July 31, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF EORTICULTUhx. AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
87 
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Liverpool and Southampton Shows (two days). 
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8th Sunday after Trinity. 
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Bank Holiday. 
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POTATO LIFTING—“ SEED ” POTATOES. 
OTATO lifting will now be the order of the day. 
We have already lifted Ashleaf Kidney, Myatts’, 
Snowflake, and Beauty of Hebron. Later sorts 
are still growing, and the late abundant rains 
may still help them to a heavier return. So far 
we have seen no signs of the dreaded disease, 
but after these thunderstorms it may soon make 
its appearance. I would advise all who have 
still early and second early sorts in the ground 
to examine them at once, and lift all that have the skin 
sufficiently “ set ” to bear handling. The season has been 
so dry that in some instances the tubers have ripened earlier 
than the tops would lead one to suppose, and no amount of 
rain will benefit them. On the contrary, it may spoil the 
crop, for the moisture now in our more than ordinary warm 
soil may induce the half-ripened tubers to start growth, and 
this, of course, does not improve the quality. As soon as 
the blight is discovered the tops should be pulled out, not 
cut off, and carried away at once, then lift the crop on the 
first fine day, allowing the tubers to dry for an hour or so 
in the sun, and store in dry sheds. Just a word of warning. 
Do not pull the tops out of gross-growing late sorts before 
they part from the tubers pretty freely, because if the stems 
are not pulled clean out the probability is that for a day or 
two the crop will be flooded with sap drawn up by their own 
roots, making it difficult to lift them clean and dry for some 
time. If there is danger of this it is far better to lift them at 
once, even if the skin does get ruffled a little. Better that 
than run the risk of losing half of them by disease. 
Many may think that the question of “ seed ” Potatoes is 
not a seasonable subject for July, but I venture to say that 
the most of our great growers will agree with me in saying 
that it ought to be the first thing to be considered after the 
crop is in dry quarters. During showery weather each lot of 
tubers should be picked over, and the requisite quantity of 
seed of each selected, the very small sent to the pigs and the 
others put ready for use. I prefer medium-sized whole 
tubers for planting; they should be all as near of a size as 
possible, and of the most approved shape. 
The best way to dispose of Potatoes intended for next 
year’s planting is undoubtedly to set them on end close 
together in shallow boxes, in which they may remain till 
they are planted out in the spring. Since I have practised 
this plan I have had better success with Potatoes than I ever 
had before, which has led me to the conclusion that there is 
more in this little matter than many of us suppose. 
In an ordinary way these tubers are laid upon shelves 
or in boxes, two or three deep. They are covered upon 
the approach of frost, and too often forgotten till they have 
white shoots pushing from every eye. These are, of course, 
no use. They have to be rubbed cff for them to make a 
fresh start. Some even will place them in boxes and put 
them in a little heat to “ get them away ” again, and, 
without much thoughts of “ hardening off,” plant them 
No. 214.—YoL. IX., Third Series. 
in cold soil in March ; and if you venture to suggest a more 
humane practice they will probably say they are “ only 
Potatoes.” 
We have a sort of shallow boxes ; into these the “ sets ” 
are placed with their growing ends up as soon after they are 
lifted as possible. They are thus exposed to the full light, 
and become green at the tips. In the corners of each box is 
fixed upright pieces of wood about 5 inches long, so that 
the whole of the boxes can be placed on the top of each 
other. They thus occupy little room, while at the same 
time the tubers have light, and if protection from frost is 
necessary straw can be packed round them without danger 
of breaking the shoots which may be pushing, and which it 
is of the utmost importance should be retained, and kept 
from being blanched and drawn. As soon as the weather 
will permit, say the end of February, they are taken out¬ 
doors, and either some old lights placed over thern or^ other 
means taken to throw the wet off* them. A sprinkling of 
fine dry soil is placed over the tubers and well covered up 
at nights as long as there is any danger of frosts. By the 
time they are planted they are generally pushing a few 
roots ; they are carefully lifted from the boxes on the squares 
and placed in the rows. This may seem much trouble to 
take with “ only Potatoes,” but really it is no more trouble 
—indeed, it is less in some respects—than the ordinary mode 
of dealing with them, and far more satisfactory in the end. 
A Working Gardener. 
Of late years more attention has been paid than formerly 
to the satisfactory production of the most useful of all garden 
crops—the Potato. This is in part due to the encourage¬ 
ment that has been given by the offering of prizes for the 
best tubers, in part to the teachings of successful cultivators 
through the press, and in part by the introduction of new 
varieties. It is only according to the nature of things that 
the best attention should be given to that which costs the 
most. New varieties of Potatoes are necessarily costly, and 
when they have been obtained they have been cultivated 
with care. The result has been excellent crops of clean 
tubers. The same care in selecting and preserving the seed, 
also improved culture, as applied to the good old sorts have 
had similarly good results ; hence Potato culture now is 
better conducted than it was a dozen years ago, and a 
greater weight of better produce is raised in the majority of 
gardens. 
At present Potatoes, both in fields and gardens, are look¬ 
ing remarkably well, and there is a hopeful prospect of an 
abundant yield. The recent heavy rains have been of great 
benefit to the late crops, which are now in the full vigour of 
growth ; but some of the early crops are in danger, as if 
very much more rain should fall either the disease may be 
incited or supertuberation produced. A few years ago, when 
heavy and continuous rains followed a term of hot dry 
weather, great loss followed in many districts by the partially 
ripened tubers growing again and producing clusters ^ m 
small and almost useless Potatoes, the parent tubers whum 
ought to have formed the principal crop being quite spoiled. 
Where the second growth did not occur disease set in, but 
the greatest loss was caused by supertuberation. 
It is surely wise to bear in mind the lessons of the past, 
and to take such steps as may be practicable to avert such 
occurrences, which in many cases were disasters, as those 
alluded to. Many plots of Potatoes now need examination. 
The tubers are ripe or nearly so, and will certainly be safer 
out of the ground than in it. It is not of consequence that 
the foliage has not quite decayed. To wait for its total 
withering may be simply to wait for the ruin of the crop. 
Much work presses in gardens no doubt, and something 
be reluctantly left undone, but whatever is deferred an 
should be made to secure the crops of early Potatoes while 
the tubers are still in sound and good condition. 
It only needs to be said, as a reminder to those to whom 
No. 1870.—VoL. LXXI., Old Series. 
