Notes and Gleanings. 31^ 



practise this little piece of coddling till they become strong enough to bear 

 watering in the usual way. When you consider they are ready for the purpose, 

 prick them out singly into thumb-pots ; after which place them in a box-frame 

 or any similar construction, let them be kept shaded from the sun's rays, keep- 

 ing them rather close, and affording them very little air. Here I would observe, 

 that nothing is gained by sowing your seed too early ; because, as a rule, the 

 plants do not commence growing till the middle of July, and then it behooves 

 you to give them all the encouragement you possibly can, as from that time till 

 the latter end of October they will grow very fast. If they begin to throw up 

 flower-stalks before they have completed their growth, pinch them out. The 

 most suitable-sized pot to grow them in for ordinary purposes is a five-inch, or 

 48-size : for later flowering, use six-inch, or 32-size pots. The soil in which 

 they thrive best with me is leaf-mould thoroughly decayed, mixing with it about 

 a fourth of mellow loam and silver sand. Let the plants be potted firmly in 

 the soil : be careful not to allow water to lodge in the crowns of the plants. 

 The white varieties especially suffer from an excess of moisture. — Floral 

 World. 



Potato Improvement. — I would suggest that the following mode of 

 treatment may very probably give rise to new and perhaps unusually pro- 

 ductive varieties of the potato ; and, as real vigor of growth appears to be the 

 best preventive of disease, it may also be hoped that varieties raised by such 

 a process will resist its attacks better than any of those hitherto grown. The 

 potato selected should be the largest sized one of the variety that can be pro- 

 cured. All the eyes but two should be cut out ; or, if that is inconvenient, it 

 should be allowed to sprout before planting, and all the young stems but two 

 broken off. When it comes up, more than two stems will, in the first place, 

 appear ; and of them all but the two largest should be pulled up, care being taken 

 not to injure the plant, to avoid which the knife may sometimes be necessary. 

 Many small stems will continue to come up for weeks, which should be removed 

 soon after their appearance, so that only two stems are allowed to grow. Some 

 time before the flowers open, those parts of the stems which are above the 

 peduncles should be cut off, and also the branches from the axils of all the 

 leaves. The places of these branches will be quickly supplied by others for 

 weeks ; but these should be removed about once a week : also before the flowers 

 open, and as soon as it can well be done, all but the two or three largest should 

 be removed. It may be expected, when the fruit has ripened, that some of the 

 seeds will be found to be of larger size than usual. Of these, the larger only 

 should be planted, and the most productive seedling raised from them selected 

 to proceed with the experiment, which I should expect might be advantageously 

 carried on to the third or fourth generation at least. What would be the con- 

 sequences, I cannot conjecture ; but I believe that varieties of more vigorous 

 growth would be raised, which might, perhaps, prove to be much less liable to 

 disease, and more prolific. Having made the experiment but once, I am unable 

 to give complete directions ; but the principle will be sufficiently obvious. — Cor. 

 Card. Chron. 



