October 26, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENJiE. 



313 



etitutioned Eose, and stands cold weather in the spring better 

 than most Hybrid Perpetuals. Thyra Hammeriek has always 

 disappointed me. I have only had one good bloom of it this 

 year, and not one from Souvenir de Poiteau, which is always 

 rongh, and I do not remember having seen a good bloom of it 

 1 this year.— C. P. P. 



POTATOES— EARTHING BETTER THAN NOT 



EARTHING. 

 I SAID I would send you the result of some experiments on 

 this subject. I can answer for the correctness of them, for I 

 saw the Potatoes weighed ; 5 yards of each kind were taken up 

 and weighed. 



Earthed. Not Earthed. 



Paterson'a Victoria 18 lbs 16 lbs. 



Dalmahoy 16 lbs 14 lbs. 



Lapstones 16 lbs 13 lbs. 



Whitebread 18 lbs 17 lbs. 



Books 16 lbs 11 lbs. 



This is conclusive. There can be no question with me 

 henceforth but that in a rich light soil like oars, in a moist 

 summer like the past, earthing increases the crop. But it has 

 advantages besides. The Potatoes earthed-up are certainly 

 rather larger, and have less small ones among them. There 

 are no green ones — a slight advantage. In lifting, the gain is 

 very considerable. Where they have been grown on the flat 

 the soil has set hard, and is more difficult to pierce. Then the 

 fork has to be thrust downwards instead of through looser soil 

 horizontally, which anyone looking on may see makes a great 

 deal of difference in the labour. Then, on the flat, the digger, 

 late in the season, when the haulm is dead, finds some diffi- 

 culty in making out the row, and a few tubers are injured by 

 the fork. Lastly, earthing-up, though muchless laborious when 

 carried out by a horse in the field than by one hand-hoeing, is 

 quite as effective as two hand-hoeings in killing weeds. Those 

 between the rows are effectually swept away, and those between 

 the plants as effectually buried alive. This very great ad- 

 vantage alone would incline me to earth-up, even if it were 

 proved to be slightly injurious to the crop. Facts have proved 

 . it to be beneficial. 



The following rules, however, should be observed. Earthing 

 should be done, if possible, after a shower — at any rate, not in 

 very dry weather, that the roots may not be buried in a heap of 

 dry dust. It should be done before the roots meet in the space 

 between the rows, and the roots grow much faster than the 

 tops ; the ridge thrown up along the stems should not be 

 pointed but flat on the top, that falling rain may not be shot off 

 as by an umbrella, but soak in round the stem. 



It still, however, remains to me as great a mystery as ever 

 how it can benefit a plant to scrape the soil from its roots and 

 expose them to the drought, and heap the soil round the stem 

 of the plant, where roots do not find their way into it. I wish 

 one of your scientific men would explain this. — "Wieside. 



must be a difficult subject to grow, or that its culture was not 

 generally understood. That the latter is the case I am led to 

 conclude from the fact that, after having had a dozen plants of 

 it in my hands for half that number of months, I have found it 

 is not at all a difficult plant to propagate, for cuttings of it strike 

 root as freely out of doors in sandy soil without any protection 

 as an ordinary bedding Geranium. There can be no reason, 

 therefore, why this valuable plant should not speedily become 

 as plentiful and cheap as the majority of other plants of its 

 class. Some cuttings inserted in a border of the kitchen 

 garden the last week in August, and suffered to remain fully 

 exposed to all possible kinds of weather, have without one ex- 

 ception put forth roots, whilst others have grown equally well 

 in a cool vinery. Thus, in addition to an elegant appearance, 

 it possesses every other quality requisite in plants of this 

 description. 



With regard to its position in the flower garden, there is no 

 necessity to say more than that Us rigid firm growth gives it an 

 additional advantage over Cerastium tomentosum, every branch 

 as it points upwards rendering it a conspicuous object. Many 

 of your readers have, doubtless, seen the skilful manner in 

 which it has been introduced in some of those beautiful com- 

 binations of colour to be seen at Battersea Park. With masses 

 of its grey are blended the bright crimson of Alternanthera 

 ama3aa, and the cheerful yellow of the Golden Pyrethrum. 

 These three plants may be strongly recommended, as much for 

 the clear, distinct, and lasting colour of the foliage, as for their 

 great utility either when employed as edgings to other plants, 

 or when combined in those charming designs which carpet the 

 beds, and which exhibit none of that glare so offensive in many 

 floral displays. Very much can be done with them in the 

 flower garden without the slightest fear of monotony. It is not 

 often that & decided tone is imparted to a garden by its edging 

 or border plants ; but I may very safely venture to advise those 

 seeking for novelty in their arrangements of colour for next 

 season, to use these useful plants largely side by side, and with 

 other suitable things, such as the true Trentham Blue Lobelia, 

 Coleus, Iresine, Eoheverias, Sempervivums, Polemonium, and 

 Arabia luoida variegata. These few plants afford rich ma- 

 terials for planting entire beds, and for forming most beautiful 

 ribbon lines, or embroidery round central masses of stronger- 

 growing plants. 



One word more respecting the Santolina. I do not suppose I 

 have ascertained all its capabilities yet — the time has been too 

 short for that, but I have seen enough of it to know that it is 

 an exceedingly useful plant, amenable to the simplest method 

 of culture, and, therefore, as valuable to the amateur as to the 

 professional gardener.' — Eewakd Luckhukst. 



SANTOLINA INCANA. 



It was some ten or twelve years ago that I first saw a dwarf 

 grey-leaved plant so well managed as a bedding plant as to 

 fairly approach perfection, and that was Cerastium tomentosum. 

 It was planted in broad rings alternating with others of Lobelia 

 speoiosa around the Arancarias upon the upper terrace of the 

 Crystal Palace, and I believe this arrangement was noticed in 

 the Journal at the time. The exquisite neatness of the flower 

 and the design, which has found a host of imitators since then, 

 made as great an impression on others as it did upon me. The 

 Cerastium has worthily been a very popular plant, holding the 

 first place among dwarf grey-foliaged plants for many years, 

 but at length it is doomed to an honourable retirement in the 

 shrubbery or herbaceous border, where it ought always to find 

 a place. 



A plant now becoming even more popular than Cerastium is 

 Santolina incana. This is one of those gems that have betn 

 used so extensively during the last few years in the flower-beds 

 at Battersea Park. It has a dwarf, spreading, and very dense 

 habit of growth, is of a beautiful clear bright shade of grey, 

 and has foliage so minute and so serrated, that it is hardly 

 possible to imagine anything in which grace and neatness are 

 more exquisitely combined. It is, I believe, perfectly hardy, 

 and, though such a dwarf plant, is quite free-growing enough 

 to enable one to obtain a large stock of it from a few plants 

 in_ a single season. I am glad of this, for from the high 

 price at which it is still sold, 12s. a-dozen, I imagined that it 



RISING SUN DAHLIA. 

 Me. Douglas, in writing of the Kelso Nurseries, mentions a 

 fine scarlet bedding Dahlia. I can endorse all he says of it. 

 It was not raised near Kelso, but in Northumberland, by Mr. 

 Crossling, of Felton Park ; he has a fine stock, one line of it 

 being 128 yards long. Mr. Douglas reverses the name ; it is 

 Eising San, not Sunrise. — J. Smith, Croft House. 



AUTUMN STRAWBERRIES. 



We have received from Mr. George Lee, of Clevedon, near 

 Bristol, about 1 lb. of Strawberries freshly gathered, of a size 

 and quality equal to anything we tasted of the same class of 

 fruit during the past summer. We have observed that this 

 autumn some varieties of Strawberries have shown a free ten- 

 dency to produce fruit, and in our own collections Vicomtesse 

 Hericart de Thury has shown this peculiarity in a great degree. 

 Mr. Lee appears to have observed this character in Straw- 

 berries during past seasons, and now he seems to rely so much 

 on an autumn crop as to make it worth his while to give special 

 attention to it. Mr. Lee, in a letter addressed to us, says — 



" It may be interesting to some of yonr readers to hear that I get 

 autumn Strawberries every season more or less, but some seasons a 

 good crop- I am not quite sure about the date on -whicli we gathered 

 the first, but think about the end of August. For some weelrs we have 

 gathered about 10 lbs. per week, and when the autumns are free from 

 frost we have fruit very late. Three years ago we gathered some 

 during Christmas week. The kind was May Queen, which, if the 

 plants are good and get a little rest in the summer, will generally pro- 

 duce a crop of fruit in the late summer and autumn. The best of all 

 for autumn fruiting is one I had some years -ago under the name of 

 Patrick's Seedling ; some of those I packed and posted for you are that 

 variety. It is a very distinct yariety, but is quite out of character as 



