38—1846. ] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE, 629 
wind of Zephyrus, and as exquisite when they blow.— 
Micklewell, [Pray do.] 
THE AMATEUR GARDENER. 
A rew words on Potatoes. From Roses to Potatoes 
May by some be considered a bathos, but as they often 
Brow in close propinquity, there is no reason why the 
methods of cultivating them should not be discussed 
together. Most amateur gardeners who have space 
enough, grow this favourite root; and as skill is de- 
Manded in this as well as every other department of | , 
gardening, I feel sure any hints I may throw out will 
Not be considered out of place. From the unfortunate 
experience in Potato growing of the last two years, it is 
to be feared the culture of this vegetable will be much 
Yestricted, if it does not become generally disused, and 
the combined results of the experience of all horticultur- 
ists must be brought to bear upon an attempt to miti- 
ate the evil. i 
I grew nearly two acres of Potatoes last year, of which 
about a rood consisted of Ash-leaved Kidneys ; these 
all escaped the disease, having been taken up in July, 
efore it began to manifest itself, and continued per- 
fectly sound until planting time. With very few excep- 
tions this is the case in the present season, as, with me, 
the early Kidneys were ripe before the pestilence ap- 
peared. The amateur may be reminded by this fact, 
that it will be better to discontinue the growth of late 
otatoes, and to confine himself to early sorts. What- 
ever may be the cause of the distemper, it does not 
Appear to develop itself until after Midsummer, and it 
is evidently promoted by the rains of July. Plant 
early, and in the most sunny situations, sets perfectly 
free from disease, of the various early kinds, and you 
Will probably escape withoutloss. The ground will then 
be available for other crops, which is not the case with 
the late varieties. 
Finding my crops were suffering last year, and the 
tops of many sorts being quite dead, I took up some at 
the beginning of September, at least a month before 
the usual time ; others were left in the ground until 
ovember, and were removed as spare time could be 
Secured. Now I found invariably, that those taken 
Up early did not keep so well as those which re- 
mained longer in the ground. It was predicted that 
the disease would extend if the Potatoes were not stored 
away dry as soon as possible ; but I did not find it so. 
On the contrary, no larger proportion of those taken up 
in November were useless than of those stored away two 
Months before, while the sound ones were firmer, and 
kept better. Iam convinced the root is safer in the 
Eround than anywhere else, and whether the tops are 
Pulled up or not, it will be better to allow the tubers to 
remain where they are, until fully ripe. I am not able to 
Speak of the effects of removing the tops, never having 
tried it, My crops at present are almost all destitute 
of foliage, and the stems are dry and black. To be of 
Service, I presume, the tops should be removed before 
e decay is consummated, for in the condition just de- 
scribed they perform no vital functions, and, I should 
think, can exert no influence on the tuber. 
n taking up the Potatoes last year, the rotten 
Ones were left on the field, the sound ones stored 
away, and all that were infected were steamed and 
given to pigs. By those infected, I mean all that 
ad the dark brown appearance below the skin, 
and which was easily distinguished from  rotten- 
ness, Having cut some tubers thus affected, I 
found the wounds on the brown or infected art, 
granulated and healed as rapidly as the healthy por- 
tions, which proved (as it appeared to me), that no or- 
ganic change of structure had taken place. I have 
eaten such Potatoes with impunity, and the pigs did 
Well upon them. The brown part always boiled hard ; 
but the sound portion maintained its usual character. I 
lost very little last year by the infection; while my neigh- 
bours left all the spotted Potatoes to rot in the field. It 
Was expected the pigs would suffer; but they were 
healthy and fattened on their food; the brown part 
eing devoured by them as eagerly as the other. 
Itis worthy of observation that the disease did not 
Spread at all during last winter. The crops were stored 
ina dry granary till December, when they were looked 
Over and removed to a cellar on a level with the yard. 
le brown parts seemed to hecome very hard ; but did 
Dot extend. Indeed, my Potatoes were kept better than 
this year, and we were eating fine Pink-eyed Kidneys in 
the beginning of August. Most of them were quite 
dry before taken from the field. I fear I shall not be so 
fortunate this season, as the disease appears to be more 
extensive than it was last year, and the crops are much 
Smaller. All the varieties I have are withered, except 
the Jersey Blues. These look well at present, although 
the stock the sets came from was much infected. I in- 
end to pursue the same plan this season which I found 
peeessful last autumn, and still hope to have a goo: 
Otato till * Potatoes come again.” It is necessary to 
Mention that the experience here detailed was gleaned 
Rear the junction of Herts and Beds, and may not be 
Applieable to other localities.—Z7. B. 
Wome Correspondence, 
Polmaise Heating.—l have hitherto watched with 
atification the progress of the Polmaise discussion, 
ooking upon Mr. Meek as the champion of our 
» Which, T hoped, was about to prove the overthrow 
$ anti-ventilating faction, I have scarcely repressed 
B 
a 
Cause, 
Of th 
My delight at each succeeding prejudice upset by his 
quiet philosophy. I nowgcall'upon your readers to 
judge between us, whether he has not, in his letter of 
the 5th inst. (I trust, unintentionally) deserted the 
cause in which he embarked, and to say if he has not 
thrown over the best feature—the great fact, as he him- 
self would style it—which so many of us are anxious to 
establish. Let us for a moment refer to his letter in 
our Paper of March 14, and mark the tone of cutting 
incredulity with which he asks, * Is it possible that Mr. 
Glendinning objected to that which most horticulturists 
insist upon as essential to vegetable health ? Is it pos- 
le that Mr. Glendinning used these words, * If the 
house had been heated by hot water, it would be unne- 
cessary to admit fresh air from behind?’ ” So far, 
Mr. Meek advoeated, and ably advocated, the prin- 
ciples upon which I still stand. He certainly was, 
then, “one of those horticulturists who thought 
fresh air essential;” or 
Mr. Glendinning: by using an argument which 
he held untrue; but the principle may not be dis- 
puted; it is like most which Mr. Meek has ad- 
vanced, copied from nature, or let us rather reverently 
say from the God of nature, in all whose works there is 
none more beautiful than the economy by which animal 
and vegetable life harmoniously oppose each other to 
maintain the nice balance of atmospheric purity. I 
will presently show that it is a fallacy to suppose hot 
eurrents of fresh air cannot be discharged into rooms 
already full; but I will first consider the inutility of the 
practice of merely agitating the atmosphere unless it is 
also changed and renovated. The agitation of the air 
is intended to supply the office of wind, but mark the 
difference—the agitation of air producing wind is a 
means, not an end; one important object effected 
thereby is the conveyance of air charged with carbonic 
acid gas, the product of respiration of animals, to the 
leaves, which are the lungs of plants: from this delete- 
rious gas, destructive to animal life, plants derive ad- 
vantage, abstracting the carbon and rejecting that 
oxygen upon which our life depends. Is this effected 
in the plan described by Mr. Meek on Saturday last ? 
Does an air-tight chamber, by a continual exchange of 
its warm air for the cooler atmosphere of a forcing- 
house, furnish the best copy of the natural means above 
described? If no external air is to be admitted, why 
not erect a simple uncovered stove somewhere in 
the forcing-house. This would be much cheaper, 
and would obviate the necessity of forming drains 
for the currents of air, since the hot air would ¢ertainly 
rise, allowing the colder to find the level of the stove 
without any such assistance. But farewell to Polmaise, 
or, at least, to all that is good in Polmaise ; not that I 
ever believed that it was perfect, but it was a step in 
the right direction, likely to prepare the world to re- 
ceive a system which makes ventilation not the com- 
panion only, but the basis of warming. The fact that 
warm air can be poured into a room already full, is, at 
first sight, paradoxical enough ; it would doubtless be 
difficult to fill a vessel with warm water if it was already 
full of cold, but supposing the vessel to leak in two or 
three places at the sides, and the wonder is somewhat 
diminished. This is the case to a very large extent in 
every dwelling-house; crevices in the windows, in the 
doors, and in all directions, provide for the escape of 
portions of the air, and the rapidity of its exit will be 
increased according to the force of air struggling to 
occupy its place. If this is the case in our dwelling- 
houses, how much more is it so in those where all the 
walls are windows? I shall, however, rely upon the 
proverbial stubborn character of facts to prove that 
which I have asserted. One of my apparatus has been 
employed for several winters at the Victoria-rooms, 
Clifton, where it warms 113,000 cubie feet of lobbies, 
passages, and rooms of public assembly, maintaining a 
temperature in the very cold seasons from 30° to 40° 
above that of the external air, at a cost of 6d. in 24 
hours for fuel. This is effected solely by supplying 
warm air, the whole of which is derived from outside. 
It were easy to multiply examples; but I think the 
above must prove beyond a question that it is possible 
to drive warm air into rooms already full of cold ; and, 
as might be expected from the greater number of accis 
dental exits for air in horticultural erections, the system 
acts there with equal facility, while the plants evidence 
how congenial this natural treatment is to their welfare 
by a vigour which cannot be surpassed.—R. Hazard, 
Bristol, Sept. 7. 
The Camberwell Beauty, &c. (see p. 613).—I may 
mention in addition to the specimens of this rare butter- 
fly already obtained, that I lately caught two of them. 
suspect they are male and female, one being much 
larger than the other. It surely cannot be possible 
that it is “40 years since the Camberwell Beauty has 
een seen in this country,” neither is it foreign to our 
land; at least, the two I have appeared fresh from the 
chrysalis. The sphinx convolvolis has been also rather 
plentiful in this neighbourhood (Norwich). Ihave cap- 
tured eight fine specimens of this giant moth, whose 
proboscis or flexible trunk is nearly as long as one’s 
fore finger, which enables them to suck from flowers at 
a considerable distance. In the twilight of a warm 
evening in September, it is really interesting to see this 
moth hovering about, and one fluttering past might be 
readily mistaken for a small bat, instead of being the 
convolvolus moth.—J. Wighton. [#C. G- p." men- 
tions that he caught a Camberwell Beauty in his garden 
at Lincoln, in Avgust, and we are informed that another 
has been seen resting on a plant in Sherwood forest.] 
Polatoes.— Mr. Simpson, schoolmaster and librarian at 
Cambo, near Morpeth, has for several years been in the 
habit of covering his Potato sets, when planted, with a 
layer of Moss (Hypnum), and that again with the soil. 
I lately saw many of the Potatoes taken up ia his 
garden, and observed that almost all the tubers that 
were entirely covered by the Moss were perfetly clean 
and free from taint, whereas all those (on the same 
plant) which were above the Moss or unprotected by it 
at the sides were either decayed or tainted. Would 
not this suggest that the Moss may have acted as a bad 
conductor of heat and thus have protected the tubers 
from sudden changes of temperature! — WW. C. Trevelyan, 
Nettlecombe, Taunton. 
Potato Blight. — Proceeding by the railroad from 
Spetchley (the Worcester station), to Birmingham, I ob- 
served in passing along the summit level at King’s 
Norton, an elevation of about 400 feet above the allu- 
vial land on the banks of the Severn at Worcester, and 
within three miles of the S.W. of Birmingham, a single 
row of Potatoes, extending about a mile and a half in 
length, planted close within a low Quickset fence at the 
top of cuttings varying from 6 to 20 feet above the 
line of the rails on the eastern side of the railway. These 
Potatoes seemed to have been carefully weeded and 
hoed, the plants were all in the greatest possible degree 
of health and vigour, all standing upright, about 
18 inches to 2 feet high; not a leaf showed the least 
appearance of blight. I pointed them out to the pas- 
sengers in the same carriage, and expressed my opinion 
that their escape from injury was from a two-fold cause. 
First, when loaded by a heavy morning dew, such as 
was prevalent most nights after the middle of July, the 
Potato leaves were screened from the rays of the early 
morning sun by the hedge till such time as the air had 
dried them ; and secondly, the perfect drainage of the 
roots on the summit of the cutting ; and that the joint 
operation of both had secured them. In fact, like 
many other observations, I feel most fully confirmed 
that the cause of blight is wholly owing to what I have 
pointed out in my letters in the Worcester papers. 
do not like to alarm the public, but I have observed a 
gradual atmospheric change going on in our summer 
atmosphere for many years past, and particularly by 
the increased frequency of thunder-storms, sudden 
whirlwinds, local torrents of rain, hail, &c.; and if I 
am right in my conjectures as to the causes, they, the 
electrical innovations, must increase in number. The 
Potatoes I had from myown garden have hitherto been 
good ; both the first early crop and the next succeed- 
ing are of better quality than last year. | I never suffer 
my Potato ground in the garden to be manured the 
year they are planted ; but use manure only the year 
before, when planted for Cabbages, Peas, &c. ; for I 
have long thought all: gentlemen’s gardens are too 
much manured, especially if stable dung is used. 
Rotten weeds, leaves fallen in autumn, mowing of turf, 
and twigs of pruned trees, are my favourite manures 
for the garden, after being used one year before for 
Cueumber and Melon beds. This has proved the worst 
fruit year, with the exception of Strawberries, I have 
experienced for above 40 years past. The insects of all 
sorts have exceeded anything of the kind I ever before 
observed. The Peaches I have had from the open 
walls I eould protect no other way than by surrounding 
each fruit with raw wool, which earwigs, wasps, flies, 
woodlice, &e. do not like to pass through. The Grass, 
Turnips, and in fact everything now vegetating, is in a 
state of the greatest luxuriance, and the daily exhala- 
tion from these and the moist exposed soil, raises such 
a body of vapour as to produce, every calm night, a fog 
equal to a London November fog. By advice I re- 
ceived this morning from a correspondent resident im 
Andalusia in Spain, he says everything there is burnt 
up, the crops have failed, the small farmers are totally 
ruined, and the larger much injured, the poor starving 
and almost roasted alive, nor do they expeet rain before 
next month, October.— John Williams, Pitmaston, 
Sept. 11. 3 
Supposed Substitute for the Potato.— Thinking that 
the enclosed report from Prince Edward's Island, as 
made to the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural So- 
ciety there, and communicated by him to me, may be 
interesting to you, I send you the full account of it.— 
Thomas Whalley, Liverpool. * Malpeque, P. E. Island, 
12th August, 1846.—Since the blight in the Potato 
began to appear in this country, my attention has been 
directed to the discovery of some indigenous plants that 
might supply a substitute for that valuable article of 
food. In this inquiry I have been aided by several in- 
telligent Miemac Indians, by whose assistance I have 
obtained two kinds of farinaceous roots. The first root 
of the above character was found at Hog Island, in 
Richmond Bay. It is called by the Indians mus-qua- 
sete. At the time it was discovered (on the 3d of last 
August), the top of the plant had withered, and no cor- 
rect opinion could be formed respecting its appearance 
above ground. Bulbs, now perfectly ripe, were found 
in the hard-wood forest, an inch deep in the soil, which 
is covered by a thin layer of decayed leaves. To some 
bulbs the dry tops and ligaments were attached. The 
surface where these roots are found is completely 
shaded; but the soil is good and the aspect warm. The: 
may be obtained in other parts of Prince Edward Is- 
land, but they are rare, and it was with difficulty that a 
pint of them could be procured by a whole Indian 
their appearance they resemble the common P 
having apparently the peculiar indentations called eyes 
The skin of the bulb is of a rusty brown colour, and 
the ligament by which each was nourished was found 
family. The average size of the bulbs is that of Cherries, 
but a few are found of much larger dimensions. In ~ 
