Jane 8, 1871. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



3£9 



he only lost about twelve. The leaves are fastened together by 

 their points so as to shelter the head. Can any of oar readers 

 give information respecting the eanse of the adhesion ? [The 

 heads of the specimens were 11 inches across. — Eds.] 



EAKTHING OF POTATOES. 



All my men who have Potato ground, and all my neighbours 

 too, to whom I have spoken on the subjecl;, think it of the 

 utmost importance to earth-up Potatoes, but not one of them 

 can explain to me the use of it. All they say is, " Try it, and 

 yon will find the difference. You will have a far heavier crop 

 after earthing-up." But not one of them can get beyond the 

 fact, if fact it is. The Why, in spite of all questionings, I can 

 never reach. In the autumn I hope to determine the fact, 

 having some six or eight kinds planted in the field, half of 

 ■which are treated one way, and half the other. But, prior to 

 experience, I should like to hear what your learned men say on 

 the subject. 



I urge. What is the use of heaping dry dust round the stem 

 of the plant — so high that I have sometimes seen the topmost 

 leaf all but buried ? They do not, as I have proved, root in 

 this dry dust. Then what can be the advantage of arranging 

 your earth, on a dry soil like ours, so as to shoot the water 

 that falls from heaven as far as possible from the plant ? You 

 are fastening an artificial umbrella round its waist. Then the 

 surface earth thrown up round the waist of the plant is taken 

 from the soil between the rows into which the roots are just 

 beginning to make their way. The moiat soil is laid bare, and 

 in a soil like ours, where our utmost endeavour should be to 

 save moisture, the young roots are exposed to the sun's rays. 

 The Potato is a very shallow-rooting plant, and this day 

 (Jane 1st) I saw a light mould board plough, an American 

 affair, carrying in its progress long threads of rootlets and 

 fibre across its neck, and the work was lightly done too. I 

 made the man confess that if earthing was of service, it must 

 be of service, too, to root-prune a plant at midsummer. The 

 roots of Potatoes are so rapid in their growth, that even horse- 

 hoeing must be accomplished as soon as you can see the plants. 

 By the time the top has risen 3, the roots laterally have pushed 

 out 6 inches. 



Well, what can be the use of it ? I grant it prevents green 

 tubers, but what does that matter ? The green ones may be 

 kept for seed. I grant that earthed-np Potatoes are easier to 

 lift, but of what use is it to the plant? as they all aver it is. 

 Is it possible that the tubers swell more freely when sheltered 

 from the heat? Give me the reason, or by facts disprove the 

 fact. — Wteside. 



[Oar own experience led us to the conclusion that earthing-up 

 is worse than useless. It did not increase the produce of tubers, 

 and delayed considerably their ripening, so as to expose them 

 longer to liability to the disease. We shall be very pleased by 

 being furnished with well-conducted experiments on compara- 

 tive earthing-up and non-earthing-up. — Eds.] 



STRAWBERRY PROSPECTS. 



Me. Qcintin Read states that he has some Strawberries 

 planted last August putting up from ten to twelve trusses. I 

 think he must have made a mistake, or he must be progressing 

 and improving. 



I have fifty rows of Strawberries, fifty-six plants in each row, 

 planted last August, which are pronounced by all who have 

 seen them to be very fine, but I dare not say the plants have 

 ten or twelve trasses eacb. I have another fifty rows which 

 were planted in August, 1869. I shall inform you what are the 

 results in both oases. I have also some rows a year older, 

 which I think promise well. I planted my fifty rows last 

 August on a plot of land which had been cropped with Potatoes, 

 and between the rows of Strawberries I planted Wallflowers, 

 sold these off at 8d. per dozen in April, and then dug the ground 

 between the rows. I wish other correspondents would state 

 the number and quality of the plants which they have, and the 

 quantity and quality of the fruit produced, as I intend doing 

 in another letter. — J. M. H. 



The Japanese Honeysuckle. — Some years since, conversing 

 with a well-known floriculturist, I asked him whether the 

 Japanese Honeysuckle was ever known to flower in England. 

 He stated, in reply, that he had read of such an event, but 



thought the cases were extremely rare. It may, I think, in- 

 terest some of your readers to know that the Japanese Honey- 

 suckle, which grows against the south wall of my house, is now 

 coming into flower. The plant is one of very vigorous growth, 

 having attained, within a comparatively short period, the height 

 of 11 feet, and promising before very long, with the aid of wires, 

 to reach to the top of the house. The flowers at present are 

 confined to those parts of the plant which are in the warmest 

 position, and lie close to the wall; they very much resemble 

 the flowers of the ordinary Honeysuckle, but are smaller, and, 

 like it, give forth a most fragrant scent. I shall be glad to 

 hear if the plant has flowered in other localities. — E. Baetkuii, 

 Great Berkhampstead, Herts. 



HARDY VINES ON HAPuDY STOCKS. 



I READ in "our Journal" your approval of the above, and 

 send for your inspection a shoot of West's St. Peter's Grape, 

 one of nineteen, aU that were left on this Vine, now showing 

 twenty-seven bunches of bloom from nineteen eyes. It was 

 planted out last spring in the common garden soil trenched 



2 feet deep, with a small addition of broken bones and dust, 



3 feet from a board fence facing the south-west, and has not 

 received any glass protection up to this time. A few mornings 

 ago between 3 and 4 a.m., it snowed freely upon thisYine, and 

 many others. For five generations back my stock has been 

 grown without artificial heat, and the eyes struck in a cold 

 frame in 60-sized pots. This treatment has brought about the 

 robust hardy fruitful habit which my Vines possess. I have 

 Vines that have been grown a short time with great heat, but 

 they are all sorry objects until they have been in my training 

 at least two years, and are not the Vines for the amateur. 

 Golden Champion on its own roots is still the sickly child of 

 my family. I say it should have been sent out at first grafted 

 on the Frankenthal. 



I have forty-seven sorts of Vines, in addition to fifteen species 

 and hybrids from North America, with two seedling Grapes 

 between our Grapes and North American species, hardy, 

 vigorous, fruitful, of high quality, yielding in any soil rich 

 fruit at little cost and trouble — in fact, " the amateur's Vines." 

 On these and my stock of hardy Americans I will at some time 

 write a separate article. — R. M. W., Fir View, Walkley, near 

 Sheffield. 



THE RHODODENDRON SHOWS. 



As usual, both at the Eoyal Horticultural Society's Garden and at 

 the Regent's Park, there are grand esbibitions of Ehododendrous. 

 Those who have not seen such an eshibition can form bnt a faint idea 

 of its splendour — of the gorgeous effect which these so-called American 

 shows produce. Alas ! their glory is but transient ; but when sum- 

 mer still hes in the lap of spidng — with these north-easters one might 

 say in the lap of winter — anything approaching an out-door display is 

 especially welcome. 



Me. Anthony Watekee, of the Knap Hill Nueseey, 'Woking, 

 holds his show at South Kensington, where he occupies a new tent put 

 up by Mr. Unite, of Paddington, which, though not on the same 

 gigantic scale as regards its height as the tent designed by the late 

 Captain Fowke {the site of which now forms part of the permanent 

 International Eshibition) , is from that very circumstance much better 

 adapted for the purpose, inasmuch as it has not the dwarfing effect on 

 the plants which all high structures have. From the fact of the area 

 enclosed being a nearer approach to a square, it is probably but Uttle 

 less extensive than before. The walks and beds are well laid out, sunken 

 here, elevated there, and the general effect is extremely pleasing. 

 Though the Rhododendrons have not, while we write, attained their 

 ftill beauty, they will doubtless be in perfection by the time this shall 

 have appeared, and as it is they present richly varied masses of colour 

 without the gaudiness and painful impression on the eyj of colour 

 unrelieved by nature's green. We have no new varieties to note this 

 year, but old favourites are to be seen in abundance — such sorts as 

 Everestianum, Brayanum, Lady E. Cathcart, and many others are in 

 as great beauty as ever. Of varieties of more recent date, among 

 crimsons may be particularised Caractacus, H. W. Sargent, and Mrs. 

 Milner ; Mrs. John Glutton and Purity, white ; rose. Lady Armstrong, 

 Stella, Rosabel ; rosy purple and purple. Sir Thomas Sebright, and 

 Mrs. G. H. Heneage. In addition to the Rhododendrons are two 

 plants in tubs of the beautiful Cupressus Lawsoniana erecta viridis, 

 one of the most beautiful of all pyramidal Conifers, the branches 

 feathering close into the stem and that without a shade of browimess, 

 withal it is as hardy as the ordinary Cupressus Lawsoniana. 



Messes. John Wateeee & Sons, of Bagshot, hold theh exhi- 

 bition at the Royal Botanic Society's Garden, Regent's Park, and it, 

 too, is of great excellence. Alterations have this year been made in 

 the laying-out of the grounds, so as to afford a more complete view of 

 the plants without exposing the boundaries more than is unavoidable. 



