July 13, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEK. 



23 



quassia to save them from the extraordinary blight of this 

 spring. — Stiff Soil, Somerset. 



CO VENT GARDEN MONOPOLISTS. 



Mh. Pearson's letter, with which your Journal of the 6th 

 inst. commences, relates to a crying evil, and the only way to 

 strike at its root is co-operation. Let an association be formed 

 to start a co-operative store for the sale of flowers, fruit, and 

 vegetables. There will be no occasion to look for purchasers. 

 The only fear would be that the manager would at first be 

 unable to cope with the enormous supply that would be pre- 

 ferred him. 



If you, sir, would start the affair by getting a number of 

 names to form a guarantee fund, I have no doubt the thing 

 might be easily managed. 



The Hohticultueal Co-opeeativb Society (limited), for 

 the establishment of a store for the reception of fruit, vege- 

 tables, and flowers grown by the members of the Society, with 

 the object of obtaining fair prices for amateurs and gardeners 

 for their productions, which the monopoly of Covent Garden 

 at present prevents, and also to enable members to procure 

 garden produce at the lowest possible prices. 



The produce to be sold at such prices as may be found ad- 

 visable, the profits being shared amongst the members (both 

 growers and purchasers), after payment of expenses. 



A capital of £2000, in £2 shares, to be held by members 

 only, £1 being paid-up, would give a fair start to the concern, 

 and if a few hundred pounds were guaranteed to secure the 

 preliminary expenses, there could be no reasonable doubt of 

 success. The management would have to be settled in com- 

 mittee, and the price of members' tickets. 



I shall be glad to be a shareholder, and if you take the affair 

 in hand shall thank yon to place my name on the list for £25 

 for the guarantee fund. — J. P., of York. 



Ik the middle of May this year I sent to a most respectable 

 person, highly recommended, in Covent Garden, 12 lbs. of 

 Grapes. He would take, I believe, 24 lbs. a-week from me. I 

 thought I would try halt that number first. They were selling 

 in London for from 12s. to 18s. per lb. As your correspondent 

 says, " I thought half that price will do for me." After wait- 

 ing some weeks, I thought at last I had better ask for the 

 " account sale." The answer was, that the fruit was nearly 

 useless to him, or not marketable, or something of the kind, 

 that he had it still by him, and scarcely expected to sell it ; 

 but yet notwithstanding, good self-denying man, he actually 

 sent me 2s. Gd. per lb. However, I have not since put his 

 charity to a test, as I get, or rather got then. 5s. per lb. at 

 home. I shall not try Covent Garden again. — F. G. 



[We have other letters for which we hope to find space next 

 week. — Eds.] 



EARTHING veesus NOT EARTHING POTATOES. 



Having some experience, I may be allowed to report progress. 

 By way of preface I may say that I have to keep up a supply 

 of new Potatoes from as early a period as it is possible to have 

 them firm and full-flavoured, and not watery and insipid. That 

 usuallv is the first week of March, and the supply is continued 

 daily up to the middle of June either from pots or frames. I 

 will first speak of Potatoes in pots, depending as I do on them 

 for the earlier supplies ; indeed I do not reckon on them from 

 frames until the middle of April, and these are planted in 

 November. 



For pots I employ a form of Ashleaf known, I think, in some 

 parts as the " Creeper," probably from the Potatoes being 

 formed at a considerably further distance from the stem than is 

 the case with many other early kinds, and it produces them 

 very even in size, few being small. I grow one large set in a 

 Oinch and three good sets in an 11-inch pot, and sometimes two 

 in a 10-inch pot. I also grow Hyatt's Prolific in pots in about 

 equal proportions with the Ashleaf. Myatt's Prolific is also an 

 excellent variety for pots. I grow an equal proportion of both. 

 The pots are half filled with soil, the sets introduced and just 

 covered with soil. That is one part. In another lot of pots 

 the sets are placed about 5 inches deep, or are covered with 

 that depth of soil. Those just covered with soil are up the 

 height of the pots and earthed by the time those earthed at 

 planting are appearing. They are placed under like conditions 

 of treatment, and the result is precisely the same. 



Again, I plant a three-light frame — I use no other for Pota- 

 toes — on a good sweet bed of dung and leaves, in November, 

 just covering the sets with soil, and I earth-up when the plants 

 are 6 inches high. Another frame is planted with the sets 

 covered from 4 to 5 inches deep. There is no material differ- 

 ence in the produce as to size, quantity, or quality. One 

 method is as good as the other. 



I must, however, observe that if non-earthing be intended, 

 the sets must be placed so deep in the first instance that there 

 will be sufficient room or depth of soil in which to form tubers ; 

 if they are planted shallow the produce will be useless from 

 greening. I once planted in a frame Early Oxford, a round 

 sort of excellent properties, placing the sets about 3 inches 

 deep. They were not earthed, and the whole was a loss, more 

 than half the tubers being greened, and the rest so small as to 

 be of no practical value. On the other hand, a frame planted 

 with sets at the same depth, and earthed about 3 inches deep 

 with light loam and leaf soil, afforded an excellent crop. For 

 frames, however, Early Oxford has too large a haulm. 



We now come to out-door crops. I planted four rows of 

 Myatt's Prolific, each about 80 yards long, on a south border, 

 all the sets being about 6 inches deep ; and of the four rows 

 three have had the earth drawn to them, and one was left as 

 planted. The row not earthed-up is about 1 foot from the wall, 

 and at the present time (July 1st), the tubers are small and 

 unfit for use, but those of the other three rows are fit for use, 

 and are in every respect good. I have also another row of the 

 same variety under a west wall and not earthed ; these are not 

 fit for use. The crop, however, promises to be good, and the 

 tubers will not green. 



Finally, I have about 80 yards of row of Ashleaf under a 

 south wall, planted so as not to require earthing-up, and these 

 are as yet too small. In the open ground I have several rows 

 of the same variety, planted about 4 inches deep, that have 

 been earthed-up ; the crop is good — in fact we have been using 

 them for several days. 



The conclusions I draw are — 1, That deep planting to save 

 earthing-up must be resorted to, otherwise the tubers will green. 

 2, That planting 4 inches deep and subsequently earthing-up, 

 are favourable to an earlier and better crop, and prevent green- 

 ing. 3, That for most of the round kinds, which form tubers 

 near the stem and surface, earthing-up is absolutely necessary, 

 otherwise the crop will be very much damaged from greening. 

 4, That drawing the earth to the stem tends to render the soil 

 drier, warmer, and affords a stiffer shorter haulm, a superior 

 crop, and encourages earlier ripening, a point of consequence 

 in our climate. 



In taking up the Ashleaf on July Ist I found diseased tubers. 

 In a season like this the shallower Potatoes have been planted 

 the better. They will be all haulm if the present wet continue. 

 They are now fine in appearance, being very even. 



Whilst writing on Potatoes I may say that Eed-skinned 

 Flourball has come up very irregularly, and so have the Ame- 

 rican varieties. I have under trial about twenty roots each of 

 Eed-skinned Flourball and Pink-eyed Lapstone. They are both 

 the produce of one tuber each of last year, and they differ 

 widely in the haulm, the one having the Lapstone foliage but 

 more stiff, and the other is more slender. In habit and hardi- 

 ness they seem all right. As regards flavour I can tell 

 beiter after August. — G. Abbey. 



I had twenty or thirty varieties or samples of Potatoes to 

 grow for trial last summer, and among them the Early Eose, 

 which was to be thoroughly tested in all its points. For that 

 purpose I planted one-half the sample on a piece of heavily- 

 manured ground, forking between the rows when the plants 

 appeared, and later in the season I earthed them up to a good 

 height, hand-weeding them, &a,, till they were ripe. They 

 yielded an enormous crop, in about equal quantities of large and 

 small tubers, and, speaking of them as a stock, they had degene- 

 rated very much from the original. The other half sample I 

 planted at the same time on ridged ground, placing the seta in 

 the hollows with a good dressing of manure, and forked the 

 ridges down level, so that the Potato sets would be about 

 6 inches below the level at the time of planting. They had 

 nothing whatever done to them till ripe, wiih the exception of 

 occasional hand- weeding, when they proved all that could be 

 desired. In the first place they exceeded in weight the half 

 sample first noticed, and were much better in quality, being 

 well-shaped, well-developed specimens, with few small ones 

 among them, and equal, if not superior, to the original slock. 

 Secondly, they were from a week to ten. days earlier, which is 



