D:cember 13, 1S77. ] 



JOURNAL, OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



461 



were exhibited by Messrs. Veitoh at South Kensington last 

 week had been potted from the open ground. The cuttings 

 had been struck in March and eventually planted out. Iq the 

 autumn when the flower bads were showing the plants were 

 potted in rich soil, and they will in all probability continue 

 flowering throughout the winter. Since this simple mode of 

 culture has been proved so successful, this distinct and highly 

 ornamental variety should become very popular for decorative 

 purposes daring the late autumn and early winter months. 

 The beauty of its bright trumpet-shaped flowers is enhanced 

 hy the rich dark foliage, which is much finer than that of most 

 ■other Fuchsias. 



The great Exhibition now being held in the Agricul- 

 tural Hall, Islington, is highly worthy of inspection by all who 

 are interested in the cultivation of the soil. Besides the live 

 atock and implements for the farm, garden, and household the 

 remarkable collections of hoots exhibited by Messrs. Suttons, 

 Garters, Webb, Harrison, Gibbs, &c, cannot fail to possess 

 interest to many of our readers who are more or less identified 

 with agricultural pursuits. 



The Adulteration of Seeds Act is evidently not to be 



any longer regarded as being inoperative. A firm of seedsmen 

 composed of Messrs. Walter Jacob Maas, James Frith, and 

 Alexander Frith, were summoned before the Magistrate at 

 Southwark Police Court on the 10th inst. for selling to Mr. 

 Alexander Francis 2 cwt. of White Clover seed dyed with intent 

 to defraud him. Evidence having been given of the purchase 

 of the seed, Mr. Bernard Dyer, F.C.S., member of the Society 

 of Pablic Analysts, proved the existence of a practice for ren- 

 dering worthless seeds saleable by subjecting them to sulphur 

 fames, which changed the appearance of the seed. Mr. Edmund 

 Clarke, who appeared for the defendants, contended that under 

 the wording of the Act no illegality had been committed. Mr. 

 Benson, the Magistrate, regretted that such appeared to be 

 the case and felt bound to dismiss the summons, but offered 

 to state a case for appeal to the Court of Common Pleas. It 

 as clear that those who now tamper with seeds are playing a 

 dangerous game, and they cannot pursue their nefarious prac- 

 tices with impunity. If the weakness of the Act has been 

 pointed out it can only have one result — the Act must be 

 amended. 



We have received a pamphlet entitled " The Potato 



Disease, illustrated by photo-micrography," by Robert Bell, 

 M.D., &a. It comprehends much information. We make 

 two brief extracts. " There can be little doubt in the fact that 

 a great amount of Potato disease is due to bad situations being 

 •chosen for the crop, and sowing it in other instances in soil 

 which is rendered unfit for its culture, either by being naturally 

 too heavy or badly drained. . . . What are the means which 

 should be adopted to preserve our Potato crops ? First, it is 

 necessary to select a light soil so that the tuber may be kept 

 as dry as possible, a condition whioh is essential to the health 

 ■of the Potato. When the ground is heavy, and consequently 

 retentive of moisture, the Potato becomes watery and unhealthy, 

 and therefore more liable to beoomo a prey to disease. Secondly, 

 Potatoes in a moist climate like ours ought always to be planted 

 on an elevation, never in a hollow. Every sunbeam should be 

 *ble to shed its influence on the plant, and every breath of 

 wind ought to be able to find access to its leaves and Btems. 

 Another most important consideration which requires the 

 Potato cultivator's most watchful care, and that is to be certain 

 that he prooures his Beed from an entirely different locality 

 from that in which he intends planting his crop. It is most 

 essential that the seed be as new to the Boil as possible, as by 

 this means a much more vigorous plant is reared, and there- 

 fore it will be less prone to disease. Too much cannot be 

 said upon the error of planting crop after crop from seed taken 

 from ground in the immediate neighbourhood. It is sure to 

 degenerate, the weakness of the parent becoming intensified 

 in the offspring. The question is often asked, How is it if a 

 fungus, which you maintain is ever present, be the cause of 

 the disease, it did not manifest itself till 1836 ? I believe not 

 renewing the Beed sufficiently often has a most important pre- 

 disposing cause, another I believe to be the overcrowding of 

 -the plants. It may be asked with equal force, How was it 

 that certain diseases did not develope their symptoms in man 

 before the dates which history tells us were the periods when 

 they first unmasked themselves ? A like answer may be given 

 — the sociil and Banitary conditions of man had so far de- 

 teriorated that favourable conditions for the generation of the 

 various specific diseases sprang into existence, and it is — as 



far as science can prophesy — certain that if we undo all the 

 evils which have provoked the various zymotic poisons into 

 activity, they will recede into the passive existence which en- 

 veloped them in the past. Keeping the essentials just men- 

 tioned before us we should endeavour to plant the rows in the 

 direction of the prevailing winds, and they should be very 

 wide apart, at least twice the ordinary width, bo that a row of 

 Turnips could he sown alternately with a row of Potatoes. 

 This, lam convinced, would tend very much to preserve the 

 Potato crop. The two crops could be grown together with 

 great advantage to each other. Bat suppose the disease has 

 manifested its presence on the plant ; then immediately every 

 stem should be cut off close to the earth, and the cut surfaces 

 sprinkled with lime or soot." 



Mr. S. Parsons, writing in the Rural New Yorker on 



winter protection, remarks — " A strong temptation to cover 

 up plants for winter preeents itself to the inexperienced during 

 the first cold snaps of November. The ground is firmly frozen, 

 and now it seems natural to suppose the time for winter 

 oovering has arrived, but there never was a greater mistake. 

 Such early spells of cold usually last but a short time, and 

 may be succeeded by much warm weather, thus exciting the 

 sap of the plant under cover, and thereby exposing it to injury 

 from a Eucceeding heavy frost. The hardening-off process is 

 as necessary to the plant in the open ground as under a proper 

 system of greenhouse culture. Several really cold periods in 

 early winter brought to bear on the uncovered plant serve to 

 prepare and adapt it for the endurance of subsequent hard- 

 ships. Little injury, moreover, occurs from cold in December 

 to any tolerably hardy plant. It is the proper season of reBt, 

 and the diminished power of the sun works the less damage 

 because dawn and midday present no such violent contrasts of 

 temperature as are wont to appear in early spring. A large 

 majority of all plants that die from the effects of cold, die, 

 therefore, in March and April, and hence the danger of remov- 

 ing covering too early in spring." 



■ ■ " F. W. B." writes in " The Gardener " on Vegetable 



Marrow preserve : — " When in a provision shop, a few even- 

 ings ago, I observed that several poor persons bought in Bmall 

 quantities a kind of mixed preserve of a questionable character, 

 which, although flavoured with essence of Raspberry, looked 

 as if compounded of Beetroot and molasses : this was pur- 

 chased freely at 6d. per lb. Acting upon this hint, I determined 

 to do my best to arrive at some near estimate of the cost of 

 manufacturing fairly good Vegetable Marrow preserve. The 

 constituents were aB follows:— A good-sized Marrow, costing 

 3d., when peeled and freed from the seed vessels, gave 5 lbs. of 

 usable material ; to this were added 3 lbs. of loaf sugar at a 

 cost of Is., and a Lemon and spoonful of ground ginger at a 

 cost of 3d., making a total cost of Is. 6d. This mixture, 

 boiled nearly two hours, gave us a most pleasant and whole- 

 some preserve, just 5 J lbs., at a cost of about 3$d. per lb. Of 

 oourse this does not include labour or firing, but that in the 

 present case was almost too small to be included. What I 

 want to show, however, is this, that I can manufacture an 

 article such as my family and friends pronounce to be excel- 

 lent for 3%d. per lb." The Marrows Bhould be nearly full 

 grown for preserving. 



NOTES on VILLA and SUBURBAN GARDENING. 



Chrysanthemums are favourite flowers of many a villa gar- 

 dener, and are admirably grown by amateurs in the vicinity of 

 the metropolis, indeed London may be said to be the head 

 quarters of this queen of autumnal flowers. The well-known 

 and far-famed Temple Gardens give an impetus to Chrysan- 

 themum culture, and the numerous exhibitions springing up 

 around us speak well for the increasing popularity of this 

 useful flower, which is in beauty at a time when flowers are 

 becoming scarce. It spans the passing season of outdoor bloom 

 with the forcing Beason of indoor display, and makes our con- 

 servatories for Bix weeks exceedingly attractive; indeed there is 

 no other flower which repays the cultivator better than the 

 Chrysanthemum. 



Now is the time to commence operations for a good display o 

 well-formed flowers next autumn ; but cuttings can be struck 

 at any time from now till May and make useful plants, yet 

 those taken off now while they are short and stubby, and 

 inserted in light sandy soil around the sides of some 60-sized 

 pots, will strike very readily. When sufficient are taken off the 

 old plants can be either planted out or thrown away. The pots 

 will be found useful for other plants, and the stock is reduced 

 to the smallest possible space. 



The best cuttings are those thrown up from the base of the 



