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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 6, 1863. 



look decent. But by the trench rule they can be planted out 

 expeditiously at their proper Btage of growth without being 

 kept waiting for the Potatoes to come off, and they seldom in- 

 cline to club with me in the trenches. 



Again, how seldom do we find tho earthing-up of Potatoes 

 done properly, or at the proper nick of time. In the above 

 system the practice is quite superseded, for from the moment 

 tliey are planted until they are lifted, nothing in that way is re- 

 quired, because quite sufficient soil is cast upon them in the 

 first instance, which also insures their non-appearance above 

 ground until the first or second week in May, when danger 

 from frosts is over, and we may fairly anticipate their ripening 

 to have become accelerated a fortnight or three weeks. 



Formerly I allowed the haulm of my Potatoes to fall down on 

 each Bide the ridges, but I found that with the later sorts they 

 interfered with and muddled-up the occupants in the trenches ; 

 so to obviate this I now drive stoutish stakes on each side of the 

 ridge, 5 or 6 yards apart, and strain a line of tar cord to them to 

 retain the haulm in an upright position, and, perhaps, once or 

 twice I clip off with the garden shears the overhanging points, 

 Bhould they become too long and dense so as to exclude the 

 light and air from the Cabbageworts. The clippings I clear 

 away in a basket, when I take the opportunity to clutch away 

 any stray weeds above, and to catch and kill the caterpillars 

 from off the Cabbage tribe below — a very necessary procedure. 

 From several years' experience of the system, the conclusions I 

 have arrived at are — when a dry season arrives the tubers have a 

 larger and moister bulk ef soil to grow in ; Bhould a wet season 

 occur, the water drains well away into the trenches ; and nearly 

 a double surface of earth is gained for the beneficial influence of 

 atmospheric action. When the Potatoes are lifted a quantity 

 of soil falls down, which creates a first moulding (or the Cabbage- 

 worts, which appear a healthy and flourishing crop upon the 

 ground at once ; a little drawn they may be, but the open expo- 

 sure soon rectifies all that, and it is astonishing the produce 

 that we get from this Bmall garden under the above system. 



In reference especially to " Presbytee's " inquiry about 

 planting distances, I will urge him to observe, that the sets 

 are to be dropped from 12 to 18 inches apart, according to 

 their size and sorts, and the rows for store Potatoes must he 

 42 inches apart ; hut 6 inches between each two ridges in the 

 calculation which he requires, must be subtracted for trenchwork, 

 to the account of the Broccolis ; 8 inches would be a fairer 

 measurement, but it would complicate the calculation ; so let 

 it go at 4 square yards of land to 31 lbs. of Daintree's Seedling 

 Potatoes, which would be about 16 tons, or rather better than 

 223 Backs, at three bushels per sack, per acre. This is about the 

 average the garden haB produced this year, and a very good 

 crop it was, the best I ever had ; in fact, so good that I routed 

 up the Broccoli and determined to treat the quarter to a faUow, 

 and a thorough trenching. I can liken the ground now to 

 nothing so much as " Talpa'B " field. I suppose you have read 

 " Talpa," and seen the illustration of that immortal harrowing 

 by Cruikshank. Everybody should read and digest " Talpa," 

 and then they will be able to conceive all the more easily how 

 it is that I succeed so well in growing Potatoes. 



" There, now, that is very good," some people may say, " he 

 is comparing his small garden to a field." Be it bo, yet if I can 

 throw out a useful hint to my fellow men, my object is gained. 

 I write for cultivators of small plots, yet my facts may be 

 suggestive to the cultivators of many acres, juBt as the tiny, fine- 

 drawn spring which works a watch, so diminutive that a four- 

 pennypiece will cover it, enlarged and applied, enables the largest 

 ship chronometer to keep most excellent time. — Upwabds and 

 Onwards. 



FANCY PANSIES-BEST PEOPAGATING-BEB— 

 DOUBLE CHINESE PEIMROSES. 

 At page 790 of the last Number of this Journal there is a 

 chapter on the "Portraits of Plants, Flowers, and Fruits ;" and 

 the bottom paragragh of it, on that page, is about Pansies from 

 the "Florist and Pomologist," the Number for last December, 

 where the kinds are very beautifully pourtrayed in their ga.vest 

 colours ; and there the flowers are rather larger than the biggest 

 of the florists' kinds, but not quite so much alter Euclid as a 

 florist could exhibit them if he had undertaken to dress them 

 up for show people, or fo ■ the chance of a prize from the Floral 

 Committee. The Floral Committee, however, do not alwayB 

 go the length of their tether in the direction of Euclid, for they 



had given first-class prizes already to some of these very beauti- 

 ful Pansies, as well as to a pin-eyed Primrose, and to other 

 primitives and primeworts of the school of roundabouts ; and 

 by so doing they have made a better impression on their fellow 

 labourers, and, probably, on the bulk of the exhibitors of " the 

 first instance," than you or your humble servant could have 

 anticipated in so short a period. There is no need, therefore, 

 that I should apologise for writing about my own favourite 

 race of Pansies, or to apprehend that I 6hall ever be called over 

 the coals for going at them at the very first opening of the 

 budget for the new year. 



It was only three years since that I was so intent upon Fancy 

 Pansies that I had a whole collection of them from the very 

 fountain-head of the race in Yorkshire — Mr. Dean, of Shipley — 

 who has done more to soften my feelings towards the florists 

 than even the liberality of the florists on the Floral Committee. 

 But it is not so much for that collection of beautiful Fancy 

 Pansies that I am going to open the new year, as for one kind 

 of Pansy that was in that collection ; for that one kind has 

 brought me more grist to my mill at Surbiton than all my 

 seedling Geraniums, which I distribute among my neighbours 

 by the score every autumn after they are skimmed by the 

 dealers. 



It was the Magpie Pansy that proved bo lucky to me. Mr. 

 Dean sent me word to look after the Magpie and see what I 

 could make of it. I did look after it, and, instead of making 

 Bomething of it, I have been made more of myself on account of 

 it than ever I was about any plant which I ever took to before. 



You can hardly conceive how passionately fond the ladies 

 are of this Pansy the moment they see it, or how it confirms the 

 opinion that ladies can decide about flowers on the instant by their 

 own intuitive perception. It was only last spring I was going up 

 the road with a Magpie PanBy nosegay in my hand, to show to 

 a young lady who was making a new garden, when I met two 

 ladies who knew me, and both of them let go their dresses to 

 lift up their hands in admiration of the nosegay ; and when 

 I made my apologies for being the cause of the accidental soiling 

 of the bottom of the dresses, they declared, on the instant, they 

 would not have lost the sight for — no matter what. After that 

 I found the young lady at home, and in the new garden, and 

 then there was a repetition, all hut about the dress ; and nothing 

 would do but her ladjship must have a Magpie Pansy for the 

 new garden. Well, what to do was hard to tell. I had only 

 five plants left me. After taking up the last pair, I meant to 

 part with them to Mr. Salter, who first raised this beautiful 

 flower over at Versailles sixteen or seventeen years since. So 

 you see the age of a really good flower has nothing to do with 

 its merits in the eyes of those who value flowers for their own 

 sakes. But it all ended in the old way. The lady had a pair 

 of the Magpie for the new garden, and I had five more plants 

 in my stock than I intended; and they paid me better than 

 all the rest, for their fame now will go to the ends of the 

 earth and be a comfort, to many, which is the best pay after all. 

 The only way to manage well in a pinch is to make no difficulty 

 about the object ; and the way to divide five plants between 

 two people is merely to give two and a half to each, of course. 

 But that was not the way I did. I took up the best pair for 

 the lady, and it bo happened they were all roots right up to the 

 collar, owing to their being manured with cocoa-nut dust, 

 which set-off the rest of my Pansies all into straw and foliage, 

 that there never was anything like before in the family. Here 

 was a chance ! I divided the two plants into nine good ones, 

 replanted seven of the pieces for myself, and took two fair-sized 

 plants for the new garden ; and both in the new garden and 

 in my own the same result happened, which I should never 

 have thought of. It was a lucky accident ! 



But I must bring you back to the year before last, to where I 

 explained, once or twice, that the Magpie Pansy was only a 

 spring-Bowiring i la it,ve-y like the prettiest stove plantwe have 

 — the Torenia asiatica ; but as you may not know that Torenia, 

 and as some others might not have seen a live magpie, I must 

 tell them that it is a beautiful pied bird, a jet b'ack, tinged with 

 the deepest purple on the wings, with a metallic lustre, and the 

 centre of each wing as white as snow, and that is how the Magpie 

 Pansy is marked ; there is a soft white mark on eKCh, or on so 

 many of the petals, and all the rest are jet black, but so beau- 

 tifully tinged with the deepest purple, as to give even a tint 

 superior to that on the wings of a live magpie itself. 



Well, then, the two similar instances in the two gardens in 

 1862 go to prove, decidedly, that the Magpie Pansy is, or may 



