October 3, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOKTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



263 



£8 8s. ; Masdevallia chimfera, £7 ; Epidendrum imperator, 

 £6 6s. ; Cattleya gigas, £6 6s. There were 216 lots, and the 

 total amount of the sale was about £500. 



POTATO-GROWING IN LINCOLNSHIRE— CEOPS 

 FOR COMPENSATION. 

 In this county immense tracts of land are devoted to Potato- 

 cultivation, and are grown on all kinds of lands, high and low, 

 light and heavy. Various reasons are naturally adduced as a 

 contributary cause of the murrain, such as a lack of potash in 

 the soil, and what not ; but we need not look far for the one 

 great primary cause, which is excessive wet. The rainfall in 

 this county, for instance, even now, exceeds considerably the 

 general annual average fall. Taking the six Potato-growing 

 months, March to August, both inclusive, the rainfall is 



14.69 inches. This exceeds by 3.46 inches the amount regis- 

 tered during the same period of last year. This represents an 

 excess of nearly 350 tons weight per acre, an amount of water 

 which cannot but make itself felt for good or evil on other 

 crops besides Potatoes. But, bear in mind, last summer was a 

 wet one, and the Potato disease was far more extensive than 

 in 1870. In the six Potato-growing months of the year last 

 named the amount of rain was only 7.69 inches, or very 

 nearly double the amount of the fall during the same period 

 this year, which at the date of writing is, as before mentioned, 



14.70 inches, equivalent in the one period in round numbers 

 to 172,900 gallons per acre, and in the other to 333,680. The 

 crop of 1870 was good, which goes to prove that about 173,000 

 gallons of water per acre is sufficient for its maturation ; 

 but this year we have 160,000 gallons per acre excess, and it 

 is this excess which has ruined the crop, and not any sudden 

 deficiency of mineral or superabundance of animal manures, 

 as is commonly asserted. It is only varieties of extraordinary 

 vigour and constitution that can build up a structure of leaves 

 to deal with, elaborate, and purify an excess of moisture to 

 such an extent as this. The foliage is overworked, the crude 

 sap is unpurified, and disease ensues. 



Potatoes in this county are quite as bad on the high as on 

 the low lands. On fine hazel loam which has been specially 

 and intelligently prepared for the crop, the Potatoes are as bad 

 as on land prepared in a routine hap-hazard way. The kinds, 

 and the only kinds which have escaped the best, are those with 

 stout upstanding stems. I observe particularly that the sorts 

 with weak prostrate stems are the most extensively diseased. 

 I have seen such, as Regents, worthless on fine limestone 

 land, while on low fen land I hav« seen upright-growing varie- 

 ties comparatively free from disease. This is, no doubt, the 

 direct result of the drying action of the air acting on the sur- 

 face of the ground and taking up a portion of the superabun- 

 dant moisture, which could not be the case with prostrate- 

 growing sorts, which, by their habit, prevent surface-evapora- 

 tion almost entirely. A Potato grown in this district, called 

 the London Red, is comparatively free. The Red-skinned 

 Flourball and Victorias are much less affected than Regents 

 and Rocks. The latter are of creeping habit, the former up- 

 right. 



A few years ago a curious man, now living in this place, had 

 some Potatoes growing in deep wet soil. The haulm was of an 

 extraordinary length, in some cases exceeding 8 feet. He took 

 it into his head to get some tall sticks and tie a lot of the 

 haulm straight up. It was a curious sight, but very interest- 

 ing at digging time, to see far more than double the quantity 

 and of double the quality turn out from the tied-up roots as 

 compared with those left to smother the ground and each other 

 in the natural way. This fact, which I myself verified, points 

 to upright-growing varieties as the most certain to escape dis- 

 ease, and next to this, giving plenty of room at planting time 

 between the roots and rows. 



In one village of this county, that of R. Winn, Esq., M.P., 

 it is common to see in many gardens every root of Potatoes 

 occupying a separate hillock. They are planted just a yard 

 apart, and each root dug round and earthed. I have seen 

 them growing, but not dug up, but am told the crops are 

 always fine and disease rare. If this meets the eye of Mr. 

 Montgomery, or that of the excellent rector Mr. Cross, they 

 will, perhaps, favour us with practical and accurate information 

 on this system. 



It is not much use philosophising on the cause and working 

 of the Potato murrain, unless something practical and useful 

 can be elicited therefrom, or some substitute suggested to 



aid in tiding over the national loss. I have endeavoured to 

 do the one, and will now briefly glance at the other. I en- 

 deavoured in the spring of the year to press on the inhabit- 

 ants of this district the importance of a freer cultivation of 

 Parsnips. These are nutritious, profitable, and serviceable, 

 but a bed to every square mile is about all one sees. It is a 

 great mistake. How useful a supply would be during the ap- 

 proaching winter ! But it is too late to provide Parsnips now, 

 and it is also too late to plant winter Greens, but it is not too 

 late to plant Cabbages. My advice is, Plant them freely. I 

 am aware that many clergymen will scan over these notes, and 

 I am also aware that there is no body of men more desirous 

 of doing good in every way to those by whom they are sur- 

 rounded. I would, then, humbly submit to the clergy as 

 matter for their consideration the desirability of urging on 

 all in then- charge to plant double the quantity of Cabbages in 

 their gardens. If in the spring bread is dear, and it will be if 

 the Potatoes are done, as they may be, then a plot of Cabbages 

 will be a little mine of wealth to many a humble dwelling. 

 We cannot help the dearness of bread or the scarcity of Pota- 

 toes, but we may hope, if we only try, to have a useful sub- 

 stitute in Cabbages. 



But how about the land — the after-cropping ? If plants are 

 planted a foot apart, and every alternate one taken out early and 

 used as Greens, and the rest left to form Cabbages, the whole 

 crop will be off in time for Celery, late Peas, or Strawberries. 

 But these are not everybody's desire ; and another plan would 

 be to plant Cabbages quite 3 feet apart in the rows, till the 

 ground well between the rows, and plant with Potatoes. The 

 removal of the Cabbages would give room for the Potatoes, 

 and as good, and perhaps a better crop, would be the result 

 than by the narrow 2-feet planting still common, and have the 

 Cabbages into the bargain. There is, assuredly, a hard time 

 ahead for many families, and every aid that can be given is 

 necessary. If each would do the little good he could in his 

 day and generation, might not the world be made better and 

 the people more home-loving, loyal, and contented? — J. W., 

 Lincoln. 



ELECTION OP STRAWBERRIES. 

 I shall be glad to undertake an election of Strawberries if 

 growers will send me their lists, giving in each case the nature 

 of then soils ; but as I am not so well acquainted with the 

 names of the most successful Strawberry growers and judges, 

 as I am with Rose growers, I do'not know who to write to, so 

 wish growers to send me then- lists of their own accord. I 

 shall be glad to be returning officer again for Roses, or leave it 

 to Mr. J. Hinton, just as he may prefer. I should suggest to 

 increase the number to fifty, but each person naming in the 

 fifty those he considered as the twelve best, and have an in- 

 dependent list of twelve Teas and Noisettes. I had several 

 extra lists sent me last year after the poll was closed, but it 

 did not make any material difference, I found, in the names or 

 position of those elected. — C. P. Peach, Appleton-le-Street, 

 Malton, Yorkshire. 



POTATOES SLUG-EATEN. 

 My experience of Potatoes is the same as that of your corre- 

 spondent "T. S. C" — hardly any disease at all, and Suttons' 

 Plourball quite untouched with it, though others near it had it 

 slightly. Numbers of the largest tubers of the Flourball, how- 

 ever, are riddled with a grub, or rather not a grub at all, but a 

 slug. I caught several in the act of eating. It is a peculiar slug, 

 from half an inch to 1 inch in length, of a black colour, bluish- 

 black in fact, and the under part of a deep orange yellow, and 

 particularly sluggish in its movements, but not at all slimy. By 

 the way, Suttons' Flourball is only fit for pigs. I have tried 

 it at all times of the year, and instead of turning out a Hour- 

 ball, it is generally waxy, of a sweet unpleasant earthy taste. 

 I mean to give up growing it. Numbers of people about here 

 are doing the same. — J. R. N., Calne. 



Horned Rye. — Rye is subject to a peculiar disease, which 

 distorts its natural form and gives it a horned appearance : 

 hence it is called " Horned Rye." Bread made from grain in 

 this condition is extremely deleterious. In 1596 an epidemic 

 prevailed in Hesse due to the use of bread made from Rye in 

 this diseased state. Of those who ate of it some were seized 

 with epilepsy, others went mad, and few ever completely re- 

 covered their original faculties. In 1648 and 1739 misfortunes 



