December 13, 1864. ] JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE! XVy> R0 TTAGE GARDENER. 



466 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



Day 

 of 



M'nth 



Dav 

 of 



Week, 



Tu 

 W 

 Th 

 F 



S 



SVN 



M 



DECEMBER 13—19, 1864. 



Aphelandra aurantiaca flowers. 

 Phince Consort died, 1861. 

 Greenfinches congregate. 

 Great storm of 1814. 

 Sir Humphrey Davy born, 1779. 

 4 Sunday in Advent. 

 Chaffinches congregate. 



Average Temperature 

 near London. 



Day. 

 46.4 

 45.8 

 46.1 

 45.6 

 45.9 

 45.0 

 44.6 



Night. 

 32.5 

 33.8 

 34.5 

 34.4 

 33.6 

 3S.9 

 33.5 



Mean. 

 39.5 

 39.3 

 40.3 

 40.0 

 39.8 

 3S.9 

 39.1 



Rain in 



last 

 37 years. 



Days. 

 21 

 19 

 16 

 13 

 IS 

 19 

 10 



Sun 

 Rises. 



af 8 



1 8 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Moon 



m. h. m. h. 



49 af 3 

 49 



33 



34 5 



38 6 



42 7 



48 S 



52 9 



54 10 



Moon 

 Sets. 



m. h. 

 morn. 



SI 8 



13 9 



46 9 



15 18 



3S 10 



11 



Moon's 

 Age. 



O 

 15 

 16 



17 

 IS 

 19 

 20 



Clock 

 after 

 San. 



Day of 

 ~?ear^ 



348 

 349 

 350 

 351' 

 352 

 353 

 354 



From observations taken near London during the last thirtv-seren years, the average day temperature of the week is 45.6°, ana 

 perature 33.7°. The greatest heat was 62" on the 16th, 1S40; and toe lowest cold, 18 c , on the 15th, 1S4S. The greatest fail of 



temperature 

 1.24 inch. 



week is 45.6°, and its night 

 rain was 



POTATOES. 



OME fourteen years ago 

 I was asked by a coun- 

 tryman of mine, a Suf- 

 folk farmer, to dine 

 with. him. On parting 

 with my friend he gave 

 me a general invita- 

 tion. " Come," said 

 he, and dine with me 

 whenever you like — 

 stand on no ceremony, 

 for I have always a 

 change for dinner, — 

 pork and cabbage to- 

 day, cabbage and pork 

 to-morrow." I well remember my friend was in despair 

 about the Potato, and our argument for and against the 

 ever-to-be-desired esculent waxed long and rather loud ; 

 but both of us were bachelors, so the word " Hush ! " 

 never had any occasion to become impressed upon us to 

 restrain our volubility. The old housekeeper did not 

 interfere beyond a few smiles, as I expounded to my 

 friend my system of cultivating the tuber, and my con- 

 fidence of corporeal sustentation from that particular 

 produce up to the natural term of my existence. I sent 

 him some samples for seed, and the result was that 

 eventually my friend included Potatoes in his bill of fare. 

 Poor fellow! he is now gone 1o that "bourne from 

 whence no traveller returns to tell a tale ;" and I am 

 left to repose on my laurels with so much of vanity as an 

 obscure grower of Potatoes may feel himself entitled to 

 lay claim to, and once more through the genial medium 

 of these pages make my annual bow, in order to detail 

 my proceedings with my favourite vegetable. 



I planted thirty-four varieties (not including seedlings), 

 of the Potato in the spring of this year, nineteen sorts 

 only of which do I think it worth while to give an account 

 of. Inquiries are often made by correspondents for the 

 Potatoes most suitable for particular modes of cultivation : 

 therefore I purpose to divide my subject according to the 

 wants of different cultivators, and so enable them to know 

 at once the sorts most suitable for the frame, the orchard- 

 house, the garden, and the field, giving those kinds pre- 

 cedence which are in my estimation worthy to stand 

 first. 



THE FBAME. 



No. 1. Mitchell's Early Albion Kidney. 



No. 2. Sutton's Harehorse. 



These two sorts are scarcely distinguishable apart. 

 They make small glazed haulm, are good croppers, of 

 excellent flavour, and both attain the desirable quality 

 of firmness of tuber at an early stage of their growth. 



No. 3. Skutftrrd Seedling (Eound). — A diminutive 

 glazed topper, precocious, a good cropper, of excellent 

 flavour, though having the undesirable property of pro- 

 ducing too many little ones. I am not aware that I 

 carry the appearance of a Potato, but I constantly find 

 No. 194.— Yol, VII., New Series. 



myself discoursing about the tuber with entire strangers 

 most unaccountably ; and I well remember the informa- 

 tion I gained as to the origin of the above. Some years 

 ago, as I was journeying by rail from London to Wood- 

 stock, a substantial farmer-looking person and myself 

 having enumerated to each other our approved sorts, I 

 came to speak in praise of an early Potato I had met 

 with a year or two before called the Shutford Seedling. 

 My fellow traveller agreed with me, and, curiously 

 enough, he said that he was then about promoting some 

 kind of testimonial to the worthy man who raised it, 

 who, he said, was the parish clerk of the village of Shut- 

 ford, near Banbury. 



THE OSCHAKD-HOTJSE. 



No. 4 is a. round early Potato. A sample was sent mo 

 this spring to prove against my early English kinds by 

 Mr. Thomas Hogg, Coldstream, N.B. For orchard, 

 house cultivation I do not know any kind which would 

 be more appropriate. As an early Potato for the garden; 

 and in regard to its freedom from eyes, handsome good- 

 sized tubers, and weight of crop, it is a great step in the 1 

 right direction ; and we have no Potato in cultivation 

 that can beat it for flavour, though, like our best earliest 

 sorts, it has a yellowish cast of flesh. As to its keeping, 

 properties, I can say that the tubers I received from Scot- 

 land last March were in condition for table, and some of 

 my produce on this 29th of November is as good as it 

 can be. It has a rich, unique, moderate-sized top, soon 

 disposed to droop and hug the ground — too spreading, 

 I fear, for frame work. It produces a profusion of pinfc- 

 coloured flowers, and every blossom gives a berry : con- 

 sequently they should be picked off in their infancy, 

 unless it be determined to preserve some for crossing 

 with, to which purpose I intend to devote a few, for I _ 

 predict it will prove a good kind to cross with the pollen 

 of some of the best of our English white-fleshed second 

 early varieties. 



No. 5. Walnut-leaved Kidney. — A well-known Potato, 

 which bears a larger top and tuber. It takes rather 

 longer to arrive at maturity, and does not produce so 

 many tubers to a root as Nos. 1 and 2 ; nevertheless, it 

 is a good kind, very nearly allied to them. 



No. 6. Wliite-blossom Ashleaf. — This variety produces 

 but a few fine Eidney Potatoes to a. root, and on that 

 account will doubtless long remain a favourite. It is the 

 best kind to forward by preparing its young shoots, one 

 " spurt " generally becoming a monopoliser, which before 

 planting can be made to attain substantially a length of 

 Is or 6 inches, by placing at this time of the year the 

 tubers in twilight, in single layers, in a temperature of 

 about 60°, to be then planted in large flower-pots, rough: 

 boxes, or many other descriptions of utensils. These may 

 be placed in out-of-the-way corners into which light and 

 sun can penetrate, for the plants to produce. It requires 

 to be nearly ripe before it is up to the mark in flavour, 

 and I consider it inferior in that respect to the sorts 

 mentioned above. It produces rather tall tops with but 

 little and crumpled foliage and white blossoms. Just 

 No. 846.— Vol. XXXII., Old Semes. 



