1*234 
tiie field. 
dirtv garden-pots or other vessels denned ; crocks, charcoal, 
and other drainage muterials broken, riddled, and sorted ; 
and hooks or pegs cut and bundled. 
The compost yard will require that all superfluous water 
from rain, snow, &c„ be got away speedily, and compost 
already mixed, turned when frozen hard, in order to 
d stray the eggs of snails, slugs, wire worms, ur other 
insects, as also to ameliorate them in regard ot their 
mechanical texture. , . . . . 
To conclude, let us remind our readers of the propriety 
of providing protecting materials for their fruit-trees, ns 
also pea-sticks, fir-boughs, and such other matters. I he 
gardener thus provided, and with his eye well tixed on the 
prime features of the opening spring, will commence ope- 
rations with a well-grounded confidence, and be able to 
carry them out with firmness and precision, and, conse- 
quently, expect a good share of success. 
TUJB GARDENER. 
roses: their propagation, etc. 
We much fear that many persons are deterred from in- 
dulging in an extended culture of this queen of flowers from 
an ignorance of the great facility with which roses may be 
propagated. The following plain advice, by “ An Ama- 
teur," is so useful, that we give the extract entire 
The following plan for the propagation of the rose I have 
practised with success:— In the first week in September I go 
over the rose trees, anti thin out the shoots of straggling 
growth ; for any wood that is pretty well ripened will make 
excellent cuttings. When I have collected a sufficient 
quantity I make thorn into cuttings about four or five inches 
long, being c ireful to cut them close to a bud, or else to leave 
a small piece of the old wood forming a heel to the cutting : 
either wav will succeed. I have found three-year-old wood 
oruit roots as freely us that which was only one year old. In 
making the cuttings I remove the leaves from such parts only 
a, will be insert -.1 in the ground, and then plant them in a 
north or east bonier, in rows ono foot asunder and six inches 
j i part iu the row, and deep enough to leave about two buds 
above the surface ; the soil is trodden close about them. They 
require no other care but to be kopt free from weeds; 
and will be found to be well rooted by the following autumn, 
and may then bo planted out where required. I have struck 
them by thousands in this way, aud never found the plan to 
fail. For the more tender aud delicate sorts I have practised 
the following method : I make up a gentle hotbed of leaves, 
old hotbed linings, Sic., and prepare the cuttings in the same 
way, and at the same time as the others. I tike care to have 
ready a quantity of pots prepared first with two inches of good 
drainage, and then filled up to within two or three inches of 
the rim with good rough sandy loam, aud the remaining part 
with pure silver sand : the cuttings are then planted in the 
Bind, so as to rest upon the soil underneath : a garden frame 
is placed on the hotbed, and the pots filled with cuttings are 
plunged to the rim in the bed : they then l’ejeive a gentle 
watering to Bottle the sand about them, and all is finished. 
It is necessary to give all the air possible iu fine weather, and 
only to draw up the light in frosty or wet weather ; there 
will be no linings required iu the winter, as they only want 
a slight heat for the first two or three weeks. By the follow- 
ing March they will be rooted, when they should be potted 
off singly in small pots, aud placed in a close cold frame until 
they have taken with the pots. 
Our informant speaks of “ early in September,” and, 
doubtless, a capital time ; but, where late perpetual aud 
others are required to blossom liberally in the autumn, cul- 
tivators are scarcely disposed to abstract cuttings from them 
at that early period. It is proper to know that cuttings 
may be made up to the early part of November. Another 
point deserves attention : those who put out cuttings in 
September or October, desirous of their flowering during 
the succeeding autumn, may insert their cuttings in pots, 
and plunge the pots in a sheltered and shady border until 
the beginning of February, when, if they are removed to a 
frame possessing a bottom heat, and plunged in a shady 
part, they will root speedily, and inav, with high culture, be- 
come charming little hushes by July, and produce a respec- 
table bloom through the autumn months. It is not every 
kind, however, which will give this amount of satisfaction ; 
they must be naturally free bloomers, and possess much of 
the really perpetual character about them. Without stay- 
ing to give anything like a full solution, we may point to a 
few old kinds, which we have known to prove very useful 
iu this way: — Phoenix, Giant des batailles, Pierre de St. 
C'vr, Standard of Marengo, Mrs. Bosanquct, Rose du Roi, 
Fellenberg, Baron lie Prevost, Madame Desprez, Aitni 
Vibert, &c. &c. AH that is requisite is a most liberal soil, 
highly manured, and possessing a proportion of what is 
termed sound loam, slightly adhesive, and, of course, high 
in mammal principles. This, with such attention as pre- 
cludes any serious attacks from the rose aphis, or other 
insects, will, beyond doubt, give satisfaction. 
Roses being such highly-popular flowers, we shall feel it 
a duty to turn frequently to points in their culture. 
ROTATION OF CROPS. 
The following extract will serve to show forth the ideas 
attached to this subject by our brave Gallican neighbours. 
It is well now and then to compare notes, and endeavour 
to draw useful inferences. 
The principles of rotating crops are laid dowu thus in the 
fours’ Complete tV Agriculture.— 1st. Every plant exhausts 
the soil. 2od. All plants do not exhaust the soil equally. 
3rd. Plants of different kinds do not exhaust the soil in the 
me manner. 4th. All plants do not restore to the soil 
the same quantity, nor the same quality of manure. 5th. 
All plants are not equally favourable to the growth of weeds. 
From these fundamental principles the following conclu- 
sions may be drawn, viz : — 1st. However well a soil may be 
prepared, it cannot long nourish crops of the same kinds iu 
succession, without becoming exhausted. 2ud. Every crop 
impoverishes a soil more or less, ns more or less is restored 
to the soil by the plant cultivated. 3rd. Perpendicular 
rooting plant*, and such as root horizontally, should succeed 
each other. 4 th. Plants of the same kind should not return 
too frequent in rotation. 5th. Two plants favourable to the 
growth of weeds should not micceed each other. Oth. Such 
plants us eminently exhaust the soil, as the grain and oil 
plants, should only be sown when the land is in high con- 
ditio.j. 7th. Iu proportion as a soil is found to exhaust 
itself by successive crops, plants which are least exhausting 
ought to be cultivated. 
We pass by the “ fundamental principles,” as being 
truisms; the ‘* 00110111410115 ," however, may be examined 
with perhaps some benefit. And, first, about the con- 
tinuation of crops of the same kind in succession. We 
have always found it perfectly true in practice ; 
but such is the rage for novelty, or the desire to 
sift every previous opinion, that long-established notions 
have been contravened in some quarters on this head. 
Whilst, however, we keep our minds open to the accession 
of facts, although they may antagonise what arc called 
settled opinions, let us at the same time consider them as 
simply speculative until they attain more breadth. With 
the third corollary we cordially agree; it is a mere com- 
mon-sense affair. The same of No. 4 ; which, of course, 
refers to the first conclusion. And here we may fairly ask 
those who assume to grow wheat and other matters on the 
same soil for years in succession, whether wheat is an ex- 
ception to this rule? or, if they will, whether the rule may 
be recognised? This we know in gardening matters, that 
to take one family only— that termed “ Cabbage Worts,” 
which contains almost till of what are termed greens, from 
a bad cabbage up to a good cauliflower — all past practice 
repudiates the idea of several crops in succession. To 
be sure wc get over the difficulty— although limpingly— 
by a high course of manuring, deep digging, &c. ; hut, 
be it remembered, these are rather expensive proceedings, 
ns times go. Corollary 5th is eminently agricultural in its 
bearings, in some portions of this kingdom at least ; 
whether scientific or not, it is at least economic in its 
tendencies as to the labour question. The seventh corollary, 
according to British notions, brings us to the idea of leys, 
or “ rest," as it i9 termed, and this, by engendering a fresh 
amount of organic matter in the soil, though by a slow 
process, enables the owner to recommence his rotations. 
With these remarks, we respectfully suggest that such 
extracts are worthy of grave consideration. 
CHINESE YAMS. 
Some of our readers have doubtless noticed an adver- 
tisement in the papers of a tuber under the name Dioscorea 
japonica ; now it appears to be changed to I). batatas. 
Mr. Henderson, of Kingskerwell, in South Devon, is the 
advertiser, and is said to possess the whole of the saleable 
stock. Certainly anything in the shape of a long-keeping 
tuber, and eatable, is worthy of consideration, and we 
should be sorry by any remark to stifle a desire for 
experimenting upon new things ; bearing in mind how we 
came by our Swede turnips, mangel wurzel. potatoes, & re. 
To advertise roots, however, of a soapy texture when cooked, 
ns likely to supersede the potato, is a bold stroke. As we 
think it a duty to place any valuable facts which may come 
to hand as soon as possible before the readers of The Field, 
we beg to offer the following extract from, it appears, a com- 
munication made by M. P6pin to the Imperial and Central 
Agricultural Society of France; it records experiments 
as to this yam made by himself: — 
An advertisement having appeared in our columns respect- 
ing a new esculent root called Dioscorea japonica, it seems 
desirable to state what has up to the present time been 
ascertained respecting the plant. In the Gardeners' Chroni- 
cle for the 22nd of July last, an accouut was given of a 
newly introduced hardy Chinese yam called Dioscorea bata- 
tas, by Prof. Decaisne, which is identical with this Dioscorea 
japonica, a name that, according to M. Decaisne, belongs 
to a very different species, aud must therefore be aban- 
doned. 
Since the appearance of the account alluded to, a couple 
of plants were received by the Horticultural Society, aud 
placed under the care of Mr. Thompson, who however failed 
in inducing them to form tubers. Others have been more 
successful, especially M. P<5pin, who in a late communication 
to the Imperial and Central Agricultural Society of France, 
gives the following interesting account of his experiments : — 
“ This plant arrived iu a very bad state, nearly all the roots 
having been destroyed by the fermentation which had taken 
place in the box during the voyage. 
“After the pieces of the roots which were sound had 
been clean and dried for three days, they were planted in 
well-drained pots filled with sandy peat, mixed with about 
one-fifth of rotten dung so far decomposed as to be reduced 
to the state of mould. The pots were plunged in a hotbed, 
not covered by a frame, in order that vegetation might he 
accelerated by a gentle and steady bottom-heat ; at the 
same time water was very sparingly given. 
“ At the end of a fortnight, by the aid of this artificial 
heat, fibrils and young stems had been developed. The 
plants were then taken out of the pots aud planted in the 
open ground, in the end of May ; a few were planted on an 
exhausted hotbed, in order that they might take root more 
readily, and produce a greater number of roots aud stems. 
These means succeeded perfectly well, aud we were enabled 
to preserve and propagate the plant. The roots taken up 
in the autumn of 1850 were put into a cellar where the 
frost could not reach them ; and, having kept well through 
the winter, they were planted out in the spring of 1851, in 
well pulverised, deep garden soil. The growth of the plants 
was very vigorous, aud the roots attained a large Bize ; one 
of them, measured in the autumn of 1851, was about three feet 
iu length ; its form was cylindrical aud tapering. 
“ The stems of this plant wither every year iu the end of 
October. The first year they were cut off' soon after, and the 
roots taken up under the impression that they had been 
injured by frost. The roots were in a growing state when 
taken up, and this led me to suppose that they might have 
been left iu the ground till the cud of November, and that 
they would have attained a still greater size. I have ob- 
served, up to the present time, that the tubers were simple, 
anfl had no tendency to ramify; but I have also seen two 
together, of equal size, that grew from the lower part of tho 
terminal shoot, and had their origin from the same point. 
“ Iu August, 1851, before the stems of that year were 
fully matured, some young shoots were taken for cuttings. 
They were cut in lengths of between 4 and 5 inches, and 
horizontally below an eye. They wore inserted in pots 
filled with peat, aud placed on bottom-heat iu a hot-housc, 
covering them for several days with a bell-glass, so as to 
completely exclude tho air. Thcso cuttings succeeded 
perfectly wall. At tho end of a mouth they hail made a 
sufficient quantity of roots to admit of their being potted 
singly in 3-inch pots. They were kept in a hot-house, where 
they continued to grow till December. They had then 
pushed to tho length of from 12 to 14 inches. Up to the 
present time cuttings made during suramov from the herba- 
ceous shoots have only yielded tubers after tho lapse of from 
14 to 10 months ; but those raised from pieces of the roots 
produced tubers which could be used iu the same year. 
“ It was doubtful whether tho roots of this plant would 
withstand our winters, although some small pieces that were 
left in the soil when the roots were taken up iu 1852 re- 
mained alive all winter, and made shoots 13 to It) inches iu 
length during tho ensuing summer; aud the roots of one of 
these plants were ns much ns 14 inches deep. The roots 
which remained iu the ground throughout tho winter 
pushed their shoots about the 15th or 20th of April ; those 
roots, on tho other hand, which were planted iu April did 
not exhibit shoots till the end of May, or more frequently 
not till the beginning of June. There is no longer any doubt 
at to tho hardiness of the plants ; they have withstood, na I 
have already stated, the 25* of frost which wo have had this 
winter, and when taken up the skin was smooth and fresh, 
aud the roots altogether were iu a sound state, as M. 
Bronguiart, who was present, can testify. 
“ I preserved a root in a cellar from October, 1852, to the 
30th May, 1853, without any appearance of the development 
of shoots. It was unchanged, and had not lost weight. I 
think the tubers may be kept nearly throughout the year, 
which is not the case with either the common or the sweet 
potato. 
“In Juno, 1853, after having been seven mouths out of 
the ground, .a root of this plaut was analysed, in order to 
ascertain the amount of nutritive matter which it contained. 
The following was the result in 100 parts : — 
Water 70.10 
Starch 18.80 
Alkaline phosphates (ashes) 0.78 
Albuminous matter (a large quantity), saccharine mat- 
ter (truce), cellulose, mineral substances, &c 10.52 
100.00 
“ The proportion of starch. was determined with the great- 
est possible care, but the quantity analysed was very small 
(463 grains) ; it would therefore be necessary to repeat tho 
analysis with a greater quantity of root. 
“ In n few years we shall know to what extent the roots 
left in the ground will acquire weight and bulk, and how 
long they may remain in the soil without deterioration of 
quality. We know, however, that a tuber takeu up at the 
end of three years had its cellular tissue healthy to the 
centre, where it was also neither hard nor woody. 
“ From these facts I believe that this plant will be ad- 
mitted among our cultivated tuberous species, and I am also 
led to conclude that it will be useful in an agricultural point 
of view, inasmuch as it remains several years iu the ground 
like the Jerusalem artichoke, requiring after planting little 
or no cultivation, and finally that it will furnish, at all 
seasons of the year, an aliment within the reach of every 
one." 
This report appears to establish the fact that the roots of 
the Chinese yam are hardy and productive enough for garden 
cultivation. Of their quality \\e can speak from personal 
knowledge, a portion of a full-grown tuber having been 
obligingly sent us by Mr. J. Henderson, Kingskerswell, 
South Devon, in whose hands, we understand, is the whole 
saleable stock of the plant. Boiled like a potato it proved 
extremely good, with rather a nutty taste, but it did not 
become mealy, although the potatoes which were cooked with 
it were perfectly so ; from which we infer that the roots ro- 
quire to be either steamed or roasted, if to be brought to 
table iu perfection. At all events, it is certain that the 
Chinese yam belongs to the first class of garden root orops. 
Experience only will teach the best way of cooking it, and, 
we may add, of cultivating it also. Upon the latter im- 
portant subject we have the following practical directions 
from Mr. Henderson : — 
“ The manner iu which the Chinese cultivate it is ex- 
tremely simple. The earth is first formed into ridges, when 
small tubers, or portions of large ones, are planted on the 
top, at about three feet apart ; after the plants have 
attained a little strength, the shoots are spread over the 
sides of the ridges and pegged down at the leaf end, six or 
eight inches from each other (care being takeu to cover the 
joints or parts pegged dowu with a portion of earth), when 
they soon strike root and throw out tubers ; by this means, 
immense quantities of roots, of the size of early-framed 
kidney potatoes, are raised on a comparatively small piece 
of ground. The above is the ordinary Chinese mode of 
culture ; but to obtain them of a large size, small tubers, or 
portions, are planted on ridges, from ten inches to one foot 
apart, and the plants are allowed to grow freely till late in 
tlie autumn, when the foliage is cut away and dried, or 
partially dried, aud given to cattle; the tubers by this means 
attain on an average one pound and upwards in weight. The 
produce, w hen the ground is required for other purposes, 
is taken up aud stored away for the winter aud spring ; aud 
it seems a peculiarity in this root, if exposed to the frost, it 
is not injured by it, nor does it have any inclination for 
sprouting till the natural seasou for planting.” 
Mr. Henderson further states — 
“ That he finds a much quicker way of procuring a stock of 
young tubers for seed by growing them iu a cold frame, or 
on a gentle hotbed, aud taking the cuttings as soon as they 
appear ; it being only necessary to cut off a leaf, with a small 
piece of wood without a joint, which is inserted in the mould 
(ordinary cutting mould) to the leaf — a pot of six inches 
diameter would contain about fifty cuttings — the pots should 
then be placed in a gentle heat, aud kept close, either by 
means of hell-glasses or otherwise. Before the cuttings 
strike root they will throw out small tubers on the surface 
of the mould (similar to those sent out to the public) ; as 
soon as they are the size of a pea they should be hardened 
off, aud planted out thickly iu the open ground, when many 
of the large ones will be fit for use the same season, it 
required. A good gardener, with a Btock of fifty small 
tubers, ought to obtain from two to three thousand roots 
fit for the next year's seed." 
There can he no doubt that, the plant deserves the iinme- 
mediate aud serious attention of all gentlemen’s gardeners. — 
From the Gardeners' Chronicle. 
SEEDLING FLOWES8. 
fWc shall be happy to receive blooms of any choice seedlings of florist 
flowers, and will give our opinion candidly ns to their merits. They 
should be packed in boxes, and surrounded by damped thin brown paper. 
The boxes should be stout, bo ns not to be crushed iu transit through the 
Post-office. The postage must bo paid, and packets should be addressed 
to the Fif.ld office, House, a in 5. Estcj it ..Strand, London, — Ed J 
TRADE CATALOGUES. 
[We shall he happy to receive catalogues from the trade, and they 
shall be noticed in oor columns, and extracts will be made if deserving 
the attention of the general reader. — E ditor.] 
GARDEN NEWS. 
I have had some experience of the effects of such a soil as 
“ Beta's" on apple and pear trees ; and I would recommend 
