1 66 



Garden and Forest. 



[Al'RIL 2, 189O. 



species, the characters of the mule being scarcely shown. The 

 most important "break" was obtained by crossing H. Leo- 

 poldii with a seedling named Empress of India, these two 

 yielding a race which Messrs. Yeitch at once saw was capable 

 of being moulded into one of considerable garden value. A 

 large number of the most popular kinds have resulted from 

 this cross. A serious defect in the earlier hybrids, which 

 runs through almost all the species of Hippeastrum, is the 

 Luge star-like blotch of green at the base of the tube, giving 

 the rlowers a coarse and sometimes ugly appearance. To get 

 rid of this defect has been the aim of Messrs. Veitch for some 

 years, and that they have succeeded was abundantly evident 

 in the varieties exhibited. 



A race of kinds which flower in the autumn was the out- 

 come of breeding from H Leopoldii and H. reticulatum, the 

 latter a free-flowering plant of elegant habit, with a broad band 

 of white along the mid-rib of the leaf. It blooms in Septem- 

 ber and is evergreen. In the progeny of these we have such 

 handsome seedlings as Mrs. Garfield, Mrs. Lee and Autumn 

 Beauty. 



Of the thirty-eight species of Hippeastrum recognized by 

 Mr. Baker in his recently published monograph, only very few 

 are now in cultivation in England. Invariably, when a' race 

 of any genus has been obtained in gardens and is superior in 

 horticultural characters to the species themselves, the latter 

 are allowed to drop out of cultivation. Efforts have been 

 made at Kew to procure all the species possible, but so far 

 there are only thirteen species represented. 



The cultural directions given in Mr. Veitch's paper are of 

 special value — nowhere are these plants grown so well as at 

 the Chelsea Nursery, where a large house is devoted to their 

 culture, and where the plants, when in flower, form a magnifi- 

 cent picture. Whatever may be the case in America, here in 

 England the Hippeastrums are often a failure in ordinary gar- 

 dens. The chief cause of failure is, no doubt, the same as in 

 the case of many bulbous plants — namely, neglect to allow 

 the plants sufficient rest by withholding water and exposing 

 them to sun and air. Excessive watering is, as Mr. Veitch 

 stated, most fatal to these plants. They like plenty when in 

 active growth, but it must be entirely withheld during the 

 season of ripening and rest. 



The soil recommended by Mr. Veitch is two parts loam, one 

 part rotten cow-manure and one part sand, the whole to be 

 mixed and exposed to the air for about three months before it 

 is used. Pots should always be small in comparison with the 

 size of the bulb, and they should be well drained. The plants 

 are repotted annually by Messrs. Veitch, though some grow- 

 ers prefer to repot only every two years. All the soil is shaken 

 off the roots, the dead ones cut away and any rotten scales 

 removed from the bulbs. This is done in January, when the 

 plants are repotted. They are placed in a temperature of 

 fifty-five degrees Fahr. for a fortnight and then plunged in a 

 bed of tan, the temperature being raised five degrees higher. 

 Air is given on all bright, warm days, but the plants are never 

 shaded. The flowers develop within about ten weeks after 

 the plants have been repotted. When they have ceased grow- 

 ing the plants are taken out of the tan, less water is given, and 

 the house is kept drier and more airy. 



London. 



IV. Watson. 



Cultural Department. 



The Potato. 



'"PHE first great advance in perfecting the quality of the 

 -*• Potato was made in the production of the Mercer variety, 

 which was named after the county in New York where it origi- 

 nated. Being large, white-fleshed and mealy, it soon took the 

 preference over the Blueskin, Foxsite and other varieties 

 of die period, and spread throughout the country from Maine 

 to the far west. In time the Mercer deteriorated, became sub- 

 ject to disease, and the plants decayed prematurely. 



The potato-rot of 1844 and in later years worked a revolu- 

 tion in Potato culture, mainly through the wisdom of the Rev. 

 Chauncey E. Goodrich, chaplain of the Insane Hospital at 

 Utica, who conceived the idea that to make the tubers hardy 

 they should be reproduced from wild Peruvian and Chilian 

 stock. With this view he imported wild tubers in the years 

 1849, 1850 and 1851, and by cultivation produced in 1853 the 

 Garnet Chili, which became the parent of a long line of 

 hardy, improved, palatable, white-fleshed tubers obtained by 

 hybridization. Mr. Goodrich is credited in Europe with hav- 

 ing established a new era in Potato growing, from the thous- 

 ands of seedlings which he tried and distributed for trial. His 

 work was one of pure philanthropy. Other men made large 



sums of money out of his valuable novelties, while he con- 

 tented himself with the good he was doing to humanity. He 

 died poor, when perhaps he ought to have been more provi- 

 dent, as his daughters were obliged to live by teaching. 

 . Wild Chilian Potatoes have also quite recently been tested 

 and found unusually hardy by my correspondent, the cele- 

 brated botanist and seedsman, M. Henrie Vilmorin, of Paris, 

 who is celebrated for his zeal in introducing and domesticat- 

 ing wild esculents. Although Baron von Humboldt stated 

 that there were no Potatoes under cultivation in Mexico at the 

 time of the conquest, wild tubers from her mountain lands 

 have been grown in France and in this vicinity. The effect 

 of cultivating wild tubers in a rich soil is shown by a persever- 

 ing experiment made by Mr. Alfred Rose, of Yates County, 

 New York. About the year 1879 ne planted one wild potato 

 of the size of a pea and obtained as a product one tuber of the 

 same size. Such a result would have ended the trial with 

 many ; but he planted this little product and obtained a tuber 

 of the size of a large pear, which, being planted, did still bet- 

 ter, until in the sixth season there was a product of nine 

 tubers, the planting of which, in the seventh summer, yielded 

 nearly two bushels of smooth, handsome potatoes, weighing 

 from four ounces to a pound each. 



The experiments of Goodrich deserve repeating on a much 

 larger scale, and with wild tubers of California, Arizona, Texas, 

 Mexico, Central America, Peru and Chili. Selections of these 

 should be used in hybridization, and their seed-products 

 planted and tested until new, valuable and hardy potatoes are 

 obtained for the table. There was a fortune in the production 

 of Bresee's Early Rose, and this result may be repeated. Our 

 late Secretary, Mr. A. W. Harrison, gave this potato its name 

 from its character and color, and on one occasion lie made 

 an exhibition of some of Mr. Goodrich's seedlings in bushels 

 at the autumnal fair of our society, raised by him in German- 

 town. 



Fabulous sums were paid for the Early. Rose the year of its 

 production. I have known of $20 having been paid for a peck, 

 $3 for a pound and $2 for a five-ounce tuber, this last by the 

 late Peter Henderson, who produced from it a crop of 450 

 pounds from 150 plants raised by forcing, sprouting and root- 

 ing. By this system, in a hot-bed, 2,000 plants, and almost 

 2,000 pounds of potatoes, have been produced from one 

 pound, or by measure thirty-three bushels, of Ruby Pota- 

 toes, worth at the time $74. 



The value of a new Potato does not depend altogether upon 

 its size, form, productiveness, hardiness and taste; for we 

 must also consider the proportion of starch which it yields by 

 analysis, a test of quality which is too seldom employed. On 

 the average a potato will yield in October from eighteen to 

 twenty per cent, of starch and seventy-five per cent, of water, 

 but the former ranges from ten to twenty-three per cent., and 

 the latter from sixty-eight to eighty-two per cent. The starch 

 exists in the largest proportion in October, and diminishes 

 gradually until April, when the loss is sometimes as much as 

 three per cent. 



Potatoes should be boiled in their skins if economy is to be 

 considered, as the loss to the water is then only three per cent, 

 as againstfourteen where they have been pared; or from two to 

 three ounces in the pound, which is a very considerable waste. 



As the Potato plant and tuber contain a large proportion of 

 potash, this alkali is an important element in the plant-food for 

 a crop of tubers. Mr. Harrison grew his valuable crop of 

 Goodrich seedlings on a piece of what was rated as worn-out 

 land, by the aid of an abundant dressing of wood-ashes. 



The potatoes of to-day are quite different in appearance from 

 those grown fifty years ago, when their eyes were much 

 sunken, and their surfaces covered with nodules. American 

 tubers are much more symmetrically formed than those of 

 foreign countries in general, and of more uniform size. Very 

 large tubers evince a richness of soil, but are no special ad- 

 vantage to the consumer. Russia produces very large pota- 

 toes, but they have deeply set eyes, and are not invitingly- 

 shaped. The tubers of Europe are generally light yellow in 

 flesh ; some are very dark-skinned ; and the more common 

 shape is short and thick. Selection of shapes for planting 

 should improve the form of the potato, as it has done with the 

 tomato. "Plant the best, and eat or sell the balance," is a rule 

 that holds good for crops in general; but it is a difficult one to 

 secure acquiescence in among the ignorant and improvident. 

 Following just the opposite in Ireland has had much to do 

 with her potato failures and famines. It is a self-denial not to 

 eat the best of the crop, when the lower grades will sprout and 

 grow, but this self-denial pays in the end, whether it be in the 

 potato, Indian corn or wheat. — From a paper read before the 

 Pennsylvania Horticultural Society by Robert P. Harris, M.D. 



