138 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ August 16, 1877. 



habit/thel colour of the flowers being salmon suffused with 

 violet. There are other very good and distinct sorts, which 

 anyone can choose by looking at a trade catalogue. — D. L. 



CAMPANULAS. 



I bead with much interest Mr. Harding's article on Cam- 

 panulas which appeared in your Journal a few weeks ago, and 

 can fully endorse what he says respecting the usefulness and 

 beauty of this class of plants, more especially some of the 

 strong growers. I have tried one in particular, which pleased 

 sue and everyone who saw it. It is C. Medium calycanthema, 

 blue and white. I sowed the seed about the middle of July 

 last year, potted-off the seedlings, and grew them all through 

 the autumn and winter, not letting them starve for want of 

 pot room until they were potted into 11-inch pots about the 

 end of March, using a compost of three parts good strong 

 loam'and one part good manure with a little sand. By the 

 middle of June, when they commenced flowering, they made 

 pyramids of 3 to 4 feet high, and 2 feet 6 inches in diameter 

 at the base. They oontinued flowering until the last week of 

 July. During that period I know of no plants more useful for 

 halls, corridors, or the conservatory than these handsome Cam- 

 panulas. They will propagate easily from eyes in the same 

 manner as Hollyhocks are propagated in summer, which is a 

 good plan for keeping the best varieties, as from seed a portion 

 of the plants produce single flowers. — J. Pithees. 



[We saw the Campanulas referred to, which were extremely 

 affective. — Eds.] 



TAKING UP AND STOBING POTATOES. 



Mb. Luckhuest, I must presume, is possessed of a sanguine 

 temperament, which is perhaps inherent in a man of energy ; 

 and that he is a skilful cultivator and sound adviser none, I 

 think, can doubt. A man who can laugh at the Potato disease, 

 not only as affecting early varieties but also the main-crop 

 aorts, must be listened to with respect on a subject on which 

 he is so well able to speak. 



As I have previously said, I have found no real difficulty in 

 preserving my crops of early Potatoes from the murrain ; but 

 the late sorts, such as Paterson's Victorias and York Regents, 

 have, I have always felt, been in a great measure beyond my 

 control in the district of my experience. Mr. Luokhurst has 

 made a worthy attempt to remove my difficulty on the early 

 digging and thin storage question, but I am bound to state 

 that his arguments lose force just in the ratio that they travel 

 northwards. Tour correspondent has in his last communi- 

 cation afforded tolerably good proof that cultivators on the 

 Yorkshire flats and Lincolnshire levels have a difficulty to 

 contend with that is much minimised, even if it is a difficulty 

 at all, in the favoured vales of Sussex. I do not mean to 

 suggest that no credit is due to a grower because he lives in 

 Sussex and saves his crops ; I only submit that the difficulty 

 is so much the greater in saving the crops in a locality where 

 they appear to be quite a fortnight later in ceasing swelling, 

 and where the autumn rains do not postpone their viBit until 

 the Potatoes attain a marketable size. 



According to the remarks on page 112 we may presume 

 that Mr. Luckhurst's crop of Paterson's Victoria is lifted and 

 stored. In that case he has almost certainly avoided the 

 disease. But to have lifted the same variety in the locality 

 where, I daresay, more Potatoes are grown in an area of five 

 square miles than are produced in the entire county of Sussex, 

 were to have secured a crop of " seed tubers " only, for by the 

 second week in August they had not attained to a sufficient 

 size for table use. That is the real difficulty — late ripening, 

 and autumn rains occurring, not merely before the haulm haB 

 decayed but before the tubers of late sorts have ceased swelling. 

 In the district to which I allude, unless sorts are grown which 

 are ready for lifting before the grain harvest, it is practically 

 impossible to give the neoessary attention to securing them 

 until the harvest is completed. Hence the safety of an im- 

 portant crop is unfortunately in a groat degree a matter of 

 chance : if the autumn proves fine all is well, but if wet much 

 is loBt. These remarks do not apply to a few sacks, or even 

 to sufficient for the supply of one large family, but they apply 

 to thousands of tons which are grown to feed the multitude of 

 London, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, and other large centres 

 of hungry humanity. 



But while I am conscious that the late ripening of the crops 

 in the north is an impediment that does not occur to the same 



extent in the south, I am also ready to admit that greater 

 efforts Bhould be made to save the crops, more enterprise Bhould 

 be exercised, and the habit of clinging to old customs should 

 be relaxed to the securing of that important object. Hence 

 I am glad that Mr. Luckhurst has endeavoured to show cause 

 that his system is as applicable to Yorkshire as to Sussex, 

 although he has not satisfied me on that point bo well as he 

 has satisfied himself. He has, however, made it plain that 

 much may be done, and has given proof that many places — 

 "gentlemen's places " — do not possess the conveniences desir- 

 able for making the best of a valuable crop. 



That the crop of Potatoes is worthy of special care, even as 

 well worthy of suitable storing houses as fruit is, I am quite 

 convinced ; but the difficulty is to convince others whose sanc- 

 tion is necessary for providing such proper means of storing 

 the tubers. For years past I have given proof incontrovertible 

 that Potatoes dug when the haulm is green and the skins not 

 "set" — tubers which have just attained their full size but 

 still unripe — ripen perfectly if properly stored, and become of 

 equally good quality with tubers which had been left in the 

 ground to ripen. I have also proved that the cropping quality 

 of Potatoes so treated does not in the slightest degree deterio- 

 rate, because the same stock is fully as productive now as it 

 was twenty years ago ; yet notwithstanding I have never been 

 favoured with suitable means of carrying out the practice on 

 a scale commensurate with its importance, and have been 

 obliged to make shift with such shelter as has happened to be 

 within my reach ; and I have often been obliged to see many 

 tons of valuable food ruined when I have felt that much of the 

 loss might have been averted by a different plan of treatment. 



Leaving out altogether the question as to the period of 

 taking np the tubers, immense loss is often incurred in the 

 manner of storing. I am certain that if instead of the per- 

 nicious custom that is prevalent of placing the tubers in im- 

 mense heaps to save covering material, if the necessary cover- 

 ing was liberally provided so that thin storing, at least for a 

 time until the tubers were dry and carefully sorted, the gain 

 would be great. It is of the greatest importance that the 

 tubers should be stored dry and kept cool. Moisture and heat 

 in combination are a primary source of disease. A large num- 

 ber of thatched hurdles or some such shelters, which would at 

 the same time exclude wet and admit air, would be the means 

 of saving much produce if the plan were carried out on an 

 extensive scale, and the tubers were placed in narrow heaps or 

 ridges. 



It has frequently fallen to my lot to see Potatoes carted into 

 immense heaps by the sides of stacks and buildings and covered 

 with tarred rick cloths, and men, women, and boys have been 

 engaged for weeks afterwards in "sorting" from a reeking 

 mass of decay. How could it be otherwise ? The moist tubers 

 in such bulk could not fail to heat, and the cloths could not 

 fail to prevent the heat escaping. Far better were it that the 

 Potatoes were placed in thin narrow ridges, not wider at the 

 base than the distance of a pair of cart wheels, and simply 

 covered with straw, even if it did not exclude the wet. Pro- 

 vided Potatoes are kept cool, even if they are not dry, decay 

 will not spread amongst them with a quarter of the virulency 

 that it will in moist heated heaps. But covered hurdles plaoed 

 over the Potatoes and not laid on them would be by far the 

 preferable plan, and this suggestion of Mr. Luckhurst is well 

 worthy of consideration ; but the tubers of Paterson's Victoria 

 do not cease swelling nearly so soon in Yorkshire as in 

 Sussex, and immunity from disease ?rj the north becomes 

 proportionally lessened — all the more reason, your correspon- 

 dent may suggest, that efforts to combat it should be the more 

 determined and persistent. — A Noetheen Gaed'eneb. 



Aetee the evidence given by Mr. Luckhurst on page 112, 1 

 think we cannot do wrong in lifting all varieties of Potatoes 

 when the tubers cease swelling. On or about the 2'pth of July 

 I began to think the crop was going, and having a special 

 favourite among my exhibition sorts called Alpha, I lifted 

 the entire row perfectly green, placing the tubers on shelves 

 carefully. The skins were so tender they could soarcely be 

 touched without rubbing them off. In three days the skin 

 had set perfectly tight, and the tubers were firm, which gave 

 me to understand that I had not done wrong. On the 6tu of 

 August I commenced in earnest, and lifted twelve varieties, 

 consisting of Lord High Admiral and eleven other sorts, which 

 may be termed second earlies. I never had a more happy 

 day's work than in lifting these grand Potatoes, the rows of . 

 which were 30 yards long. There was not a speck of disease. 



