JOUKNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDBNEE. 



[ November 9, 1871. 



Iq planting, plenty of room is afiorded, nearly 3 feet being 

 allowed between the rows, and the sets are placed 14 or 15 inches 

 apart. The rows are well earthed-np, a practice rendered 

 especially necessary owing to the naturally cool moist soil of 

 the district. Besides, earthing greatly facilitates the taking-up 

 of the crops, which, being extensive, is a qaestion of some 

 moment. Earthing Potatoes, like other practices, must be 

 modified by circumstances. It may be right in one place and 

 wrong in another. In the district of which I am writing it is 

 a necessity, while in the garden here it is a fallacy, the soil 

 being light, deep, and dry. To plant shallow and earth-up 

 high is doing the garden an injustice, as I can obtain far heavier 

 crops by planting early and deep and earthing-up very lightly. 

 General principles may be laid down, but to be sncotssfal the 

 details must be carried out according to locality, soil, and cir- 

 cumstances. 



To resume. The Potato crops in garden, heath, fen, and 

 isle are poor. It is a question if there is much over half the 

 quantity of good marketable tubers in the county that was last 

 year produced. In the first place, the gross bulk of the crop is 

 light ; secondly, the disease is very extensive ; and thirdly, the 

 tubers, which are sound, are far below the usual standard in 

 quality. This is directly traceable to an nnpropitious season. 

 "When we find that in six months — April to September inclusive 

 — nearly 16i inches of rain have fallen, and the total yearly 

 mean little exceeds 20 inches, we need not go further. The 

 best part of the crops are the early garden varieties. Their 

 principal growing month. May, was line. Those who took their 

 crop up before July 20th had a fair harvest. It was about this 

 time the disease came and spread rapidly. My practice of 

 taking up for seed while the tops are quite green and the skins 

 slipping off by the touch has again stood me in good stead. Of 

 those which I thus lifted not one tuber has become diseased, 

 while of the few left for daily digging nearly half became 

 bad. I have adopted this practice for fourteen years, and 

 always with the same good result. The first period of disease, 

 which was so disastrous to the earlies, left the late ones almost 

 uninjured. The earlies were approaching maturity, and the 

 foliage was unable to carry off the excessive moisture taken up 

 by the roots, while the late kinds in vigorous growth were able 

 successfully to elaborate the sap. I can account for their escape 

 by no other theory. The 17th of August was a fatal day to the 

 late crops. On that day an inch of rain fell in half an hour, 

 and the germs of disease were established. The wet September 

 completed their ruin. At the close of the month five days 

 brought nearly 3 inches of rain, upwards of Ij inch falling in 

 one day. They could not stand this, and the Lincolnshire crop 

 was lost. 



As to kinds, Eooks and Eegents are mainly relied on, with 

 Piterson's Victoria close in their wake. This variety has come 

 rapidly into favour, and last year bid fair to supplant its popu- 

 lar rivals. This year, however, it- is very much diseased, and 

 will in consequence lose prestige. It is in quality by far the best 

 of the three, and this fact may redeem its character. Ot course 

 in a Potato country there are many fanciers, and nearly every 

 sort home and foreign is tried and compared. The American 

 kinds as a rule are found wanting in quality. Mr. Frisby, a 

 first-rate grower, says Peach Blow is the best of the lot. My 

 crop of Early Eose averaged 20 lbs. per square yard, with next 

 to no disease. This is equivalent to nearly 7000 stones, or 

 above 43 tons per acre. If its quality were but equal to its 

 productiveness we should be under a debt of gratitude to brother 

 Jonathan, but I for one cannot subscribe to a testimonial to 

 him yet. Boviniais by no means equal to our expectations. The 

 Eed-skinned Flourball is regarded with much favour, and bids 

 fair to establish itself as a standard variety. It is a heavy 

 cropper, very little diseased, and fair in quaUty. A kind called 

 The Queen's is this year quite first-class. It is a good cropper, 

 unsurpassed in quality, and not one tuber diseased. This and 

 Flonrball, growing amongst about twenty varieties, were re- 

 markable for the strength of their constitution. When the 

 tops of all the rest were blackened by disease the two kinds 

 just referred to remained green and vigorous. The Queen's, I 

 bhould say, is a strain of the Victoria, and a valuable one. 



What I still find to be a desideratum is a heavy-cropping 

 variety of first-rate quality, to come into use immediately after 

 the Ashleafe, and carry ns on to the late field varieties. I have 

 tried many varieties to this end, and at present Ashtop Fluke 

 comes the nearest to my requirements. This I intend to in- 

 crease, and get rid of half a score others. As earlies for garden 

 cultivation Rivers's Eoyal and Garter's Champion are both first- 

 rate, the former being the best in a light soil, the latter in a 



strong one. But it is not of much use to enumerate varieties. 

 Those which succeed in one place will not do so well in another. 

 I have tried many kinds with the view of selecting the half- 

 dozen best adapted to my particular soil, and have nearly at- 

 tained my object. I recommend the plan to others as the most 

 practical and useful. — J. W., Lincoln. 



SOME PREDATORY INSECTS OF OUR 

 GARDENS.— No. 21. 



Chilling were some of the nights of the last month, and 

 these, together with occasional morning fogs, serve to remind 

 ns that we must prepare for winter. But the majority of the 

 insect tribes need not the warnings of October, for they have 

 already retired from view. Very few of those that hybernate in 

 the larval or imago states linger on until now, but usually quit 

 their food, or cease their flight ere September departs. Some 

 tarry, however, and fly, in a very languid style, about the yet 

 remaining garden flowers, or hover around the green Ivy blos- 

 soms, about which the bees, I perceive, are particularly busy. 

 I behold them, and resolve forthwith that they shall not escape ; 

 they also shall appear in the dire catalogue, let the apiarians 

 say what they will in their favour ; for are not bees, at least 

 in some seasons, amongst the predatory insects of our gardens ? 



A very large number of authors, writing for young and old, 

 have agreed to give bees such excellent characters, that there 

 is some danger of these "industrious insects" becoming a 

 little vain, from the quantum of eulogy which they receive. 

 Very diligent the workers undoubtedly are, yet the same thing 

 might be said of many other species of the same class, whose 

 merits scarcely anybody will take the trouble to inquire into. 

 " Careful of their young, and almost affectionate towards them." 

 Very likely, but so are a host of insect parents besides, who " do 

 good by stealth, and blush to find it fame ! " No ; give bees — 

 and I am in this connection speaking particularly of the social, 

 not of the solitary species — their due eulogium ; still it must 

 be added that they can be cruel and quarrelsome, and also, 

 upon occasion, turn robbers and thieves. As a rule, we have 

 not much reason to complain of the injuries our fruit receives 

 from these insects, but should their usual supplies of honey 

 fail them, they will attack it quite as eagerly as any wasp or 

 bluebottle can. Thus, in 1866, when in many places the sea- 

 son for honey-gathering was an unusually short one, it has 

 been noted that the bees visited the fruit with eagerness, and 

 did much more harm than the wasps. An observer, who 

 watched them repeatedly while thus engaged, gave it as his 

 opinion that they did not turn the sugar they thus obtained 

 into honey, nor did they carry it to their homes ; so that it 

 would appear they sought the fruit fiom economical motives, 

 that they might spare their store of honey. In Belgium, in the 

 same year, it was reported that few wasps were seen, and the 

 bees came in their stead. In the preceding year a West Sussex 

 man noted, that though Plums and fruit generally were plenti- 

 ful, July and August passed and scarcely a wasp was to be 

 seen, but just as the wall fruit began to ripen it became the re- 

 sort of troops of bees. The wall fruit failing them, they took to 

 the Pears, and settled so often on the fallen ones that it was 

 dangerous for children to go and pick them up ; for the bees 

 were noticed to be in a weakly and unhealthy condition, and, 

 like human invalids, they became irritable and unpleasant in 

 their tempers. Yet there were plenty of flowers that season, 

 but the bees would not visit them ; the conjectured reason 

 being, that they contained little or no honey and pollen, with 

 exceptions, of course. Going back a little further still, we find 

 that a correspondent of a scientific journal states with regard 

 to Scotland, during a season when the flowers had ripened with 

 greater rapidity than usual, the bees were left suddenly desti- 

 tute. " They, in consequence, attacked Plums and Apricots 

 in such numbers that sometimes eighteen or twenty [?] bees 

 would be found in one Plum. They effected their entrance by 

 a small hole, only large enough to admit one at a time, and 

 gradually cleared out the pulp until nothing was left but the 

 skin. So artistically did they carry on their operations that, 

 till examined, the Plum or Apricot with the bees within had 

 all the appearance of sound and juicy fruit. On being shaken 

 out the bees were helpless and feeble, and most of them pro- 

 bably died from the effects of their rich and unaccustomed 

 food." This narrative maybe slightly coloured, and the con- 

 clusion as to the decease of the depredators I certainly doubt, 

 yet the facts are given bona fide, and corroborate other state- 

 ments of a similar nature. 



