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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 2, 1877. 



knows much better than to do so, or to plant trashy seed either, 

 hut there are hundreds who act thus unreasonably, and injure 

 the value and jeopardise the condition of the prince of English 

 root crops. It is because I have seen so much that is erro- 

 neous in principle adopted in the treatment, the abusive treat- 

 ment, of seed Potatoes, that I have, and shall, and will, em- 

 ploy my voice and pen against it until I find a more rational 

 plan established, and I ask with some confidence " A Kitchen 

 Gakdenek's " assistance in abolishing a custom which I be- 

 lieve he equally with myself regards as pernicious. I will not 

 further dwell on the matter now, but will allude to what is at 

 the present more important and seasonable — the avoidance of 

 disease. 



If dull, moist, and warm weather prevails an outbreak of 

 the murrain is inevitable; indeed, it is on record that it has 

 made its uuwelcome appearance in more than one plaoe. 

 When the disease is once established nothing will destroy it, 

 unless it is the new agent salus. Considering the eouroe of 

 this remedy, I think it ought to be tried by as many as have 

 the means of doing so, and reoords of its efficacy or otherwise, 

 especially not forgetting the " otherwise," be published. 



My plan of preserving the crop is an old and simple one. I 

 cannot conquer the disease, but I can avoid it. The plan, is 

 that which was suggested in your columns last week, a plan 

 which I remember has been steadily recommended ever since I 

 commenced reading your pages. It is the planting of early- 

 ripening sorts, and digging the crops before they are attacked 

 by the disease. Whenever I have done my duty in this reBpect 

 I can truthfully say that I have never had a failure, and the 

 disease, so far as regards my garden crops, has years ago lost 

 its terrors. 



As soon as the tubers have attained about their full size 

 they are taken up, if fuugus weather— that is, if several dull 

 moist days threaten, whether the haulm has decayed or the 

 tubers are ripe or not. It is a singular fact that they will 

 ripen nearly as well out of the ground as in it ; and if at the 

 time of being taken up they are close and sad when cooked, 

 and do not apparently contain a particle of Btarch, they will 

 eventually become "mealy," and contain starch in abundance. 



Whence it comes and how it comes is a question I am unable 

 to answer — a question which is, perhaps, worth the notice of 

 some of your scientific readers and correspondents. Potatoes 

 when taken up thus early should be stored thinly, but not 

 dried in the sun. The place, indeed, cannot be too shady 

 provided it is tolerably dry. 



But all cultivators cannot find time for digging their crops 

 and storing their produce thinly just at a critical time. In 

 that case, as you suggested last week, the haulm may be 

 " pulled off, not cut." No doubt many growers will smile at 

 this recommendation ; they have tried this practice and failed 

 to save their crop. But I think I have as good grounds to 

 smile at their failure as they have at the advice given con- 

 cerning it. When the practice fails it is the fault of the 

 operators, who have erred in their judgment as to the time of 

 removing the haulm, and by their tardy movements and in- 

 decisive action have suffered the enemy to steal a march on 

 them, and which has thus rendered their efforts of do avail. 

 The haulm must be removed before the disease strikes the 

 crop. If the work of either taking up the tubers or removing 

 the haulm is deferred one day too long all may be lost. If the 

 haulm is removed in time — that is, before the disease appears, 

 the tubers beneath the surface are perfectly safe, let the 

 weather be what it may, and the murrain rage with all the viru- 

 lence of which it is capable. At least I know that is the case 

 in the district and in the soil where I have practised for several 

 years, and I presume that the murrain has no geographical 

 fancies. 



With late varieties of Potatoes I have not always, indeed 

 seldom in years of great disease, been able to save the crop. 

 To dig such crops as Paterson's Victoria in the Potato-growing 

 districts of Yorkshire and the north-west oorner of Lincolnshire, 

 where hundreds of acres of Potatoes are grown, before the dis- 

 ease is established, is to dig up the crops before the tubers have 

 attained to a useable or marketable size, for such a variety as 

 Paterson's Victoria, for instance, does not form tubers so 

 quickly, or they do not attain to a sufficient size so speedily in 

 those districts as they do in Sussex under Mr. Lnokhuret's 

 management. If they did I should do as he does — dig them 

 up whether the haulm was green or not, or whether every 

 tuber slipped its jackets during the process of removal. If 

 they have attained to a good size that is sufficient ; the 

 question of ripening may be safely left to take care of itself, 



provided — which is the real difficulty with many — that shelter 

 is provided, or can be improvised, where the tubers can be dried 

 gradually and stored thinly. 



Sufficient evidence has been forthcoming that Mr. Luck- 

 hurst preserves his main as well as his early crops by digging 

 them when the haulm is Btill green, and before the skin of 

 the tubers is " set," but I am much afraid the plan is only 

 applicable to the southern districts, where not half so many 

 Potatoes are grown as in the north. If your able Sussex corre- 

 spondent can tell us northerners how we can surmount our 

 difficulties — namely, late swelling of the tubers and a lack of 

 convenience for storing them thinly, he will deserve well of his 

 country, inasmuch as he will be the means of saving from de- 

 struction not a few sacks merely but many tons of the country's 

 food. — A Nohiheen Gabdenek. 



EOSES IN POTS.— No. 2. 



Small plants for decorative purposes, such as have been fre- 

 quently seen and admired at many exhibitions during the 

 present season, ought, I submit, to be much more commonly 

 seen than they are in private gardens. These small but 

 useful plants are obtained in the following way : — As early 

 as they can be lifted in the autumn from the open ground 

 they are potted in 6 or 8-icch pots, shortening the strong 

 coarse roots if any, so that the plant can be placed in the 

 centre of the pot. The tops are also shortened a trifle at 

 the same time. The pots are then placed close together on a 

 bed in the open ground, when some cocoa-nut fibre is thrown 

 around and between them, and slightly covering the surface of 

 the soil in the pots. This prevents the frost from entering the 

 soil, breaking the potB, and injuring the roots. The plants 

 remain thus plunged the whole of the winter. The rains fall- 

 ing during the autumn are generally sufficient to excite root- 

 aotion, but should the weather prove very dry sprinkling over- 

 head becomes necessary, but nature generally provides all the 

 water required until the following spring. At the usual prun- 

 ing time of outdoor Roses, which is as a rule the first two 

 weeks of March, the potted plants are cut hard back to two or 

 three outward eyes, and placed in a sheltered nook to break 

 and perfect their growths and bloom. The blooms on these 

 plants are not as a rule so fine as those produced by longer- 

 eBtablished plants, but are very effective. This is a very simple 

 way of procuring plants, but much time will be saved if 

 established plants are purchased. 



Plants established in pots over twelve months can be readily 

 purchased ; and, compared with the cost of most plants, Roses 

 in pots are very cheap indeed. Having given your order for 

 the quantity chosen it may be well to leave varieties to the 

 sellers, as they are men of great experience, and would Bend 

 only good sortB that would succeed well in pots. After receiving 

 them they should be repotted. The largest and the strongest 

 plants will require larger pots, and smaller or weakly plants 

 may be returned to tbe same sized pots. 



Roses, especially Hybrid Perpetuals, are fonder of strong 

 yellow loam than almost any other plant. Teas should have 

 a trifle lighter soil, and if the plants are received early in the 

 summer plunge the pots up to the rims in short manure, and 

 if a little manure is placed over the top of the soil so much the 

 better. The plants will root freely, and by the autumn they 

 should be as thickly rooted as good Strawberries in pots. 

 Aocording to the summer's growth depends the Bacoess of next 

 spring's bloom. They must be watered as required during 

 dry weather, and by the autumn they ought to have well- 

 ripened wood. This will be found by the lower leaves turning 

 brown and falling off, when they should be removed to some 

 place of shelter from the heavy autumnal rains ; if no place at 

 hand turn each pot on its side. I place mine in cold pits and 

 frames and give all air that is possible, only sheltering from 

 heavy rains. — J. W. M. 



THE AUBICULA APHIS. 

 I begeet to say, that notwithstanding all the oare that I 

 have taken — the using of entirely new oompost, the potting of 

 every plant myself, carefully washing any that seemed in the 

 least degree affeoted — this pest has again appeared in my col- 

 lection. As yet I have only examined one frame, and found 

 three plants infested by it : oddly enough they were some of 

 the healthiest plants in the frame. I enolose a portion of the 

 root with one of the aphis on it. When found it was almost 

 entirely enveloped in a woolly covering, but this has come off 



