January G, 1S33.] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AXD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 



Day 



of 



of 



M'nth 'Week. 



6 



To 



7 



Vf 



S 



Th 



9 



F 



10 



S 



11 



Sex 



12 



M 



Weather near London in 1S62. 



JANUARY 6-12,1863. 



Epiphany : Twelfth day. 

 Black Hellebore flowers. 

 Grey Wagtail seen. 

 Hedge Dunnock sings. 

 Linnreus d. 177S. 



1 SONDAT AFTER EPIPHANY. 



J. Ray d. 1705. E. 



Barometer, /rhennom.| Wind, f^hea. 



30.052-30 C44 

 30.061—29.897 

 29.725-29.619 

 29.697—29.5^8 

 29.710—29.577 

 29.577—29.275 

 29.71i-29.49S 



degrees. 

 4S— 30 

 52-27 

 50—27 

 54-43 

 51—10 

 49—30 

 49-27 



KT-W. 

 N.W. 



W. 



s.w. 

 s.w. 



S.'.V. 



s.w. 



■02 

 •04 

 ■01 



Sun 



Rises. 



m. h. 



SafS 

 7 S 

 7 S 

 6 8 



Moon ; Clock 



Snn Rises Moon's before Day of 

 Sets, and Sets: Age. Sun. Year. 



m. h. m. h. 



5 af4 55 a 5 



6 4 4 



7 

 S 



S 10 

 S 11 

 13 



12 

 21 9 

 31 10 

 44 11 

 morn. 



16 

 17 

 IS 

 19 

 20 

 21 



n. 



s. 



6 







6 



28 



li 



54 



t 



19 



7 



44 



8 



B 



S 



31 



6 



7 

 8 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 12 



Meteorology op the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations daring the last thirty-six years, the average highest and lowest 

 temperatures of the«e days are 41.1° and 30.1° resoectivelv. The greatest heat, 51°, occurred on the 6th and 7th, in lSlo ; and the lowest 

 cold, C on the Sth, in 1S41, and 1S61. During the period"l52 days were fine, and on 100 rain felL 



; 



POTATOES. 



ORE than one 



answer to cor- 

 respondents is 

 contained in 

 the following, 

 independent of 

 much very re- 

 liable infoi-nia- 

 tion relative to 

 Potato culture. 

 —Eds.] 



Place aux 

 Dames, I sav, 



in answer to Air. Bird : I am sorry I have only a limited 

 supply of Potato sets to give awav, and I cannot resist 

 the appeal of Lady Georgina Oakley for her noble 

 purpose. The Lapstone Kidneys, I presume, are common 

 enough ; not so, however, the Mitchell's Early Albion 

 Kidney. I hunted out that variety when it was almost 

 worth its weight in silver at Air. Duncan Hairs', who 

 formerly lived in St. Alartin's Lane, London, and I have 

 kept it well before the public ever since. I shall be 

 happy to send Air. Bird some very small tubers — if he 

 thinks it would be worth his while to grow them for sets 

 for another yea!" — of both sorts, if he will forward me 

 the address. 



In a letter I received from Air. Daintree a few days 

 ago he tells me that the Lapstone with him proves very 

 subject to the disease; and so, doubtless, it would with 

 me, as well as every other variety, if I cultivated them 

 on the flat. If any one would make it worth my while 

 I would cause my whole crop of Potatoes in this cold 

 shady garden any year to become stricken with disease : 

 and, goodness knows, at the certain stage of their growth 

 it is a very nervous time with me, even on the ridge 

 system that I do adopt. But the beauty of the Lapstone 

 is, that when the disease does affect the foliage it 

 may be taken up carefully at an early stage of growth, 

 and become very much improved in the ripening pro- 

 cess by being laid moderately thin in a dark place. I 

 ought to be able to procure sets from the allotment 

 people here ; but the fact is they are slovenly, and so mis 

 their sorts into one indiscriminate jumble that the task 

 to separate them would prove endless. 



In answer to " Presbyter," and in a great measure I 

 must necessarily repeat myself, allow me to say that I 

 choose middling-sized whole Potatoes, which are grown 

 under my own observation on my man Friday's allot- 

 ment — a light hazel soil, and opposite in its nature to my 

 own, which is a sound artificially-made darkish gravelly 

 loam. The seed is now disposed in single layers upon 

 shallow wooden trays, and secured from contact with 

 damp in an underground cellar, having a temperature 

 ranging from 40° to 45° ; its dimensions are 9 feet by 

 18 feet, and it has a fair twilight produced by a glazed 

 aperture measuring 3 feet by about 1 foot. The young 

 No. 93.— Vol. IV., Kew Series. 



eyes on the sets are shooting well forth. I shall soon 

 attend to the disbudding process, and leave one shoot 

 upon those early sets which are the size of a bantam's 

 j egg, and two shoots to those which exceed that size in 

 1 all cases; and by planting-time these shoots allowed to 

 1 remain will become robust and dark with health, with 

 I young rootlets starting from around their bases, sturdy, 

 ! so to speak, as the quills of a porcupine. Let me strictly 

 inculcate that the trays whereon the tubers rest be kept 

 perfectly dry, otherwise the roots which strike from the 

 base of the shoots, instead of remaining strong and wiry, 

 will grow away weak, and become matted together, 

 deteriorating the stamina of the set. I trust the advan- 

 tage just stated over the old enervating " spurting " 

 and cutting method will be plainly seen. Nothing is 

 here lost to the Potato ; whatever virtue has gone out 

 j of it remains elaborated in the young shoot, and the 

 I tuber is delivered to the soil with its powers about it, 

 i in addition to a young plant with rootlets and leaves 

 making ready to compete for the light of day, and to 

 begin their fructifying functions without loss of time. 

 "When I plant, at each end of the row opposite to the sets- 

 I drive down a substantial piece of stake to remain there 

 till the following year, in order to point out that the 

 tubers of nest year shall not occupy the site of this. I 

 never use raw manure at the time of planting. Quick- 

 lime or mortar rubbish, which is spread over the surface 

 soil and slightl}- worked-in just before planting-time, at 

 the beginning of Alarch, in a fine dry time, is what I 

 prefer. 



For early Potatoes I allow quite 36 inches between 



the rows, and for store Potatoes 42 inches. Strain a line 



from two pegs where the rows are to be, and place the 



I sets upon the surface of the soil at a foot distance for the 



! earlier and 18 inches at least, if the ground is good, for 



! large late sorts. Then readjust the lines to the full width 



' of a rather-worn spade, and mark out for a trench een- 



, trally between the two rows of Potatoes. Cut down 



j rather slantingly inwards, in order to leave the sides 



; even, and cast out every other spadeful right and left, 



I though not exactly plump on to the shoots of the sets. 



The crumbs that are afterwards shovelled out take that 



; central position harmlessly ; and we then have a trench 



! formed nearly a spit deep, which is intended to become 



I occupied with the Cabbage tribe anon. Formerly, as 



| each trench was finished I used to introduce raw dung, 



and dig that into the bottom; but now I merely fork -up 



' the bottoms of the trenches with a three-tined fork I 



had made on purpose, as, having a good supply of liquid 



manure (house sewage) I use it bountifully instead when 



the plants have attained to a good size. 



In this garden, which is partly overlooked by the living- 

 room windows, I like to see everything appearing ship- 

 shape ; but raw dung hauled about a space of ground after 

 the Potatoes are taken up, and then followed by the plant- 

 ing-out of lanky Broccoli plants, <fcc, is never pleasant 

 in the height of summer either to the nose or eye ; and 

 under the most favourable circumstances the plants will 

 take a month or six weeks to recover themselves and to 

 Ho. 745.— Vol. XXIX., Old Sbeees. 



