work, for if they are taken up 

 wet they can never be dried so well afterwards, and if you 

 can let them remain in the sun for a few days after they are 

 taken up so much better; but never mind about greening them 

 before they are stored, they will green fast enough afterwards 

 if properly stored. In all cases handle them very carefully, 

 even as you would your choice Apples and Pears ; always set 

 the most careful man you have to select your seed Potatoes if 

 you cannot possibly do it yourself." 



" The time of planting will vary a little, and wiU depend also 

 upon the weather and the state of the soil. March is the 

 proper time, and it is a very good rule to begin at the beginning 

 and finish at the end of the month ; but if the weather is open, 

 and the soil in a fit state, planting may be begun in February, 

 especially where there are large quantities to be planted; but 

 should it be a backward, wet season, and the land in an unfit 

 condition, it will be much better to wait, even though it may 

 become necessary to put on extra strength to get them in 

 quickly, for there is generally dry weather in March. In all 

 cases planting should be finished by the middle of April. 

 There will be no great difference between their times of coming 

 out of the ground, for even those planted in April will be up 

 quite as soon as it wiU be safe, for we often get hard frosts the 

 first or second week in May." 



sets. We are aware that the fall size for one set is as stated 

 by our correspondent. — Eds.1 



Cboqcet Ground. — In your Journal of Febrtiary 5th you 

 say, " 60 yards by 20 yards is a good proportion." Sixty yards 

 would be too long, and 20 yards too narrow. A full-sized 

 croquet ground is 40 yards by .30 yards. All the grounds at 

 Wimbledon are set out of this size. — G. A. 



[The croquet ground CO yards by 20 yards is used for two 



NOTES BY THE WAT.— No. .3. 

 The town of Mentone, or Menton as it is now called, since 

 its annexation for the second time to France, is a small place 

 with a resident population of little over six thousand, but in 

 the season, which extends from the middle of November till 

 the end of April, it is increased by between two and three 

 thousand. It is situated in one of those lovely crescent- 

 shaped bays in the Gulf of Genoa, of which Capo S. Martino 

 and Bordighera respectively form the horns, and Mentone is in 

 the centre of the crescent. No breath of rude winter wind 

 ever comes near it, and there it lies in the month of January 

 basking in a brilliant sun, and the blue Mediterranean in 

 front reflecting the rays like a Titanic mirror. But for all that 

 Mentone has its troubles, and those who come here expecting 

 to be rid of theirs are too frequently disappointed. It is said 

 that " every Rose has its thorn," and health-seekers will find 

 that even here they cannot indulge in acta of indiscretion any 

 more than they can elsewhere. Though the climate is so fine it 

 is very treacherous. The mornings and evenings are cool while 

 the days are sometimes insufferably hot ; and when the wind 

 blows from the sea, even on these hot days when invalids are 

 tempted to sit and lounge about, they almost invariably catch 

 colds which are sometimes of a very gerious character. 



The vegetation with which we are everywhere surrounded 

 has aU the character of a subtropical region. The Date Palm 

 (Phcenix dactylif era) , of which there are some magnificent 

 specimens in the gardens, here seems to luxuriate ; but though 

 it blooms and fruits freely, there is not suflicient heat to 

 mature the fruit. Agaves abound, both the green and the 

 golden-striped variety, these being planted in rows along the 

 promenade and in all gardens. At Villa Medecin, the resi- 

 dence of the Mayor, I measured the leaves of a striped one, 

 which were 6 feet 6 inches long, and this was not the case 

 with one plant only, but with many. I thought how some of 

 our exhibitors at home would long to have a pair of such for 

 a collection of twelve greenhouse plants. Here there are no 

 greenhouses, and the Agave is a hardy plant, growing on hOI- 

 sides by the roads and railways. Among the other plants 

 grown in the gardens and shrubberies are Sparmannia africana, 

 Australian Acacias, and Mimosas of several species, and 

 towering above everything may be seen in every garden Euca- 

 lyptus globulus, in some cases 50 feet high. Salvia fulgens. 

 Cineraria maritima, Veronica Andersoni, and Fabiana im- 

 bricata assume the form of bushy shrubs, while there are 

 Roses now covered with bloom, conspicuous among them 

 Marechal Niel and Gloire de Dijon. Datura arborea and the 

 red variety of Castor Oil plant (Kicinus communis sanguineus) 

 are quite trees, now blooming abundantly. Eriobotrya japo- 

 nica, Justicia arborea, Abutilou striatum, Habrothamnns 

 elegans are also large trees or shrubs now in bloom. The 

 Prickly Pear (Opuntia) is seen in great masses everywhere ; 

 and one of the most elegant and most abundantly-grown trees 

 of any is Schinus Molle, a very elegant and graceful tree, 

 with its pendant pinnate leaves and its clusters of coral red 

 berries. When bruised the leaves have a strong balsamic odour, 

 and emit a milky juice which is quite resinous. This tree ie 

 very properly planted everywhere. At Nice there are rows of 

 them on the Quai Maseena, in the public gardens, and, indeed, 

 wherever trees are planted. Pittosporum Tobira is also another- 

 favourite tree, attaining the size and producing much the 

 same eiiect that Portugal Laurels do in England. The Ole- 

 ander is very abundant, but not yet in bloom. There is a 

 pretty plant which produces a fine effect here at present, and 

 which at first sight looks like Tropisolum canariense, as it 

 rambles over screens, bowers, and buildings; it is Senecio 

 mikauia;formis. I never see it in England anywhere. I should 

 think it would make a good conservatory climber, and it blooms 

 all the winter. It is much grown in pots and suspended from 

 corbeilles in Belgium, from which it depends in " Creeping 

 Jenny " fashion. 



Gardening in the south of Europe is not practised — at least 

 what we in England call gardening. Everything here grows of 

 itself, and neither gets nor needs tending. Trees are pruned 

 when they need pruning, and weeds are kept down when they 

 grow ; but the climate is so hot in summer that neither weeds 

 nor garden flowers can grow. To garden here means incessant 

 watering, and water is scarce except during the rainy season 

 and when occasional showers come. Kitciien-gardeu crops 



