352 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICTJLTHEE AND COTTAGE GARDE NEE. 



[ November I, 1864. 



month ; and in the sixth year the plants are in perfection, 

 and it may be carried on for sis weeks ; but the season for 

 this vegetable ought never to extend beyond that period, 

 except by beginning earlier with forced plants." 



It may interest some of your readers, particularly small 

 gardeners, if I give my calculation of the profit derived 

 from the growth of this vegetable by M. L'Heraut. 



I have said that the produce of his £ s. d. £ s. d. 

 hectare of land brought him in 4000f. 



a-year, which we will call 160 



I cannot say what is paid for land in 

 Argenteuil; therefore, I will take it 

 and labour at its worth here — say, then, 



for rent 22 



With the exception of carting com- 

 post, the whole was cultivated by him- 

 self. I take his own labour then at 

 4s. a-day — a high rate here, quite un- 

 known in France. Th at would be ... 63 



Forty loads of compost and delivery 

 at 10s. (Is it too much or too little ?) 20 



■ 105 



Nett profit .£55 



I have no doubt the profit is much larger in France, but 

 an English gardener would not look with contempt at that, 

 I think. I shall be glad to be set right on any of these 

 points, and, in fact, court criticism. I see already that I 

 have omitted one item — viz., the delivery of the Asparagus 

 daily throughout the season. This expense must be de- 

 ducted from what I have given as the nett profit. 



I mean to try this system, and have ordered my few plants 

 to be sent me at the fitting time, which will be in the month 

 of March, and they will be one year old. M. L'Heraut will 

 not recommend a plantation to be begun with older ones. 

 He insists that nothing is gained by it. 



If you think my annual progress would be at ail interest- 

 ing, I shall be happy to give you a few lines thereon this 

 time next year. — H. S. "Watson, Old Charlton. 



COMPARATIVE PROLIFICACY OF POTA OES 

 I send you the results of experiments made by myself in 

 the produce of various sorts of Potatoes, which I can vouch 

 for having had exactly the same sort of treatment in every 

 way. They were grown in what we call black soil, which 

 produces Potatoes largely, but not, perhaps, of so good 

 quality as brown soil. I have, however, found them all to 

 be good eaters. Paterson's Blue is a beautiful Potato in 

 appearance, and of great size ; I had several Potatoes 

 ■weighing 31, 30, 29, and 28 ozs. The Napoleon is a very 

 rank-growing Potato, with haulms as thick as a strong 

 walking-stick. It is a good eater, but from its great haulm 

 must be an exhausting crop. The Fluke figures badly, 

 possibly from a want of change of seed. My own experience 

 would make me think that it does not crop so heavily as 

 formerly in this neighbourhood. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 13, 

 and 14, were all got from Scotland, from different places. 

 I had no preference. I tried the experiments fairly. — 

 W. W. H., Prescot, Lancashire. 



Weight cfSets. Sort. Weight of Marketable Produce. 



1. — 14 lbs. Paterson's Blue 618 lbs., or 14 times theweight planted 



2. — 14 lbs. Paterson's Resent 539 lbs., or 38 times ditto. 



3.— 14 lbs. Patenon's Red 401 lbs., or 28J times ditto. 



4.— 14 lbs. Daintrte's Early 394 lbs., or 28 "times ditto. 



5. — 14 lbs. Paterson's Oval Blue ... 359 lbs., or 25 times ditto. 



6.— 14 lbs. Paterson's Victoria 329 lbs , or 234 limes ditto. 



7.— 14 lbs. Webb's Imperial 272 lbs., or 19 times ditto. 



8.— 14 lbs. Paterson's Napoleon ... 229 lbs., or 16 times ditto. 



9. — 14 lbs. Dalmahoy 22110s., or not quite 1G times ditto. 



1(1. — 14 lbs. Pink-eye. Kemp 200 lbs., or more than 12 times, ditto. 



11.— 14 lbs. ArrowsmiuVs Seedling . 179 lbs., or 13 times oitto. 



12.— 14 lbs. Flulte 95 lbs., or 7 times ditto. 



13.— 14 lbs. Bloomer 92 lbs , or 6J times ditto. 



14. — 8 lbs. Ro&se's Earlv 272 lbs., or 34 times ditto. 



Flower Farming. — Take a pair of compasses and strike 

 an arc on the map of the French shores of the Mediterranean, 

 making the Fort of Antibes the centre, open the com- 

 passes to Nice, and strike round — the highest point will be 

 Grasse ; then descending again to the shore in an opposite 



direction, the compass leg will mark the fringe of the Es- 

 trelle hills, and the well-known town of Cannes, with Lord 

 Brougham's villa. From Nice to Cannes it is twenty miles, 

 and from Grasse to the shore ten miles. The three towns 

 form a geographical triangle, having the tideless blue sea 

 for its base. Within this triangle is the valley of the Flower 

 Farms. There are flower farms in England also, but they 

 are insignificant in comparison with those of France. Else- 

 where flowers are ornaments — charming accidents. Here 

 they are staples. They grow like grass and corn, like Pota- 

 toes and Mangold Wurtzel. Here bloom the Jasmine, the 

 Orange, the Violet, the Tuberose, the Jonquil, the Bose, the 

 Cassia, not as in our beds, not as in horticultural gardens, 

 not as gardens, but as fields. Broad acres of colour flash 

 under the hot sun. The atmosphere is heavy with perfumes 

 when the snows are melting on the mountains, and the 

 gurgling Var is rapidly growing into a roaring torrent. 

 Here we enter homesteads not of golden grain, but of Laven- 

 der sheaves; not of cheese, but of olive oil; not of beer and 

 elder wine, but of orange-flower and rose- water in vats ; not 

 of clotted cream, but of jasmine and violet butter. It is 

 like a country of the "Arabian Nights." You expect the 

 dark-eyed peasants to answer you in lyrics, and the very 

 dogs to bark in tropes. You are oppressed with the pro- 

 digality of splendour. The soil is so fertile that, to borrow 

 Douglas Jerrold's witty conceit, if you tickle it with a hoe, it 

 smiles with a flower ; or, as the natives say, if you plant a 

 walking-stick, the ferule will blossom. — Dr. Septimus Piesse, 

 m the CornhiU Magazine. 



CHOICE PEARS. 



I see that the Bev. S. B. Hole has recommended a Pear. 

 I will venture to recommend a first-rate one, Beurre Superfin. 

 I tested it by my Marie Louise, which is also a first-rate 

 Pear, but not quite so good as Bem-re Superfm. I tasted 

 also at the same time Marie Louise d'Accle. It is delicious, 

 very handsome, and of a beautiful colour, golden russet. In 

 July I tasted Doyenne d'Ete, a good cropper, and nice for 

 an early Pear. Beurre Mauxion, and Comte de Lamy, are 

 good croppers, and very good. 



Mr. Bivers made me a present of twenty Pear trees on 

 the quince stock, and they were planted on the 25th of 

 March and 9th of April this year. I am quite pleased with 

 the little trees and their fruits. Two had no blooms, and 

 one, Madame Millet, dropped its fruit. The others I have- 

 not tasted, as they are late Pears. 



Doyenne d'Alencon is a fine Pear; Duchesse d'Angou- 

 leme is very fine, three Pears not yet ripe weighed 25 ozs. ; 

 Beurre Beaumont bore fourteen handsome Pears, and is 

 the healthiest-looking tree of them all; Beurre Diel is very 

 fine. 



The little trees, several of which bore fourteen Pears, have 

 much pleased both me and my visitors. I shall move every 

 plant yearly, and put some decayed dung and mould under 

 them, and I do not expect to report, as some have done, a 

 failure with Pears on the quince stock. I recommend people 

 to procure Mr. Bivers' twelfth edition of the " Miniature 

 Fruit Garden." 



As I am on pomology, I may mention that when I had 

 the pleasure of dining with Dr. Hogg, I tasted some ex- 

 cellent Grapes from Mr. Bivers. I have forgotten the names 

 of all but one, and that was first-rate, the Early Smyrna 

 Frontignan. — W. F. Batjclyffe, Rushton. 



GARDEN REQUIREMENTS FOR NEW 

 ZEALAND. 

 Replying in part to the inquiries of your correspondent, 

 " J. C," in your paper of the 25th, we beg to say we send 

 out monthly considerable quantities of grass and other 

 agricultural as well as garden seeds to New Zealand, and we 

 gather from this that settlers there do not grow their own 

 seeds, which is confirmed by a gentleman to whom we annu- 

 ally send large quantities coming to England this year and 

 ordering a still larger supply. We should recommend your 

 correspondent to take out tools with him, he would be sure 

 to get what he wanted here, which he might not be able to 

 do in New Zealand. With regard to plants of Strawberries, 



