11.—1846.] THE 
GARDENERS’. CHRONICLE. 
165 
to be true, is applicable not only to horticulture, but to 
every purpose for which the distribution oj pheri 
heat is required, and which may readily be adapted by 
varying plans, to all the varying circumstances for 
which it is needed—church, factory, hothouse, stove or 
greenhouse. I will state how my attention became 
xed on this subject, though‘ not myself possessing a 
house heated on this system. Being a constant reader 
of the Chronicle, 1 saw from time to time the statements 
-of the great facts I have named; I saw some abusing 
the system ; some contending for it; but none denying 
the facts ; while no attempts were made thoroughly to 
examine the system by the light of nature and of 
science, to see whether these great facts were not exactly 
what we should anticipate if the system were so ex- 
amined. I felt that previous study of this branch of 
physics had placed mein a position to aspire to. this 
‘investigation, It is now before your readers, for them 
to judge of its accuracy; and I will only add, that every 
step in the argument has strengthened me in the con- 
viction that it is the most natural and philosophic system 
‘for the distribution of atmospheric heat yet proposed. 
1 prognosticate its complete triumph, for it is a step in 
advance ; and I will not asperse the memories of those 
:great men who made this branch of philosophy their 
Study, by supposing that they handed down to us state- |: 
‘ments as axioms, which are no axioms; and if the laws 
‘which they have laid down on this subject be true, 
Polmaise must triumph. 
At an early opportunity I will, with your permission, 
examine such new adverse arguments as may arise, 
and also endeavour to produce some further evidence 
in favour of the system..—D. B. Meeke, Holmdale 
‘House, Nutfield. 
DISEASES OF PLANTS 
[SNOW MOULD. 
To the same division with Mucor and Antennaria 
*belongs a very curious genus which is developed on the 
‘surface of the snow, and which claims notice here merely 
‘from its analogy with another production, which may 
fproperly be considered as affecting the vitality of plants. 
It was first discovered, in the north of Iceland, by Thiene- 
mann, who has described the genus under the name of 
‘Chionyphe ; but two other species have since occurred 
in Germany, one in the neighbourhood of Dresden, and 
in great abundance. It is developed on the snow in 
-clear weather, when the sun has power enough to melt 
the outer surface of the snow, without the existence of a 
general thaw. It appears to spring either from the dung 
“of some animal, or on snow which is impregnated with 
‘dung or urine, and soon spreads over the surface of the 
snow in shining fleecy patches, dotted with the red or green 
fruit, which resembles that of Mucor. When the snow 
melts, it is left behind, upon the subjacent Grass, in the 
form of a cobweb stratum of great delicacy, which soon 
Wanishes, 
The truffles have also their representative in the divi- 
éion with which we are occupied, in the genus Endogone, 
Lk., proposed many years since, but only lately redis- 
«covered in France by Messrs. Tulasne, to whom the 
‘credit of its determination is due, and still more recently 
by Mr. Broome, in S tshire, whose di ies in 
the undergrown Fungi are of such importance. It grows 
"upon Mosses in woods, forming little downy balls about 
the size ofa Pea, filled with a mass of threads, surmounted 
"by sporangia, exactly as in Mucor. 
., The plant to which I now wish to call attention, from 
sits analogy with Chionyphe, though of a very different 
structure, is one figured and described in a late Number 
«of the ** Botanische Zeitung,” Aug. 16, 1844, under the 
mame of Lanosa nivalis, by Professor Unger of Grütz. 
: "Unlike the former, it is developed beneath the snow, and 
äs in certain seasons extremely destructive to grass 
and corn. The years in which it is most injurious are 
h those when a deep snow sets in without any previous 
frost, when it sometimes destroys whole crops of corn; 
sand this is so well known to the farmer, that in such sea- 
‘sons itis customary in certain districts to plough up the 
‘hard frozen surface of the snow occasionally during the 
‘winter, The plant is ofa very simple structure, consisting 
«merely of branched transparent and occasionally anasto- 
FINDE jointed threads, the ultimate joints of the small 
zo branches of which at length assume a red tinge 
GIUM n the articulations, producing oblong spores, 
SR des. uh ite patches a foot or more in diameter, 
Selves evidently consist of a quantity of lesser 
sorbicular pa 
of FUE and when the snow melts at the end 
beginning of 
March,assume 
"here and there 
-a red tint, as 
if partially 
-dusted with red 
‘powder. This 
"change arises 
from the form- 
sation of the 
Spores, and the 
:8now is scarce- 
ly melted when 
the whole dis- 
ing behind a 
withered plot, ©” 
which accord- 
y 1, a patch of snow mould; 2, one of the 
ingtothegreat- threads magnified ; 3, the end of the latter, 
er orless vigour containing spores, more magnified, 
Or duration of the parasite, is either completely barren, 
or at length, if the disease be more superficial, 
slowly recovers its verdure. In some years the mould 
is so abundant, that the crops are completely de- 
stroyed, and there is no other remedy than to sow the 
landagain. It is more destructive to Barley and Rye 
than to Wheat, and the more luxuriant the bilade, the 
more subject is the crop to be.atfected ; it is customary, 
therefore, either to mow oif the flag, or to feed it off with 
sheep. The Barley is sown earlier, it may be observed. 
than with us, because it is more certainly protected in 
winter by the deep snow. 
These plants have not hitherto been observed in 
Great Britain, but it is very probable that they will be 
noticed, now that attention has been called to the subject. 
After the last deep snow, I observed withered patches 
in the pastures; but I was too late, possibly, to discover 
to what they were attributable. It is not, however, 
likely that our crops should frequently suffer from such 
a cause, at least in the lowland districts, where it more 
generally lies this winter; should deep snow set in 
without previous frost, there is every reason to believe 
that the disease will occasionally appear as in many dif- 
ferent parts of Germany.—M. J. B 
MIXED CROPS. 
1. As you invite suggestions of a substitute ‘for 
the Potato crop, I send you an account of an experi- 
ment which was tried last year by one of the best 
farmers in this district. He planted his Potatoes as 
usual, in drills about 30 inches wide, sets 9 inches 
apart, and betwixt each set à single Bean was planted 
at the same time ; the whole covered up in the usual 
way; and so treated till the crop was ready. Five 
bushels of field Beans were planted in this way over an 
extent of 3 or 4 acres ; they were cut when ripe, and 
produced 60 bushels. There wasno apparent diminu- 
tion of the Potato crop, which, like almost all others in 
this district, was partially diseased. The two crops 
grew together and presented a beautiful appearance 
when in bloom. Both Potatoes and Beans were planted 
in the beginning of May, and the soil was not of that 
strong character usually considered necessary for 
Beans ; but, on the contrary, was of a moorish sandy 
nature, and lately reclaimed from waste. The climate 
was good. ‘This plan was tried by my friend at the 
suggestion of the elergyman of the parish, who had seen 
it practised with success in Dumfriesshire. 
Would it not be well to suggest a trial of this plan 
in Ireland, instead of the total abandonment of the Po- 
tato crop? It may be done at little expense, and 
should the Potato crop fail, the Bean crop will be some- 
thing to fall back upon, while, if both succeed, which I 
trust in many cases they will, the people will still have 
their favourite, and, as yet, indispensable food, with the 
addition of a more nutritious article of diet. The 
earlier the crop can be planted the better, so far as the 
Bean is concerned, though, in the instance above, it 
was planted so late as the beginning of May.—James 
Caird, Baldoon, Wigtown, N.B, March 9. [The 
plan of planting Beans among Potatoes has already been 
advantageously tried in Ireland. 
2. A paper of mine on “ mixed crops,” with a view 
of finding something to help on Potatoes, and by in- 
creasing the quantity of grain, and the productiveness 
of the soil, enable us to meet any depreciation of price 
the repeal of the Corn-laws may cause, is now in course 
of publication in the Irish’ Farmers’ Journal. I will, 
however, now give you a short notice of my system :— 
I found in experiments last year tried for other objects, 
and which you will find detailed in the Agricultural 
Gazette of the 15th Nov., 1845, that grain (Barley), 
sown-in rows occupying an areal breadth of 314 inches, 
ave a much greater return (254 cwt. to the statute 
acre), than rows at smaller intervals (21 inches), that 
the outside rows of the same experiment differed but 
little from them; while the internal rows gave only an 
average of 16} ewts., and that the end plants of the rows 
tillered much more than the interior ones. Similar 
results attended a patch of Potatoes, the outside rows 
being superior by one-half to the internal ones. 
From the unexpected results, d from some 
other facts, I deduce that we may introduce into 
our fallow crops rows of grain at wide intervals, 
without injury to them, and returning us a very 
respectable crop of corn; for if rows occupying an 
areal breadth of 313 inches gave so very heavy a crop 
(253 cwt, of Barley), rows at intervals of double or 
treble that distance may be expected to give us at least 
one-half or one-thivd such crop, while the intervals of 
from 6 to 8 feet in breadth would give us a full crop of 
low growing vegetables, as Parsnips, Carrots, Turnips, 
&e., or even the more lofty and spreading one of Pota- 
toes, but as Potatoes also seem, to some extent, to fol- 
low the same rule, they might be made the wide row 
crop in lieu of the grain, and thus, in the event of the 
failure, there would still exist a very respectable crop 
of other vegetables. The ridge or lazy bed eulture of 
Potatoes, you know, is common in Ireland, and, | EX 
spised as it is, I think it is not so very contemptible 
[certainly not], and that it has many advantages. The 
wide furrow of the ridge allows for a free draught of air. 
I draw a distinction between simul and succes- 
sive mixed crops, and I offer you an exemplification in 
a plan I would recommend of alternating grain, 
Cabbage, and Potatoes, now in the ridge. I would sow 
in the centre a row of grain, very thin, on each side 
of this row, a row of Potatoes, and on brows, or edges 
of the ridge, rows of Cabbages. In the case of the 
later Potatoes, I would plant an early Cabbage in 
autumn, and in the place of the early Potatoes, I would 
Ree the Early Wellington Cabbage to succeed them. 
he grain and the Potatoes I term ihe simultaneous 
stops; the Cabbage with them, the successive crops. 
I make this distinction because in the simultaneous 
cropping, care must be taken that one of the crops in 
the connection does not acquire a too early rankness of . 
growth for the other. With Potatoes, the corn, 
Parsnips, Turnips, &c. should have the pas en avant. 
I think by thus mixing these three crops, one acre of 
land would produce as great a return of them as two 
acres would give, if each occupied the ground sepa- 
rately, and one crop only in the year. 
There is a circumstance I should mention ; 15 years 
ago, a rot, and, I think, probably the same disease, 
d in the neighbourhood of Killybegs, in the 
county of Donegal, but it did not occur till the begin- 
ning of May, when the seed rotted in the ground and in 
the house; the smell of the diseased Potato, and the 
taste, as well as I can recollect, were the same as in the 
present disease; it also attacked partially as this has 
done ; it existed for three, four, or five years in a 
neighbourhood ; from Killybegs, it spread northerly, 
then to Connaught, and afterwards to various parts of 
Ireland ; it reached the :¢ounty of Leitrim, and the 
neighbourhood from which I write, only three or four 
years since, and it has prevailed last year, when many 
instances occurred. 
uring the time it prevailed in Donegal, I secured a 
crop by planting my sets, in the first instance, ona 
dunghill, and transplanting them out when they were 
from 1 inch to 4 inches high. Dung-heap 3 feet, 
covered 3 inches with light earth, sets (they were 
scooped ones for the greater ease of transplanting) 
covered with 3 inches. Although many of the sets 
were completely decayed away at the transplanting, yet 
the plants did to the full as well, and not a miss in my 
crop—every other failed. About 2 acres each year 
were thus planted.—J. 4. M. Goodiff, Granard. 
Home Correspondence. 
Potato Disease.—I have upwards of 24 lights in pits 
of Potatoes which will be ready for digging next month. 
I have dug four lights of Potatoes that were planted at 
the end of November; I am glad to say I only found 
one young Potato that had a sign of disease; it grew in 
the middle of the bed under a broken square of glass; 
the soil was wet—all the rest of the soil I gave no water 
to. When the Potatoes were ripe, the soil was as dry 
as the dust on the street. I think, as far as I can judge, 
it is a good plan not to water the Potatoes under glass 
this season, and to ferment the dung or leaves well be- 
fore it is used. My employer, Lord Cottenham, told 
me that what Ihad sent to his table of this year's 
growth, were very good.—Geo. Urquhart, Copse Hill, 
Wimbledon. —— Although: there ‘be no certainty of 
the Potato crop for the present season, still some think 
otherwise, and even say that diseased sets will produce 
healthy erops, provided we have a good summer. 
Lately, however, I put some diseased Potatoes into pots 
placed upon a warm flue in the sun, whieh grew most 
vigorously, as if the tops were nursed by the decaying 
Potatoes. But yesterday the disease began to appear 
on the leaves, and to-day it is so increased that I fear 
that the stems will soon be as rotten as the Potatoes 
that produced them.—J. Wighton, Norwich. 
Potato Disease, began in 1844.—In November last 
I planted in sand, in boxes, Potatoes which were grown 
in 1844, and had been kept up to that time in an inner 
closet in one of the out-houses where I usually keep 
my winter stock. Some of the boxes are in the green- 
house, and others in a closet in the house, but the re- 
sult has been the same. ‘The shoots died away by being 
confined in a dark room, consequently no more ap- 
peared above ground since they have been planted. 
Some of the tubers have produced entirely disease: 
Potatoes, i. e. all on that tuber are bad, and other tubers 
have produced all healthy young ones. My stock of 
Potatoes last year was produced from the same seed. 
Those planted in a light soil were only partially dis- 
eased, whilst the same planted in a more retentive soil 
were half diseased. Some American Natives were 
planted at the same time by the side of those grown in 
the sandy soil, and entirely escaped, whilst some Ame- 
rican Natives which were planted in the retentive soil 
(but later) were very much diseased. From the above- 
mentioned experiment I am brought to the conclusion, 
that the disease existed in 1844 ; because the Potatoes 
planted in N ber were not infl d by the atmo- 
sphere, or by the wet season. But, on the other hand, 
how isit that the American Natives should be free 
from disease in a light soil, and not in a retentive soil ? 
Could the American Native seed be tainted, but the 
disease prevented by being planted in a light soil early, 
and matured before the excessive wet weather set in? 
The Potatoes which were planted in November last had 
been in a damp closet, and the small tubers formed 
before they were put into sand ; I am therefore led to 
suppose that the damp, unwholesome room, had encou- 
raged the disease in the same way as the wet, retentive 
soil did. A question arises in regard to the American 
Natives as to ‘the seed being tainted ; unfortunately I 
had none in the closet with the others, I find cutting 
off the end of the Potato, with the eyes, to answer per- 
fectly ; those cut off in November, and planted in the 
ground in December, have shoots an inch long.— George 
Swan, Garnston, near Retford, March 7. 
Variegated Kale.—ln my neighbourhood are some 
early Cabbages, so i beautiful in app: 
as to have attracted the attention of everybody ; they 
were raised from seeds of the common early Cabbage, 
