14 The Progress in Vegetable Cultivation 



GARDEN TURNIP. 



A brief reference must be made to the Garden Turnip. In the early days of Her 

 Majesty's reign as many yellow as white varieties were offered, although the demand 

 for the former has certainly not increased in proportion to that for the white- 

 fleshed kinds. 



Amongst the many improvements may be noticed Veitch's Red Globe, Snowball, 

 Dobbie's Model and Golden Ball, while the Red and White Milans arrive at maturity 

 quicker than any others. These should not be confused with their prototypes, 

 the Red and White Strap-leaved, which have almost had their day. 



Of the sorts imported from the Continent, apart from the Milans, much selection 

 and improvement have been necessary to make them worthy of a place in English 

 gardens. 



POTATOES. 



It will obviously be impossible for me, at the close of this lengthy paper, to 

 attempt to describe at all adequately the improvements effected in the Potato 

 during her Majesty's reign, and as I have already, in my paper on " Potatoes," 

 published in Vol. xix., Part 3, of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 dealt somewhat fully with this subject, I will now content myself with the fewest 

 possible remarks. As long ago as 1836 Messrs. PETER LAWSON & SONS published 

 a descriptive list of 146 varieties, and amongst some forty-five of the principal of 

 these I find only one which is still widely grown, viz., the Early Ashleaf. There 

 are other familiar names, such as Early Shaw and Don, but the remainder must 

 have passed out of cultivation at least twenty-five years ago. 



In 1852 the old Walnut-leaf Kidney, Early Oxford, Fortyfold, and York Regent 

 were grown all sorts of real merit in their day, but now seldom met with. That 

 excellent Potato, Paterson's Victoria, was widely cultivated up till 1880, but it 

 would be difficult now to find an acre of this variety true to name. The fact that 

 almost all these have disappeared from sight does not of itself necessarily prove that 

 they were worthless, or even inferior to others grown at the present time ; for it 

 is generally admitted that the majority of Potatoes will not indefinitely maintain 

 their full vigour of growth and constitution, the limit varying with each sort. 

 This is not to be wondered at when we remember that each year's growth is but 

 the prolongation of the life of the plant, which apparently had completed its work 

 when the haulm died in the preceding autumn. 



Still, I have no doubt whatever that even if we could reproduce such favourite 

 varieties as Regent, Paterson's Victoria, &c., in all their former excellence, and 

 plant them by the side of the best Potatoes of to-day, we should find that very 

 great progress had been made, not merely in productiveness and power of with- 

 standing disease, but also in flavour a point in which the older sorts are often 

 supposed to have excelled. We now have in Ringleader, A 1, Early Puritan, 

 &c., first-early sorts which are ready for use long before the so-called early Potatoes 

 of twenty-five years ago were ready ; and also several second-earlies, such as 

 Beauty of Hebron, Supreme, Early Regent, and Windsor Castle, which certainly 

 were not equalled by any of the older varieties in their own section. Whether 





