August 22, 1878. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
147 
lent this year. Last year the disease was fearfully bad, about 
80 per cent. of the tubers in both gardens and farms being 
destroyed ; but this year it is the very reverse, not 20 per 
cent. being diseased, and the tubers are both larger in size 
and more numerous than they were last season. We have not 
a rain gauge here, but I should imagine that six times as much 
vain fell during the latter part of May and throughout June, 
July, and the early part of August last year, as has fallen 
during that time this season, and I think it is to the dryness 
of the weather that we have experienced during the last three 
months that the goodness of the Potato crop may be attributed. 
A variety named Harly Mealy and Prince of Wales are two 
that are the most subject to disease amongst all the varieties 
we grow. Paterson’s Albert, Paterson’s Blues, and in fact all 
of Paterson’s varieties, are excellent Potatoes both for abun- 
dance of crop, resisting the disease, and quality. Although 
many of the American sorts have the reputation of possessing 
all these qualities I do not consider any of them equal to 
Paterson’s. The American Snowflake, however, is a very hand- 
some Potato, and for exhibition it has few equals. Sutton’s 
new Magnum Bonum is a Potato which I think will soon be 
much grown. Here Gloucestershire Kidney is the best of its 
class, and I would advise any of your readers who do not 
possess it to try a few of it next year.—J. Muir, Margam. 
STRIKING ROSE CUTTINGS—DISBUDDING. 
No time of the year is more suitable for the insertion of 
Rose cuttings than the present, and there are very few Roses 
that will not thrive as well on their own roots as when budded 
on the Briar or Manetti. In some soils, and probably the 
majority, a better growth and finer blooms are produced by 
Roses grown from cuttings than by any other mode of in- 
crease. I am not now writing of Roses for exhibition, but 
Roses for making the garden gay and sweet, and rooms gay 
and sweet too, for I like to see Roses grown so that they can 
be cut by the bushel and yet not be missed from the bushes. 
Like many more, I haye never been able to buy Roses by 
the hundred, but I am thankful to say I have had the privilege 
of growing them by the thousand. A dozen or two at most 
are all that have been purchased annually, and then the object 
has been to increase those that were esteemed good, so as to 
have them in abundance. To this end Briars have been ob- 
tained and Manetti cuttings struck and eventually budded, 
and the same practice continues, but the most satisfactory 
mode of increase is by striking cuttings of the Roses them- 
selves. It is not the quickest mode, but it is the safest, and in 
the end affords the best supply of blooms and buds. 
Blooms and buds! I cannot refrain from repeating the 
words in the hope that something will be done to encourage 
Roses being exhibited in a less starchy, formal, and artificial 
manner than is the fashion at the Roseshows. Let the buds— 
the fresh, sweet, beautiful, half-expanded buds—have a better 
place than the rubbish heap, to which so many basketfuls are 
consigned in obedience to the law of exhibiting. Those buds 
are considered as robbers, but I consider those who pluck them 
so mercilessly greater robbers still. ‘“D., Deal,’ has written 
strongly against dressing Carnations and in favour of the 
flowers being staged in a natural manner, and I hope he will 
on the same principle do something to encourage the natural 
beauty of the Rose being preserved and exhibited at the shows. 
But to return to the cuttings. Let them be taken off and 
inserted at once. That is the principal point in connection 
with the work. If they are severed from the trees, and per- 
mitted to flag and become partially shrivelled before insertion, 
they will not emit roots so quickly as if they are kept fresh 
and moist. The cuttings cannot be inserted too quickly after 
they are made. If the wound is permitted to dry up in the 
air it is slow to form a callus in the earth. That is a point 
worth remembering when Rose cuttings are inserted in summer. 
Select shoots that are tolerably firm. Soft succulent growth 
is of no use ; on the other hand, hard stunted wood seldom strikes 
freely and grows vigorously. The lower portions of the shoots 
produced this year make excellent cuttings—such shoots that 
are cut off for having their buds extracted. Make the cuttings 
the same as Geranium cuttings—that is, cut them across close 
under a joint and remove the leaves fora leneth of 4 or 5 inches. 
Leave one pair of leaves at the top and insert the cuttings 
firmly up to the leaves, leaving two eyes only above ground. 
The soil should be light and moist, and the position shaded. 
If the weather is not showery they must be sprinkled fre- 
quently so as to preserve the foliage fresh, and roots will form 
so much the quicker. They should be inserted in rows a foot 
apart, the cuttings being 3 or + inches asunder in the rows, 
and there they should remain for about eighteen months. Only 
a small per-centage will fail to strike. Most varieties strike 
fully as well as cuttings of the Manetti; in fact, the cuttings 
will form plants quicker than can be produced by budding on 
Manettis, counting from the time (which is quite fair) when 
the Manetti cuttings were inserted. 
I have struck hundreds—I may say thousands—of Rose 
cuttings in August, and it is rare indeed that blooms cannot be 
cut from April to September, commencing with the old Monthly 
China Rose growing against the south wall of the garden, and 
finishing with that and such sorts as Gloire de Dijon and 
Souvenir de la Malmaison on the north border. 
I had almost made up my mind not to write about Roses 
again since the Editors were troubled with forwarding so many 
letters to me, but I have ventured to write on a point of prac- 
tice which is not likely to give rise to after correspondence.— 
A PARSON’S GARDENER, 
FRUIT CULTURE IN KENT. 
On the invitation of Mr. L. Killick of Mount Pleasant, 
Langley, Maidstone, the proprietor of extensive orchards and 
Hop grounds, some members of the Fruit Committee of the 
Royal Horticultural Society visited Maidstone on Friday last, 
and inspected some of the fruit-growing establishments in 
the vicinity of that town. After partaking of a preliminary 
luncheon at the Star Hotel two waggonettes conveyed the 
visitors to Barham Court. The route selected was a most pic- 
turesque one, the road passing through the village of Tovil, 
and overlooked almost along its whole course the beautiful 
valley of the Medway and the gently undulated rising ground 
beyond. Orchards old and new of Cherries, Plums, and Apples, 
some having an undergrowth of grass, others of Currants, &c., 
formed next to the Hop grounds the principal feature of the 
landscape, and as a change from the Hops and the fruit trees 
was here and there a Raspberry field. Hops were on all sides 
and everywhere, the crops varying extremely according to the 
state of the soil and the absence of insects and mildew. Many 
of the stools and poles were almost destitute of inflorescence ; 
others were producing only large clusters at the top ; and a 
few, but only comparatively a few, were well furnished almost 
to the ground, and bearing really good crops; and unfortu- 
nately some that were producing the finest hops in the greatest 
profusion appeared to be the most seriously affected with 
mildew. Yet although a full average crop is not expected, the 
appearance of the grounds, while the foliage is yet green and 
the hops are just approaching maturity, is imposing to such 
visitors who are not accustomed to the Kentish mode of ground 
cultivation. Tostin bridge was reached and crossed after a 
drive of about three miles ; and another mile traversed, the 
first halting place was reached at Barham Court, and Mr. Roger 
Leigh’s unique garden was inspected. 
The fine trees on the lawn were greatly admired, especially 
a magnificent example of the Cedar of Lebanon with more 
than a dozen leaders, each of them of tree size, the head being 
about 250 feet in circumference. Two trees of Magnolia gran- 
diflora on the open lawn attracted notice, as also did a hand- 
some pair of the Willow-leaved Oak. Passing rapidly through 
the plant houses near the mansion and noting the health and 
cleanliness of the specimens, especially luxuriant and highly 
coloured plants of Adiantum farleyense, 2nd onwards round the 
mansion and through a small flower garden—a charming dell- 
like enclosure, containing an admirable example of Pulham’s 
rockwork, also subtropical plants and carpet beds—the fruit 
gardens werereached. These, as has been previously mentioned 
in the Journal, are arranged on the French system. An ex- 
tensive collection of fruit trees is admirably managed by Mr. 
Haycock, but this year, as a rule, the trees are not producing 
anything like freely ; yet to the rule there are some pleasant 
exceptions. Notably is this the case with the following Pears 
grown as diagonal cordons on a wall having a west aspect— 
namely, Winter Nelis, Jos¢phine de Malines, Beurré Hardy, 
Beurré d’Anjou, General Todtleben, Beurré Bachelier, Doyenné 
du Comice, Durondeau, and Louise Bonne of Jersey. The 
above are bearing excellent crops of fine and highly coloured 
fruit, but several trees on the same wali of Easter Beurré are 
in very indifferent health, their condition being attributable 
to the French stocks on which the trees are worked. Peaches 
on the south wall are also bearing full crops, and a row of 
diagonal cordon-trained Calyille Blanche Apples at the foot of 
