September 20, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 







WEEKLY CALENDAR. 















Day 



of 



Month 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



SEPTEMBER 20—26, 1877. 



Average 



Temperature near 



London. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 



Sets. 



Moon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 before 

 Sun. 



Day 

 of 



Year. 



20 

 21 

 22 

 23 

 24 

 25 

 26 



Th 



F 



S 



Sun 



M 



To 



Vf 



Faber died. 



Crystal Palace Fruit and Cut Flower Show. 



17 Sunday afteb Trinity. 

 Length of Day 12h. lni. 



Day. 

 68.0 

 66.4 

 66.4 

 66.3 

 66.1 

 65.8 

 65.7 



Night. 

 44.0 

 45.6 

 44.7 

 45.7 

 4S.5 

 43.1 

 43.8 



Mean. 

 56.0 

 56.0 

 55.6 

 55.9 

 54.8 

 54.4 

 54.7 



h. m. 

 6 45 

 5 46 

 5 48 

 5 50 

 5 51 

 5 53 

 5 55 



h. m. 

 6 2 

 6 

 5 57 

 5 56 

 5 50 

 5 48 

 5 46 



h. m. 

 5 20 

 5 31 



5 41 



6 52 

 6 4 

 6 19 

 6 40 



h. m. 



3 8 



4 19 



5 29 



6 87 



7 52 

 9 7 



10 25 



Days. 

 13 

 14 



• 

 16 

 17 

 18 

 19 



m. b. 



6 43 



7 5 

 7 26 



7 46 



8 7 



8 48 



9 S 



263 

 264 

 265 

 266 

 267 

 268 

 269 



Prom observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 66.4° ; and its night temperature 

 44.8° 



ERRORS IN POTATO MANAGEMENT. 



HE Potato disease has baffled the science of 

 the age, and it will continue as long as Pota- 

 toes are grown if the present mode of treat- 

 ing those to be used for seed is earned on. 

 I believe the blight to have been more or 

 less in existence long before 1845. I recol- 

 lect quite well seeing a black or diseased 

 Potato now and again when they were 

 cooked, and I said so at the time the blight 

 was so virulent in 1846 ; and I remember 

 when the Potato pits were opened seeing a good many 

 rotten ones, and no one will persuade me that such was 

 not the disease that prevails at the present time. It was 

 then so trifling that no attention was paid to it. 



I am decidedly of opinion that the primary cause of the 

 disease arises from the way the tubers are kept during 

 winter and early spring. The tubers for seed are stored 

 with those that are to be used for cooking, and at storing 

 time they are put into pits, as they call them in Scotland, 

 and pies in England ; these pits are from 3 to 4 feet 

 broad, and there will be 5 to 8 cwt. in a running yard. 

 There is a thick coating of straw put over them to ex- 

 clude the frost, and then 6 inches or so of soil is put over 

 the straw, with a little air at top for weeks, or till sharp 

 frost sets in, when they are, as a rule, covered up so as 

 no air will get in to damage the tubers. Some farmers 

 put a thick covering of straw on the top and no soil 

 above it. If the weather happens to be fresh and mild 

 the tubers will begin to sprout in January or February, 

 and particularly so if a portion of the tubers are diseased. 

 The moisture arising from the decaying tubers sets them 

 a-growing, then the pits have to be opened and the sprouts 

 and diseased tubers are removed ; and anyone the least 

 acquainted with vegetable physiology must beheve that 

 the sprouting of the tubers for seed tends to weaken the 

 constitution of the Potato, and ere the planting season 

 comes round, if the weather happens to be of a mild sort, 

 the sprouting goes on and increases the evil. I have 

 seen the Potatoes growing up through the soil and quite 

 green in early spring. I saw it this year, and it is a 

 very common occurrence ; and during the months of 

 March and April the small-sized tubers are sent to the 

 English farmers. Under these circumstances, which are 

 grave facts, need any person with a head on his shoulders 

 wonder at the Potato succumbing when an ungenial 

 season occurs ? But for the spurious mode of treatment 

 named the Potato would be far more able to resist a 

 season not quite adapted for it, as it is a fen plant more 

 than an aquatic. This I fully believe is one of the causes, 

 and the chief one, of the disease. 



Since I remember anything about Potatoes, and up till 

 1845 and 1846, the Potatoes grown in the Lothians were 

 London Dons, alias Caligos, a very fine variety ; Blue 

 Don, Glasgow Buff, Perth Red and Blacks, and they 

 were all first-class sorts, far finer in flavour than the 

 Regents. The Flukes and Lapstones are almost equal 

 to any of them ; the flavour of a Fluke is equal to the j 



No. 860.— Vol. XXXIIL, New Seeie 8 ' 



Don. Up till the blighty season these sorts bloomed and 

 bore seed in great profusion, and the haulm was laid 

 prostrate from the weight of the apples, and people used 

 to gather them to feed pigs. 



During a period of fifty-five years, which I remember, 

 I never heard of any person sowing seed to raise new 

 sorts, which no doubt a kind Providence intended for the 

 very purpose, and there was no need for better sorts ; 

 but roots, like human beings, may get weak and die out, 

 hence the necessity of rearing new sorts. This, I believe, 

 is the second cause of disease ; for I believe in a com- 

 bination of causes far more than many people imagine, 

 simply because they do not use their brains and look to 

 cause and effect. The third cause arises from the fact 

 that the Potato fields are too highly manured with home 

 manure, and which is quite sufficient ; but to increase 

 growth and try to get heavy crops a quantity of guano 

 or other artificial manures is sown on the land, and before 

 the end of July, or not long after it, the Potatoes are 

 met in the drills, and before lifting-time they are warped 

 together like a field of Peas ; and if the weather is at all 

 moist the ground gets saturated, and neither sun nor 

 wind can get near them, and depend upon it this causes 

 disease in other plants as well as the Potato. This state 

 of matters ought not to be. The Potatoes should be 

 planted wide enough to allow the sun and air to get 

 between the rows, and such would tend to dry up the 

 superabundant moisture. But the forcing the Potato so 

 much with artificial manures is a great mistake, and I 

 presume such was not long in use before the first blight. 

 I was in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire a few years ago, and 

 the blight was very bad, and between Doncaster and 

 Crowle there were large level fields of Potatoes and 

 warped together so that neither sun nor air could get in 

 to warm and dry the soil. 



The fourth cause is the preparing the seed for planting. 

 In England small-sized roots are used for planting, and 

 it is a very rational idea. In Scotland such never used to 

 be done till very recently. They are planting seconds to 

 some extent ; and if cutting the large tubers is carefully 

 done and planted at once they will do as well as need be. 

 But possibly some tons of seed are cut and rain sets in, 

 the seed is muddled together into a shed or barn, and at 

 times they get heated and may remain in this state for 

 days. It is no rare matter to see a field of Potatoes with 

 a Potato within 6 feet of each other ; this I have often 

 seen in this great Potato country. Where small roots are 

 used there are no blanks worth talking about, and the 

 Potatoes when cut for planting are in a growing state, as 

 the sap is in full force and runs out of the sets, and with- 

 out a doubt this also tends to weaken the constitution of 

 the Potato. They may grow I admit, but puny curly 

 stems are the result and a poor crop. These, in my 

 opinion, are the causes of blight, and not the wet seasons 

 entirely, as I have seen as wet, sultry, thundery weather 

 before 1845 as I have seen since. And now that there is 

 a sort of consumption in the constitution of the Potato 

 I dc not wonder at all that a wet season proves fatal to 

 them. There is a close analogy between animal and 



No. 1612.— Vol. LVni., Old SeKles 



