228 
POTATOES AND THE POTATO DISEASE CUT FLOWERS. 
disease ; and if, in after time, there should be 
a continuance of such sunless weather as 
rarely fails to bring mildew, and the haulm 
should be touched with it, however slightl}', 
sprinkle all the foliage again with lime, and it 
will instantly stop the progress of the disease, 
and the tubers will not suffer. Indeed, we 
should venture any quantity, if we depended 
solely on the produce of the land for our ex- 
istence, such is our faith in the opinions of 
practical men, and our conviction from our 
experience of last year, while almost every- 
body suffered, more or less ; and such abundant 
opportunities occurred of trying experiments — 
opportunities which we took advantage of in 
every particular, and in no case was there an 
instance in which lime failed to stop it, when 
applied to the foliage ; or that cutting down 
the haulm in time failed to prevent its reach- 
ing the tubers. To hesitate about planting, 
appears to us to be little short of insanity; and 
to treat the disease in the Potato as anything 
but the mildew, which affects everything else, 
is to veil in mystery that which is as well 
understood, among practical men, as any one 
of the evils they are subject to in the course of 
their profession. 
The Tulip grower is subject to the same 
mischievous disease. It attacks the foliage, 
and if not checked by removing the affected 
part, descends to the bulb and destroys it. 
Very dry weather will sometimes stop the dis- 
ease, even when it has begun, by drying it up ; 
and, without care, the bulb is not affected ; 
but cases of this kind are rare ; we more fre- 
quently had nearly all the bulbs injured ; and, 
although we may plant again all that promise 
well, even some of the best are so damaged, as 
to dwindle and rot away. The same thing 
occurs in the Turnip, and, unless they are 
taken up at once, sprinkled with lime and the 
tops cut off, the roots will rot in the ground. 
These, like the Potato, suffered in many 
places. Melons, also, that were healthy up to 
the period when the other things began to suf- 
fer, became affected so much, that scarcely a 
fruit was obtained where the mildew once be- 
gun. In one man's hands we saw all the 
plants in pretty nearly two hundred lights 
suffering so greatly as to be all thrown away ; 
and the same disease, however varied the 
form of its attack, visits almost every species 
of vegetation. All this should convince us 
that there is nothing to connect last year's 
misfortunes with the future ; no reason to 
suppose that the mildew will affect next year's 
crop any the more, because it was fatal to the 
last, any more than we have to dread a parch- 
ing, dry summer, or a severe winter, because 
the preceding one was so. There is no doubt 
that, if we have a long, rainy, cloudy season, 
like the last, the Potatoes, Turnips, and vege- 
tation generally, will be attacked the same way; 
and we must use all necessary precautions to 
defeat it, but we have no right to expect 
such a season. The very fact of its being so 
last year, renders it less likely ; but we would 
engage to grow a clean crop of Potatoes, even 
if we had the same over again. 
CUT FLOWERS. 
The growing fancy for cut flowers as orna- 
ments for drawing-rooms, is doing wonders 
for the floricultuial community; and the rage 
for nosegays and bouquets adds greater charms 
to private and public assemblies, than all the 
jewellery that can be displayed. There is no 
ornament to equal a well-cliosen bouquet or 
a floral gem ; and rather would we see, as we 
see now, tastefully arranged flowers, as the 
only adjunct to female beauty, than the most 
liberal use of precious stones and gold and silver 
ornaments. The lady who now attends a ball or 
fashionable party without her bouquet of na- 
tural flowers on her dress, or in her hand, 
seems only half prepared for the occasion ; and 
how enviously does she glance at the more 
favoured beauty who has been supplied ! The 
fragrance of the passing Roses and Violets, 
and Jasmine and Orange-flowers, seems to 
reproach her ; and she is to be pitied. Ladies, 
look to this. If your devoted swains or affec- 
tionate brothers, or your attentive husbands, 
have not procured them for you, buy them 
3'ourself, rather than let the fashionable world 
see you are neglected. Let them be the best 
you can procure, for nobody will know but 
that they represent the interest which some 
ardent admirer takes in your welfare and hap- 
piness. Gentlemen, if you have the least 
regard for any living fair one, never allow her 
to be seen at a party without a few of the best 
flowers you can procure, nor at home without 
a nosegay. She will think of you so long as 
their beauty lasts, and every time she is 
charmed by their fragrance, she will be re- 
minded of the giver. Is not this enough to 
make you look about you ? Flowers are an 
offering which no lady can refuse. They are 
acceptable at all times. Expend a shilling or 
a pound on a trinket, and a prudent female 
may refuse it. Give a guinea for a bouquet, 
and the most icy damsel in the world cannot 
decline the present. All other gifts may be 
received kindly or coldly, but flowers never ! 
To be serious, for we have wandered a little 
in this matter, there is not, even to the most 
insensible creature on the face of the earth, 
any present so agreeable as a bunch of good 
flowers, and the more choice they are, the 
more acceptable are they to a person of accu- 
rate sense and discernment. It is this fact 
which accounts for the rapidly increasing 
