November 24, 1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
475 
avenue leading to the Castle, and said to be from 150 to 200 years 
of age. Owing, most probably, to the poor character of the soil 
the trees were not so large as might have been expected ; still, they 
are of a size sufficient to make many prophesy that the possibility 
of setting them up again was extremely problematical. However, 
Mr. Hay, the proprietor, desired them raised, and Mr. Shearer was 
appointed to do it. All had large balls of roots. Many of the 
branches were smashed, and the whole of these were cut back to 
the main trunk. Three strong wires were then fastened near the 
lop of the tree, also guy ropes and a thick wire rope to pull them 
up with. Two screw-jacks were employed to raise the trees to an 
angle of 45°, then a winch SO yards distance was set to work to 
draw up the tree by means of block and tackle to a perpen¬ 
dicular position. The soil was then filled round the roots, and 
the work completed by tying the ends of the three wire ropes to 
stakes driven into the ground at equal distances round the tree. 
The trees were being lifted at the rate of one a day.—B. 
THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The opening meeting of this Society for the present session was 
held on Wednesday the 10th inst., at the Institution of Civil En¬ 
gineers. Mr. G. J. Symons, E.R.S., President, in the chair. Twenty- 
seven gentlemen were ballotted for and duly elected Fellows of the 
Society. 
The evening was devoted to an account of “ the Gale which passed 
across the British Isles, October 13th and 14th, 1881,” which had 
been prepared by Mr. G. J. Symons, F.R.S., with the assistance and 
co-operation of Mr. C. Harding and other gentlemen. There is 
evidence of the storm being formed in the Atlantic about 150 miles 
south of Nova Scotia on October 10th, and that at noon on the 13th 
there was a considerable disturbance about 000 miles west of Galway. 
At that time there were scarcely any instrumental indications in the 
British Isles of the coming storm ; the barometer was falling at 
Yalentia, but not rapidly ; and at some of the western English stations 
it was rising. The curves of barometric fluctuation show very plainly 
the advance of the depression from west to east, for while at Valentia 
the minimum occurred at 2 a.m. on the 14th, on the east coast of 
Norfolk it is recorded that it did not occur till 4 P.M. This fact, 
coupled with others, seems to indicate an easterly progression of the 
barometric minimum at nearly forty miles per hour. As far as the 
sea is concerned, the chief force of the gale was felt in the afternoon 
of the 14th in the German Ocean, and there the great loss of life and 
destruction to shipping seems mainly due to the exceptionally violent 
squalls which were peculiar to this gale, as well as to the extremely 
sudden manner in which the wind increased to hurricane force. The 
afternoon became quite darkened by the salt water blown into the 
air, so that it was impossible to see a ship’s length ahead. The 
barometric chart for 9 a.m. on the 14th showed that the pressure in 
the north of England was an inch lower than in the south, and nearly 
2 inches lower than in the south of France. The area over which 
injury was produced was very large, and, although not without pre¬ 
cedent, it was happily rare. The record of 50 tbs. per square foot at 
the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was the highest ever registered 
in that locality, and close by thirty-five trees were blown down in 
the park, and 15 feet blown off the top of a spire which had been 
erected about forty years, the stone of which shows no sign of decay, 
and which had retained its position almost, if not wholly, by the 
gravitation of its mass. The general opinion seems to be that the 
structural damage over the greater part of the country was by no 
means unprecedented, and in the greater part of Ireland and the 
south-west of England was not even of an unusual character, but 
along the east coast and in the east midlands the damage was exces¬ 
sive, and on the north-east coast unprecedented. In Scotland the 
destruction of trees was enormous. 
Mr. J. Wallace Peggs, F.M.S., also read a paper on the “ Structural 
Damage Caused by the Gale as Indicative of Wind Force,” and re¬ 
marked that since the Tay Bridge disaster attention had once more 
been directed to the subject of wind-pressure. He suggested that 
a conference of delegates from societies specially interested in the 
subject should be held, who should make experiments and carefully 
consider the whole question. 
POTATO CULTURE. 
As 1 have to supply sixty people for nine out of twelve months, 
I must look well to the Potato supply. I have tried many different 
varieties for the last five years, both kidneys and rounds, my aim 
having been to obtain those which my employer likes, that would 
bear rough treatment, and yet would be of good quality. It is 
very well to talk about 16 tons to the acre when the land and 
Potatoes are worked with fork and spade and the land in a high 
state of cultivation, but all cannot obtain good laud, and what 
Potatoes are there that will bear rough cultivation ? I have 
Potatoes that I give superior cultivation, and 1 secure good crops, 
but they will not bear rough cultivation. For instance, the 
Woodstock Kidney will not with me, but Suttons’ Magnum 
Bonum will, and so will the Scotch Champion. The produce is 
different, Suttons’ Magnum Bonum takes the lead. I have tried 
both sorts side by side, and I have too many small tubers on the 
Champion. The flavour is good, but that of Magnum Bonum is 
better. 
The following is what I term rough cultivation. A piece of land 
is ploughed up late in the autumn after root crops, such as 
Mangold, Swedes, Kohl Rabi, or Vetches, or a piece of lay land is 
ploughed up 4 inches deep, the latter ploughed again early in 
February. The land is very poor, and is left rough until the 
second week in March. The land is harrowed with one horse, 
and it is thrown up in ridges 2 feet apart with the plough waiting 
the first fine day. Farmyard manure is thrown between the 
ridges, which are 4 feet apart, 16 to 20 tons an acre being em¬ 
ployed. The Potatoes are planted on the manure ; at the same 
time I distribute 2|- cwts. of dissolved bone to an acre, and draw 
the earth over the Potatoes with a mattock. There is still left a 
ridge between every row. When the Potatoes commence growing 
this ridge is split with the plough forward and backsvard, and so 
left until the land is fit to work, when the Potato stems will be 
6 inches high. I then distribute sixteen bushels of soot to an 
acre as carefully as if I were sowing Carrot seed in the rows; 
then a man with a fork goes through each row once to bring the 
earth around the Potatoes. The earthing-up is commenced with 
the plough, and is done in three times, and so finished it remains 
until the harvest. The produce is, Magnum Bonum 12 tons an 
acre, and Scotch Champion 10 tons an acre. 
I have only tried two additional varieties this year—Beauty of 
Hebron and Suttons’ Reading Hero, the former old with some, but 
quite new to me ; superior in every way to Early Rose. The 
Reading Hero is a first-rate round Potato, the flavour very good 
especially when steamed. I did not try it under rough culti¬ 
vation. I planted 7 lbs., which made a row 28^ yards long with 
other sorts, and I made a great mistake in planting them about 
3 feet apart when they ought to have been 4 feet, as they grow 
very high and strong. The land was moderately rich, and I ap¬ 
plied a little dissolved bone at the time of planting. The produce 
was 300 lbs., and 2 lbs. diseased.—R. R. S. H. 
NOTES ON BEDDING AND BEDDING PLANTS. 
On the whole we have not much to complain of ; we want more 
variety. It is common to hear such remarks as the following 
made in reference to the flower garden—“ It is very nice, but the 
same as last year, or was it the year before ?” Change, then, is of 
the greatest importance. I confess I find it difficult often to give 
that change, and to impart, if possible, a new aspect to the beds 
year after year. It is not a little remarkable we do not hear the 
same observation on other plants used for the embellishment of 
the garden. Thus, a bed of Rhododendrons or Azaleas calls forth 
no such remark. 
It must be observed that the style of bedding required here is 
that of beds full of flowers from the end of July until frost destroys 
them. A few years since we found no difficulty in filling them 
with plants to insure the desired result, and also to give a change 
year after year. Calceolarias have failed ; Verbenas have followed, 
for they disappoint us ; one other trial I will give them—viz., to 
raise seedlings every year. I have tried Phlox Drummondi and 
found them quite out of place when arranged with other bedding 
plants, as they grow far too high and straggling to correspond 
with others ; an isolated bed would doubtless be the best. I found 
the variety P. coccinea only wanting in compactness to make it 
very valuable ; the colour is very rich. Seedling Petunias, like 
the Phlox, in some seasons makes a bold isolated bed ; in the flower 
garden proper it is out of place and not to be thought of. One 
only of the selected varieties we find can be depended upon— 
namely, Spitfire ; this makes a fine bed. Let us turn to the 
brighter side of the subject and note one or two plants that I find 
of especial value. Many have been the contrivances to keep and 
increase that good bedding plant Polemonium variegatum, but 
generally with unsatisfactory results. Two years since we deter¬ 
mined to deviate from the practice of taking up and potting the 
plants, and allowed them to remain in the ground. Plants that 
have been considered hardy succumbed to the last trying winters, 
but not the so-called half-hardy Polemonium ; never have I seen 
it half as good as this summer. It is, moreover, really increasing, 
and we cannot have too much of it. To see its full beauty it 
must be grown well in a rich soil. It is suitable as an edging for 
beds of many plants. One of our prettiest beds this summer con¬ 
tained a very dark Heliotrope edged with the feathery creamy 
foliage of the Polemonium. 
Another bedding plant that proved serviceable last summer is 
the Tropseolum, and where Calceolarias fail we have no equal to 
