466 



JOtTENAL OF HOBTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ December 13, 1864. 



favour it with moisture and ward off the frosts, and it will 

 cater for itself easier than most kinds. It would suit orchard- 

 house culture well. 



It would occupy too much space to give the particulars of 

 the above in detail from my note-hook, but on referring to 

 it I find that the best roots from the earliest diggings aver- 

 aged from half a pound up to 2$ lbs. on the 19th of July, 

 when the six kinds growing side by side were quite ripe and 

 taken up. Mr. Hogg's Coldstream Potato then gave 2-i- lbs. 

 to a root repeatedly, but none of the others exceeded 2 lbs. 

 for their best roots. In one instance a single tuber of the 

 former weighed half a pound. I said last year that I in- 

 tended to grow my early Potatoes for the future in beds ; 

 but I have kept to the ridge and trench plan as being most 

 suitable for this ground, which is much shaded by the trees 

 from Blenheim Park. 



THE GARDEN. 



No. 7. Daintree's Seedling (Eound), Second Early. — This 

 first-class Potato yielded me per acre this year, on an 

 average, rather more than 16 tons, or 225 sacks, at 3 bushels 

 per sack, when grown on the ridge, each ridge or row being 

 removed 42 inches, or exactly between the sites of the rows 

 where I grew the same sort last year, that patch of ground 

 having been now seventeen years under Potato culture. 



No. 8. Daintree's Newest Seedling (Kidney), Second Early. 

 — I; have this year given this Potato a fair trial, and with 

 me it proves to be as like the Lapstone Kidney as Sutton's 

 Eacehorse is to Mitchell's Albion. In their flavour and 

 appearance in the dish when cooked, I cannot distinguish 

 the one from the other. In the character of their haulm 

 when growing they are exactly alike, though I must say 

 that with me they "run out" more uneven in tuber than 

 the Lapstones; and even that excellent kind is by no means 

 to be praised in that respect. I shall carefully select the 

 handsomest tubers for seed, which will tend to counteract 

 the tendency to grow of all shapes. I cultivated four square 

 yards of ridge with this seedling, and it gave nearly 27 lbs. 

 weight of tubers. Others, I believe, have it on trial, and I 

 hope to have their reports. I intend to continue to grow it, 

 for, given an equal quality in two Potatoes, it is always 

 preferable to propagate the newest bred as being better 

 able to stand out against the ills that the Potato is sub- 

 ject to. 



No. 9. Lapstone Kidney (Second Early). — Produce about 

 15 tons per acre. This is the kind that I have previously 

 depended upon as my latest and best keeping sort. I have 

 a fine sample of them. 



No. 10. Forty/old (Eound Mottled Blue), Second Early.— 

 Quality first-rate ; it is fit for table only np to the new year. 

 It is the best of all Potatoes for mashing. It never cropped 

 better with me than it has done this year. It is a very old 

 favourite of mine, though I dare not grow it largely owing to 

 its being so liable to disease. I am happy to say that I 

 have not met with a single tuber in that condition this 

 year. 



No. 11. Jackson's Seedling (Scarcely a Second Early). — This 

 is an excellent long-keeping Potato, more delicate to eat 

 than even the Lapstone, not being quite so harsh-dry, if I 

 may coin the word ; but its growth of top though handsome 

 is extensive, and it flowers profusely and is very much dis- 

 posed to berry, both of which circumstances are drawbacks 

 when space and time are limited. It is pear-shaped, and 

 much upon a par for bulk of cropping with the Lapstone. 



No. 12. Fluke. — There are many spurious kinds of this 

 Potato about, as it is an excellent mother, and it has been 

 largely and indiscriminately propagated from. I believe 

 that I have the true Fluke. It has a dark spare foliage, a 

 meagre top, with blossoms mostly disposed to berry. It is 

 a very useful sort in the event of the disease occurring early, 

 for being a late hardy Potato, it is then likely to escape it, 

 otherwise it is no particular favourite of mine for the table. 

 I have been publicly found fault with for calling it a coarse 

 variety. I have it as good as it can be this year, but as a 

 cropper it is not what it used to be. The first four of these 

 were taken up on the 20th of August ; the latter two on the 

 12th of September. 



THE FIELD. 



No. 13. Sutton's Finest Regent (Eound), Late.— This is 

 an excellent Potato of its class. I singled it out two years 



ago from a number of sorts at Messrs. Sutton's Seed Esta- 

 blishment, at Eeading. It is an improvement I think on 

 all its numerous relations, being not so deep-eyed, and in 

 shape rather oblong than round. It is not quite so acrid in 

 its farewell upon the palate as most Eegents are. It throws 

 up in this garden a monstrous top unmistakeably Eegent in 

 appearance. Its average was with me between 16 and 

 17 tons per acre, and every poor man who can should pro- 

 cure it. 



No. 14. Freehearer (Late). — This is alarge, mottled-coloured, 

 ugly Potato, and eminently suitable for a poor man's patch 

 of ground. It produces very few small tubers, weighs 

 heavily in the scales, quickly fills the measure, and its flesh 

 is white, rich, and good. This and the following four sorts 

 with other field varieties, I could not find room to cultivate 

 to any extent, for their tops in this ground become in size 

 like Hazel bushes, so I confined their culture to three large 

 sets of each kind, merely to find how the results tallied 

 with my previous observations, as to which of the sorts I 

 considered the best for a field. When I write field,, it must be 

 understood that the kinds I recommend for that off-hand 

 culture, would also prove suitable for any light poor garden 

 ground where the finer descriptions of Potatoes do not answer 

 in cultivation. The three roots of the above produced 23 lbs. 

 weight of tubers. 



No. 15. Prolific (Late). — A very good-flavoured white 

 Potato and ugly. The three roots weighed 22^ lbs. 



No. 16. Gryffe Castle Seedling. — For features and properties 

 like the last. The three roots weighed 24J lbs. 



No. 17. Waller's Regent (Late). The three roots weighed 

 13J lbs. 



No. 18. Scotch Rovxjh White, is as its name implies. The 

 three roots weighed 13J lbs. The last three sorts enumerated 

 are some of those which I received in the Stewarton bee-hive 

 (of which I hope ere long to tell a tale), which was sent to 

 me from Scotland two years ago by a still unknown friend. 

 I have discarded the other kinds, but these three I always 

 hope to keep for remembrance. 



No. 19. Negro. — A dark blue, flavourless, large, oblong 

 Potato, suitable for the pigs and an immense cropper. I could 

 not decide how it came about, but two out of the three of 

 these roots gave way in midgrowth. At one we counted 

 113 infantine tubers, and at the other 131 ! The third root 

 arrived at maturity and gave 16 lbs. in weight, and that is 

 the heaviest root of Potatoes I ever grew. 



THE FUTURE. 



I have eight new seedling Potatoes selected out of fifty, 

 and of which I have a good opinion at present, but which 

 another year's cultivation may induce me to scatter to the 

 winds. "Unless a person is careless as to what rubbish he 

 brings into cultivation, I scarcely know any kind of pro- 

 pagation which requires more care,' observation, time, and 

 patience, than raising a first-rate Potato. From its first im- 

 pregnated blossom to its appearance satisfactorily on the 

 dining-table it takes at least four years to do it properly, 

 and supposing ninety-nine seeds to germinate out of one 

 hundred, after the years spent in constant attention, possibly 

 not one of the progeny out of the whole batch will be found 

 worthy of perpetuation. Poor Beaton, whom I have never 

 ceased to regret, used to say, that it was "easier to grow 

 Pine Apples than a good Potato now-a-days." I should say 

 that it is easier to do so than to raise a new variety. 

 Thirteen out of my fifty seedlings I had sent me by my un- 

 known friend from Scotland. They scarcely weighed an 

 ounce when I received them in a small envelope, and they 

 were stated to be seedlings from the Fluke. I had thirty- 

 seven seedlings of my own and of the same age, the produce 

 of the pollen from the stamens of Jackson's Seedling, dusted 

 on some pistils of the Fluke. Now, out of these, after 

 three years coaxing, I have only eight worthy of another 

 year's trial, four out of the thirteen from Scotland, and four 

 from my own, and if two of them turn out what I consider 

 Potatoes ought to be before they are recommended to the 

 public, I shall consider myself fortunate. I forward you 

 samples of the eighteen kinds above enumerated in order 

 thm you may prove them by tasting, and state if you please 

 whether you consider the ridge-and-trench plan still con- 

 tinues to produce tubers with flavour quite up to the mark. 

 — Upwards and Onwards. 



