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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ September 27, 1877. 



variety of weed in a quarter of my kitchen garden in order to 

 study and admire the picturesque growth of weeds. Only a 

 certain quantity of perennials can be properly grown in a 

 border such as he names, and a few of the best varieties of 

 each sort will give him infinitely more pleasure than a con- 

 glomeration of all the herbaceous plants, which (to use the ac- 

 customed phrase), ought not to be omitted in a collection of 

 perennials. Good Phloxes, Pentstemons, Gladioli, Delphi- 

 niums, Antirrhinums, and Dianthuses in their different classes 

 will give him far more bloom and far more satisfaction than 

 the endeavours to grow about forty or fifty species in a limited 

 space. Of course this is only my doxy, and may be hetero- 

 doxy, but as such I venture to put it forward. 



I do not think there is any royal rule as to time in planting 

 Roses which the " Hebefobdshire Incumbent " alludes to, but 

 there is and always will be a state of rest for Roses, unless as 

 last year a very open autumn be followed by an open winter, 

 and afterwards a cold spring and wet summer. Under such 

 conditions it is difficult to say when the wood is ripe enough 

 or the plant sufficiently matured to bear removal ; but I fully 

 believe on the whole it is better to be too early than too late, 

 and if not done before the Yule log appears on the scene it is 

 better to defer it till the end of March or the beginning of 

 April, when the plant will commence its growth at once. A 

 very dry May or June will even then upset all calculations ; but 

 I think it is better to mulch than to water, and frequent ab- 

 lutions only lead to surface-rooting and the necessity for 

 further applications. I am in hopes " Herefordshire In- 

 cumbent " will reap another year the fruits of his over-manur- 

 ing, and that his kindness to his plants will not be thrown 

 away. — C. P. Peach. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



Mb. Addison Bays that no one shall make him believe that 

 the disease did not exist previously to 1846. That certainly 

 is the year when it made its first great ravages ; black or de- 

 cayed Potatoes of course there always were the same as we 

 now find in other roots after being stored a time, but can any 

 one state well-authenticated cases of the true disease being 

 found at the digging-time previously to 1846 ? 



What Mr. Addison says about storing and sprouting being 

 the chief cause cf the disease is open to doubt. I have Ash- 

 leaved Kidneys now that for years have been taken the greatest 

 care of, only being allowed to sprout in boxes and then planted, 

 but in a late, wet, sunless season like the present they have 

 taken the disease badly. 



The theory of Potatoes wearing-out and becoming more 

 liable to disease has two sides. You may renovate their con- 

 stitution by growing them occasionally on new land, but you 

 cannot prevent their taking the disease. I have grown the 

 old Eortyfold and Dalmahoy this year on some poor black 

 sandy soil from which a Fir plantation of over forty years' 

 growth was taken down last winter. It was a splendid crop, 

 but three-fourths diseased. The disease could not have existed 

 in the soil. Can anyone tell us what is the true cause of the 

 Potato disease ? 



I certainly do not wish to differ with such an authority as Mr. 

 Abbey, but he says it should be made imperative to separate 

 the diseased from the undiseased tubers : that is what I sup- 

 pose most people do. If you take some diseased Potatoes, not 

 rotten ones, and lay them up very dry till spring, and plant 

 them, they will produce good Potatoes not more liable to 

 disease than others ; and even at this time of year or a little 

 later, among the stored Potatoes you will find sometimes a bad 

 one that has commenced producing small good tnbers. Some 

 few years ago I had a plot lifted that just began to show the 

 disease ; they were graved not very thick for a short time, but 

 wet weather and a press of other matters prevented their 

 being looked over for three weeks, when they were found 

 to be nearly all decayed. They were stored on the same plot 

 they grew on. After a rain a few good tubers were picked- 

 out and the others dug-in. The following year, for experi- 

 ment, I planted a portion with Potatoes again. A dry hot 

 summer followed, and I had a fine crop with very few bad 

 Potatoes among them, and I remarked how strong and dark 

 the foliage was. 



There is, I think, a great connection between the Potato 

 disease and electricity. I have noticed for years that you may 

 first see it after a thunderstorm. This year we had thunder 

 very early — I think the beginning of March. My frame Pota- 

 toes took the disease very shortly after, and on Good Friday 



morning I could scarcely take a diBh of good tubers from a whole 

 frame. Now that was not brought on by either wet, or cold, 

 or drought, beoause in a pit you can keep them as you like, 

 but the electricity seemingly developed it. Of course, in many 

 seasons you do not see a bad one in a pit or frame, but if the 

 germ theory be correct it would be present one time as well 

 as another. Sutton's Flourball this season stands its ground 

 well, being nearly free from disease, and mine were not treated 

 with salus either ; and if anyone can raise a disease-resisting 

 Potato like Sutton's, earlier in its habit and of more uniform 

 quality, and as good a cropper, he will be a benefactor, and I 

 think would acquire a fortune; for the climate has not en- 

 feebled that yet, as is the case with others, such as American 

 Rose, Suowflake, &c, which seem to have taken the disease as 

 badly as any others this season. — John Platt, Sillington. 



CEYSTAL PALACE SHOW. 



September 21st and 22nd. 



Many excellent autumn exhibitions have been held in the 

 colossal structure at Sydenham, but it is questionable if any 

 have been superior to the twenty-second Show, which opened on 

 Friday last. Third prizes were wisely included in the schedule, 

 a circumstance which no doubt contributed materially to the 

 extent of the display. The Show occupied the whole of the 

 north nave. The central table was decorated with Palms and 

 other ornamental-foliaged plants. On this table the collections 

 of fruit — Grapes (upwards of three hundred bunches), Peaches, 

 Plums, Figs, Melons, Apples, &c— were arranged. One of the 

 Bide tables was chiefly occupied by Dahlias, an extensive and 

 superior display ; also Asters, Gladioli, and Roses. The other 

 side table contained splendid collections of vegetables, the 

 finest which have been Been for many a day ; also miscellaneous 

 collections of fruit, remarkably fine contributions of Roses, and 

 an admirable selection of Gladioli. But although the Exhi- 

 bition is unhesitatingly pronounced an excellent one it contained 

 nothing particularly sensational ; and on the other hand — and 

 this constituted its chief merit — nothing, save perhaps a few 

 inferior Grapes, that was not creditable to the several ex- 

 hibitors. Thns much of the Show generally, and now to the 

 classes, commencing with 



FRUIT. 



Collections. — Class A was for a collection to consist of twelve 

 dishes, two each of Pines, Grapes, and Melons being permissible, 

 the remainder being single dishes. There were three compe- 

 titors, the redoubtable Mr. Coleman, gardener to Earl Somers, 

 Eastnor Castle, securing the foremost place. He was several 

 points a-head of hiB rivalB Mr. Webb, gardener to J. H. 

 Manners Sutton, Esq., Burton-on-Trent, who had the second 

 prize, and Mr. Upjohn, gardener to the Earl of Ellesmere, 

 Worsley Hall, Manchester, who was placed third. Mr. Cole- 

 man's collection contained splendid Black Hamburgh and 

 Muscat of Alexandria GrapeB, medium-Bized Black Jamaica 

 and fine but unripe Smooth Cayenne Pine Apples, handsome 

 Golden Gem and Eastnor Castle Melons, very large Pitmaston 

 Duchess Pears, and capital dishes nf Morello Cherries, Barring- 

 ton Peaches, Pitmaston Orange Nectarines, with Green Gage 

 Plums and Brown Turkey Figs of moderate quality. The most 

 noteworthy fruit in Mr. Webb's collection were a pair of splendid 

 Queen Pines weighing 5| and 5J lbs. respectively. These fruit 

 won him the second honours, Mr. Upjohn's Pines being rather 

 small, but his other dishes, Grapes especially, and Melons, 

 Peaches, Figs, &c, were of excellent quality. It did not Btate 

 in the schedule that the Pines should be dissimilar, neither, 

 indeed, was it specified that the Grapes and Melons must be 

 distinot varieties. It is advisable that the conditions in this 

 respect Bhould be clear and definite. In the class for six dishes, 

 distinct, excluBive of Pines, there were only two competitors — 

 Mr. Neighbour, gardener to G. Wythes, Esq., Bickley, Kent, 

 who was placed first; and Mr. Taylor, gardener to J. JohnBtone, 

 Esq., Upper Terrace House, Hampstead Heath, who had the 

 second prize. Mr. Neighbour exhibited good Black Hamburgha 

 and rather thin bunches of Muscat of Alexandria GrapeB, a 

 capital Scarlet Gem Melon but not quite ripe, fine Pine-Apple 

 Neotarines also unripe, good Violette Hative Peaohes, and Mag- 

 num Bonum Plums. The Grapes were the weak point in the 

 second-prize collection, the other dishes being in equal if not 

 better condition than Mr. Neighbour's. 



Grapes. — In the class for ten kinds, two bunches of each, 

 Messrs. Lane & Son, Great Berkhampatead, and Mr. Wildsmith, 

 gardener to Viscount Eversley, Heckfield, were the only exhi- 

 bitors, and were placed in the order of their names. Messrs. 

 Lane staged Mrs. Pince's Black Muscat, full and good but not 

 well coloured ; Gros Colman, extra fine ; Foster's Seedling, 

 rather small ; Bowood Muscat and Muscat Hamborgh, excellent ; 

 Trebbiano weighing about 6 lbs., Black Alicante about 3 lbs., 

 Muscat of Alexandria about 4 lbs., and Black Hamburgh and 



