192 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 6, 1884. 
with a note on a few of the other experiments, in order to show 
by results the effect of a given manure on a particular soil. I 
will not go so far as to say that the same results will follow 
under conditions which may appear similar in other gardens, but 
it may be expected that such would be the case; and again in 
recommending these manurial agents it must not be supposed 
that farmyard manures ai’e thereby, or in any sense, thought 
less highly of than before. The simile is not quite an accurate 
one, but artificial manures when applied to fertile soils may be 
compared to the spur to a well-fed and willing horse, with this 
difference, that whereas the spur does not add to the staying power 
of the steed, artificial manures do add to the fertility of the soil. 
The variety of Potato under trial was a selected form of 
Myatt s —perhaps the best garden Potato in cultivation when 
well grown. The sets were all strongly sprouted before planting. 
They were set out in rows 2 feet apart and 1 foot from set to set 
in the row. Planting was done on April 3rd with the ground in 
splendid condition. All the manures were strewed along the 
rows and mixed with the soil before the sets were planted. The 
ground was.hoed during summer with a Dutch hoe twice, and the 
crop lifted in the beginning of August. The difference in the 
■weight of crop arose from the size of the tubers in the several plots, 
all tubers under table size being discarded. In some cases there 
were never more than four table size tubers at a root, in others 
not fewer than ten. and these of a. larger size. I give the 
results in tabular form, and may explain that 20 represents 
the smallest crop, 80 the largest, the intermediate giving the 
proportion of the others. The cost is given as approximating 
to what they would cost gardeners taking small quantities. The 
dressings were perhaps heavier than was quite necessary. It 
may also be added that although the very inexpensive com¬ 
bination of kainit and nitrate of soda gave very excellent 
returns, the next crop will most likely suffer after that manure. 
It is necessary to state that for Potatoes sulphate of ammonia 
is a much better material from which to derive ammonia than 
nitrate of soda, the latter passing very rapidly from the soil, 
while the former is slower in action and of a more lasting 
character.* It also seems to act better in combination with 
other manurial agents. Though higher in price it must be 
remembered that the ammonia derivable from a first-class 
sample of sulphate of ammonia is as 5 to 4 of nitrate of soda. 
The heaviest crop (30) represents about thirteen tons per acre. 
Name of Manure. 
Quantity 
per Acre 
Cost per Acre 
in small quantity. 
Compara¬ 
tive Crop. 
None 
20 
Chloride of potash 
2f cwt. 
25 s. 
20 
Kainit 
2§ cwt. 
12s. 
22 
Superphosphate of lime 
3g cwt. 
21s. 
20 
Kainit and nitrate of soda 
5 cwt. 
47s. 
28 
Superphosphate of lime 4 
Sulphate of potash > 
8 cwt. 
85s. 
25 
Sulphate of ammonia J 
Superphosphate of lime") 
Chloride of potash V 
8 cwt. 
90s. 
30 
Sulphate of ammonia J 
Special manure 
8 cwt. 
160s. 
30 
—R. P. Brotherston. 
HISTORICAL JOTTINGS ON VEGETABLES. 
SMALL SALADS. 
Concerning tastes, as a familiar saying informs us, disputes 
are vam, and are reasonably judged to be so, for in the matter of 
the palate no one has any right to quarrel with his neighbour’s 
likes or dislikes, and it would be of no use to attempt to change 
these by force of argument. One exception to the general rule, 
however, lies in the case we sometimes meet wdth, where an 
individual professes to dislike some article or compound which 
he has never tasted. . We have reason on our side if we ask him 
to give it a fair trial. Much, no doubt, depends upon early 
training in this as in other things; and there are plenty of 
instances where generations have persistently eaten of a dish 
which later generations have as uniformly rejected, not because 
of its unwholesomeness or scarcity, but because its place was 
occupied by some new dish, which has had its turn of popularity. 
Were the salads of three or four centuries ago to be concocted 
* I have tried experiments with saltpetre (nitrate of potash), but the 
results have been rather disappointing. Its cost is high, about 50s. per cwt. 
now we question if they would be partaken of by modern Eng¬ 
lishmen ; even supposing they were presented apart from their 
history, both appearance and flavour would probably tell against 
them. “ Salad,” say the dictionary makers, comes from a French 
word spelt almost similarly. Our forefathers, indeed, seem to 
have frequently written it “ sallet.” The origin is presumed to 
be the Latin sal, because the compound thus styled contained 
a predominance of salt. I cannot regard the derivation as quite 
satisfactory, but am unprepared with a better. Such salads 
until about the commencement of the Georgian era, contained 
none of those plants w r e now commonly employ, but such as 
could be gathered by fields or waysides, made pungent by the 
Onion and its allies, or pei haps in winter by the addition of 
spices and pepper. Being not unusually mixed in bowls of 
metal, there must have been at times an unwholesomeness about 
the salad whenever acids in any quantity formed part of the 
compound. The stronger acids, such as vinegar, were occasion¬ 
ally displaced by the leaves of one of the Sorrels, which would 
suffice to give a mild acid flavour. Amongst the plants that 
have been specified as favourites in old salads we find the Lamb’s 
Lettuce (Fedia olitoria), the Burnet (Poterium Sanguisorba), 
the powerful and abundant Hedge Garlic (Erysimum Alliaria), 
that presumed strengthener of the heart the Cuckoo Flower 
(Cardamine pratensis), with others doubtless of the Cruciferous 
or Cress tribe allied to our garden species. 
This Cress, the Lepidium sativum of botanists, though now 
so familiarly associated with the Mustard, was not eaten green 
with it until a comparatively recent date. The seeds of the 
Mustard species have a long history, but we do not know the 
name of the man who first ate or suggested the eating of the 
young plant in a green state. Lists of (the street cries of old 
London do not tell us of any early vendors of vegetables who 
carried round Mustard and Cress; indeed to the present hour 
this small salad is not often sold by the street costermongers, 
though raised all the year through for the market, the demand 
for it varying considerably. It is likely the two became thus 
associated about the beginning of the reign of George III. It 
would appear, however, from remarks in sundry old books on 
gardening that for some time the young leaves of the Turnip 
wei’e eaten with Cress to impart some pungency. 
Concerning the general history of the cultivated species of 
Mustard, we may first note that some kind, hardly to be iden¬ 
tified now with certainty, but which may have been our Sinapis 
nigra, was grown both in Europe and Asia centuries before the 
Christian era, and where circumstances proved favourable it 
attained to a size which would justify the comparison in Matt, 
xiii. 31. By the Greeks and Romans Mustard seems to have 
been valued both as a medicine and as an article of diet, and 
probably it was brought into Britain during the period of Roman 
rule. Its effect upon the eyes is supposed to have originated 
the Latin name from sino and opis; others connect it with the 
Keltic neup. Mustard, the English name, comes of course from 
the French moutarde, though the old appellation for it is said to 
have been seneve. A household book containing records of the 
expenditure of the Duke of Northumberland in some years of 
the sixteenth century acquaints us with the fact that his retainers 
disposed of about 160 gallons of the seed per annum: it was 
eaten whole boiled accompanied with vinegar. The cultivation 
of the Black Mustard in fields is mentioned before that date ; 
and Tusser, writing upon the “ Five Hundred Points of Good 
Husbandry,” directs that the seed be sown in February after rain. 
The White Mustard (Sinapis alba) was introduced during 
the reign of Elizabeth, and Gerard informs us that he helped on 
its diffusion through Britain by distributing packets of seed 
wherever he found persons willing to grow the plant. It is a 
species that grows apparently wild in South Europe and Western 
Asia. His comments upon Mustard imply that it had begun 
then to be used as a condiment in the mode we place it on our 
tables, but the seeds were ground very coarsely. A doctor who 
was one of Gerard's contemporaries, recommends Mustard as a 
strengthener of the voice if the powdered seeds mixed with honey 
into a paste are taken early in the morning, which might furnish 
a hint to modern speakers and singers. For a good while much 
Mustard seed was sent to the metropolis from distant places, 
which were supposed to produce better crops than did the soil 
near London, though this was really but a fancy. Thus Cole3, 
about the date of the Restoration, mentions Tewkesbury as a 
town that grew a good deal of Mustard in its vicinity, and which 
was sent long distances by the slow conveyances of the age. 
Durham, too, amongst other places became famous for its Mus¬ 
tard, not only for the reason above, but because the first “ flour 
of Mustard” was manufactured there in 1720, the inventor of 
the process being a Mrs. Clements. George I. accepted samples 
of the article, the nobility and gentry patronised it, and so 
