No. 1. 



Prevention of Potatoe Failure. 



21 



different from all else in view — we witness 

 the difference of colour in the foliaee of dif- 

 terent trees and grasses — and we look again 

 at the birds which sing to us, or at those 

 which prowl upon our labours, or at those 

 w'hich are domesticated in our yards, and 

 cannot avoid the question — how happens all 

 this beauty and variety, and riclmess of co- 

 louring"! And when the philosoplier steps 

 forward and undertakes to explain it all, we 

 really find he does not know much more 

 about it than ourselves. True, he may by a 

 beautiful process decompose a ray ot liglit, 

 and talk to us very learnedly about it, but I 

 have yet to meet the man, who could give 

 any other reason why the " Rose is red, and 

 the Violet blue," than that it is their respec- 

 tive natures to be so. 



In Maund's Botanic Garden for November 

 last, I find the following remarks in relation 

 to this subject; if they are considered worth 

 their room, please give them a column in 

 the Cabinet. S. P. 



"In reference to the consideration of 

 colours, we have usually found that the 

 black soil of old gardens, rarely affords 

 flowers with colour either so deep or bright 

 as fresh earth of redder lint. The rich 

 deep-coloured wall flowers, sometimes called^ 

 bleeding hearts, growing against a country 

 cottage, may have met the admiration of 

 many of our readers; and some may have 

 proved that by transplanting them into town 

 gardens, of black earth, they have become 

 comparatively pale and ordinary coloured. 

 This, it is possible, since acids heighten the 

 tint of many yellows and reds, may arise 

 from the deficiency of oxide of iron in such 

 soils. Liebig says, however, 'It must be 

 ammonia — an alkali — which forms the red 

 and blue colouring matters of flowers.' 



"On no subject is human knowledge more 

 defective, than that of the production, and 

 changes, of colours. Several theories have 

 been promidgated in different ages, but still 

 none that has been generally accepted. Al- 

 though astonishing advances in science have 

 lately been made, still our knowledge on 

 this head, may well keep us humble minded. 



" A few facts, proved by Dr. Lewis, may 

 interest our readers more than speculation. 

 Yellow flowers, unlike all others, communi- 

 cate to water or. to spirit of wine, durable 

 yellow colours, not alterable, but in degree, 

 by acids or by alkalies: the former only ren- 

 dering them paler; and the latter rendering 

 them deeper. Wool or silk, impregnated 

 with a solution of alum or tartar, receives, 

 on being boiled with the watery infusion or 

 decoction, a durable yellow dye. A durable 

 yellow lake is prepared, by precipitating 



with alum, an infusion of yellow flowers 

 made in an alkaline ley. In some of the 

 orange coloured flowers, the yellow matter 

 seems to be of the same kind as that of the 

 pure yellow flower; but the red matter 

 seems to be different from that of the pure 

 red flowers. The yellow matter is extracted 

 from these flov.'ers by water; and the re- 

 maining red matter is extracted by spirit of 

 wine, or by a weak solution of a fixed alkali, 

 in water." 



Prevention of Potatoe Failure. 



By Mr. James Cairo, Baldoon, Wigton. 



With the rem.arks in the last and pre- 

 cedins" Quarterly Agricultural Reports, on 

 the failure of the potatoe crop, I quite agree, 

 and have experienced the propriety of the 

 advice to plant unripened seed. My seed 

 potatoes last year (1842) were raised before 

 they were perfectly ripe, and I have had no 

 failure. Nearly all the seed I planted this 

 year, however, was the small unsaleable tu- 

 bers planted whole, rejecting the very small- 

 est. The crop was very healthy and pro- 

 ductive. Indeed I have never seen a failure 

 where small potatoes uncut, are used for 

 seed ; and I believe this uniform success to 

 arise from the small potatoe being unripe 

 when taken from the ground. This opinion 

 rests on the assumption that all the small 

 potatoes of a crop have not reached matu- 

 rity lohen the rest of the crop is ripe, as 

 bemg the last formed. If this be so, it 

 strengthens the common opinion, that the 

 less ripened potatoe of the upland districts 

 makes the best seed. But at the same time 

 we see how good seed may be had without 

 the trouble or expense of a change from a 

 late district, if we either plant the small po- 

 tatoes of our own crops, or raise a portion 

 for seed before they have reached matu- 

 rity. — Journal of Agriculture. 



Cotton. — Of the four great divisions of 

 the globe, Europe was the last to receive 

 the cotton manufacture, and England was 

 among the last to engage in that branch of 

 industry. So immense is the extent of the 

 British cotton manufacture at this time, 

 (1838,) that the }'arn spun in a year would, 

 in a single thread, pass around the globe's 

 circumference 203,775 times; it would reach 

 51 times from the earth to the sun ; and it 

 would encircle the earth's orbit eight and a 

 half times. The wrought fabrics of cotton 

 exported in one year, would form a girdle 

 for the globe, passing eleven times round the 

 equator. — SeabrooliS Memoirs on the Cot- 

 ton Plant. 



