378 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



the fourth weeks in April. Moderate growing varieties may be put into rows at 2 feet 

 apart, and strong late growers should be in rows 30 inches apart. A good depth to 

 plant is from 4 to 5 inches. In the rows the sets should be from 12 to 15 inches apart. 

 There is no gain in planting closer, and often much loss in doing so. As to methods of 

 planting, the tubers must be properly buried in the soil from 4 to 5 inches deep without 

 injuring the shoots on them. On light, loose soils a large dibble, shod with iron, answers 

 very well, but generally it is best to plant as the ground is being dug, or, if previously dug, 

 to throw out furrows of the above depth, setting the tubers into them carefully. If any 

 artificial manure be employed, it is a good plan to strew it into the furrows with the tubers. 

 Moulding the Plants. This treatment is given to Potatoes for some two or three 

 reasons, but chiefly because were soil not heaped over the tubers many would be exposed 



to the air, and they would thus become 

 green and unfit for food. A good ridge 

 of soil drawn about the plants also helps 

 to keep the stems erect and protected 

 from harm by strong winds. Prior, 

 however, to the moulding up, the soil 

 should be very freely hoed so as to 

 destroy weeds, and render the surface 

 loose and pulverised. The moulding 

 up is ordinarily done with the long- 

 handled hoe, but the greatest care 

 should be taken not to bury leaves, 

 rather to draw up the soil under them. 

 A good moulding up to a sharp ridge 

 also helps to throw off heavy rains from 



POTATO T*nv the tubers, and also those fungus spores 



which produce the disease. It is often, 

 when the soil is rather poor, good 



and air to harden them, whilst the larger ones intended for eating should be put into 

 a dry place, and secluded from light and air. 



The Potato Disease. This is a trouble our Potato crops are never free from. But they 

 suffer less in warm, dry seasons, and more in wet ones. The disease is a fungus propagated 

 by minute spores that become living and active germs during the summer, and, lodging on 

 the plants, are by moisture induced to root or grow into the leafage and stems, as also in 

 the newly-forming tubers in the soil, and thus produce those black spots with which we have 

 long been made familiar. Only one form of dressing seems so far to have been capable of 

 checking the growth of these spores on the plants, and that is found in what is called the 

 Bordeaux mixture, which consists of equal portions of sulphate of copper, or bluestone, 

 and of fresh lime, dissolved in water. If 5 Ibs. of bluestone be put into a bag and sus- 

 pended in a wooden tub containing 5 gallons of boiling water, it will dissolve in the course 

 of 24 hours, and 5 Ibs. of lime dissolved in a large pail holding 5 gallons of water until 

 quite clear. The latter liquid should be mixed with the copper solution, and to the whole 

 add 40 gallons of water. It will be wise to add 5 Ibs. of soft soap, well dissolved, to the 

 mixture, to render it more adhesive. This mixture is then sprayed by the aid of a knap- 

 sack-distributer over the Potato plants, giving one dressing about the middle of July and 

 a second early in August. Such dressings usually suffice to keep the breadths quite free 

 from harm by the Potato fungus. 



Varieties. These are very numerous, and, because new ones are annually introduced, 

 are constantly varying in popularity. 



First Earlies for frame, pot, or border culture : Ashleaf, Ringleader, May Queen, 



kidneys ; Harbinger, Victor, and Laxton's First Crop, rounds. 

 Earlies for open ground : Puritan, White Beauty of Hebron, Snowdrop, kidneys ; 



Early Regent, Snowball, and Ninetyfold, rounds. 



Main Crop Varieties : Up-to-Date, Bruce, Chancellor, and Reading Giant, kidneys ; 

 Challenge, Windsor Castle, Syon House Prolific, and Prime Minister, rounds. 



These are all whites. A few are well coloured. 



Radishes. These are very varied in character, as they include long, tapering, oval, 

 and round roots, in diverse colours ; also for winter use, round and tapering large roots, 

 black, white, and red. Radishes are eaten raw as salading, the most favoured being those 

 oval or round rooted forms that come in early in the spring. Seed of those should be 

 sown thickly on ground that has been heavily manured, the dressing being just buried 

 with soil. The first sowing may be made in February, the rest, following at fortnightly 

 intervals, being small ones. When the seed is sown it should be very lightly covered with 



