110 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ August 5, isso. 
scalding is a misnomer and has nothing whatever to do with 
it, and I think intelligent amateurs will see their way more 
clearly to preventing it if young gardeners do not. Rust on 
the skin of the berries and the so-called scorched shoots are 
produced in exactly the same way. Why all these evils are 
more common than usual this year is first because there has 
been much cloudy weather since May, and the growth conse¬ 
quently is not so well consolidated as it is when produced under 
a reasonable amount of sunshine ; and secondly because, when 
the sun has shone, it has generally had that peculiar scorching 
power so often experienced before thunderstorms, and has 
been accompanied by such excessive evaporations that many 
of the kitchen garden crops, Brassicas especially, drooped to 
the ground as if they were about to die, although they were 
more than sufficiently moist at the root. This rapid drying is 
a sure sign of coming wet, and generally too I think of thunder. 
So-called scalding can always be prevented by timely ven¬ 
tilation— i.e., in anticipation of a rise of temperature. It can 
also be prevented by having fire heat and air all night, but that 
is both an expensive and a lazy plan, and should not be en¬ 
couraged when the summer temperature is up to the average. 
For amateurs who attend to their own houses and find it incon¬ 
venient to be out as early as five or six o’clock I would recom¬ 
mend a slight shading, which could be pulled down late at 
night, and drawn up half an hour or so after the ventilators 
have been opened in the morning. Whenever I find air-giving 
has been too long delayed I do it very gradually indeed, and 
rather at the bottom than the top of the house at first. A 
temporary shading at such times would be a great advantage, 
especially during the stoning period when Grapes are much 
more liable to injury than at other times.— Wm. Taylor. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
This is again to the front, and Scotch Champions, Magnum 
Bonums, &c., are this year found not to be so free from disease 
as previously, or these so-called “disease-proof” Potatoes have 
deteriorated in vigour and robustness of constitution, and are not 
now proof against the influences which cause the disease. This 
downward course appears to be nearly the same with all new 
varieties, and according to Mr. Mayne Reid (vide Live Stock 
Journal , March 5th, 1880) even applies to the Mexican “ papas.” 
Such being the case, the question that presents itself is, What is 
the cause of this deterioration of constitution ? In answering 
this question I would first inquire into one or two analogous 
things. To retain the full vigour of a particular variety of Broad 
Bean or Pea, would you keep the inferior pods for seed or the 
best? Now what is done in planting Potatoes? In many in¬ 
stances the inferior both in size and quality, in many more the 
medium, in a few instances the best and largest tubers, are selected 
when dug and are used for seed. This last is the only way that 
the constitutional vigour of the Potato can be retained, as will be 
patent to anyone who knows something of Nature’s laws of repro¬ 
duction and will consider the subject for a moment. It is quite 
unnecessary to enter into the subject of spores, manures, thunder, 
rain, &c., as these have been exhausted ; the majority who write 
on the Potato disease seeming to search for the cause anywhere 
before questioning the tuber itself. 
I have tested the plan of keeping the largest and best Potatoes 
for seed, and at planting cutting into sets with two eyes each on 
three sorts that were very badly diseased two years ago. The 
result last year was that I only had good Potatoes from those 
planted in this way. This year the improvement continues in size, 
quality, and quantity. To put my opinion in a nutshell it is this : 
If we want hardy vigorous-constitutioned Potatoes we must be 
guided by Nature’s law of selecting the fittest to produce from, 
which law is exemplified in all classes of the animal and vegetable 
kingdom.—W. B. W. _ 
I DO not think there is anything mysterious about the disease 
attacking the Scotch Champions in the way referred to in last 
week’s Journal. It is only what may be expected in the ordinary 
course of events. No Potatoes up to the present time, although 
some are properly called disease-resisting, are absolutely free from 
the attacks of the malady ; nevertheless, I think that by care and 
attention to the raising of new seedlings some may eventually 
reach that stage of perfection. 
The seed tubers last year were in a frightfully contaminated 
state nearly all over the country, apd the statement that those 
planted by “ G. R. B.” were perfectly free from taint must be 
received cautiously. It would require a very careful investigation 
and examination of witnesses to convince me that they were so. 
I feel sure the Editors are right in attributing the disease in the 
case referred to, to the old set. I would advise “ G. R. B.” not to 
be in too great a hurry to lift his crop of Champions. Let him 
proceed to the field with a fork and try half a dozen roots, and if 
the disease has only extended to the tubers in a comparatively 
few cases I should wait a few days for the chance of better 
weather, but if the case is really more serious than I anticipate 
there is no time to be lost. I have about three-quarters of an 
acre of Potatoes close to my residence, which I watch every day, 
and I have only met with three or four instances in which the 
disease could be attributed to the old set. Cases of that kind are 
not nearly as numerous as usual, thanks to the dry cold weather 
prevailing in the early part of the season. Since the heavy rains 
(about 7 inches), last month the leaves of the Potatoes have be¬ 
come spotted almost universally here, but the fungus does not 
progress on Magnum Bonum, Reading Abbey, &c., at anything 
like the rate it does on other varieties. 
I have capital crops of original Ashleaf, Royal Ashleaf, and 
early Rose free from disease, and other people ought to have the 
same. About one-half of the losses by the disease arises from the 
want of knowledge and apathy on the part of the growers.— The 
Whiter of “The Potato Disease and How to Prevent it.” 
We have this year an abundant crop of Potatoes—is it to be 
lost or saved ? To-day I have finished lifting the second early 
Potatoes— i.e., Early Rose, Snowball, Snowflake, Brinkworth’s 
Improved Snowflake, and Schoolmaster, all a heavy crop of 
magnificent tubers, quite sound and without a blemish, save some 
broken skins, which Dame Nature will soon set right. There are 
nearly forty sacks of them stored in open cribs as thinly as space 
would admit; and this impels me once more to urge everybody 
not to lose a day after the growth of the tubers cease, but to lift 
and store them before disease attacks the haulm, which it will 
probably do with unusual promptitude and virulence owing to the 
frequency of heavy showers of rain. The rain on the 30th of 
July was so general and so heavy as to cause a sensible dimi¬ 
nution of temperature on the following day. All the week we 
have had unsettled weather, and it was only by taking advantage 
of every interval of fine weather that the second stage of Potato¬ 
lifting has been brought to so satisfactory a conclusion. 
I may explain that the process of planting the Potato crop has 
for many years been divided into three distinct stages—the early 
varieties taken up some weeks ago ; the intermediate or second 
early, just finished ; and the late, to come in about a fortnight. 
“Lift as soon as growth ceases in the tubers,” is the rule applied in 
turn to each section, and under tolerably favourable conditions of 
weather it is invariably applied successfully. The late varieties 
which I have under cultivation this year are Victoria, Dunbar 
Regent, Scotch Champion, Magnum Bonum, and Brinkworth’s 
Challenge. All are looking well, the haulm being unusually strong 
and the tubers rather more than half grown. The showery weather 
which now prevails, while it brings disease into the intermediate 
sorts, is actually beneficial to these later varieties, tending to 
promote vigorous growth in tuber and haulm in the happiest 
manner, for experience shows that unchecked growth is of 
vital importance in the production of a full crop.— Edward 
Luckhurst. 
THE BEST ROSES. 
The “ Journal des Roses ” gives the result of a general appeal 
to the Rose-growing world of France for a list of the best Roses. 
The result is most interesting. To my mind they very greatly 
appreciate where our English electors have as yet failed to 
appreciate. While they (the French) profess to regard with 
tender feelings such varieties as PaulNeyron, Baronne Prevost, and 
Eugene Appert, we in England, whilst regarding these varieties 
with qualified satisfaction, consider Marie Baumann, Etienne 
Levet, Madame la Baronne de Rothschild, Marie Finger, Fran¬ 
cois Michelon, Marie Rady, Sbnateur Vaisse, Mons. E. Y. Teas, 
Souvenir d’Elise, &c., worthy of a place among the first fifty ; but 
the French do not. Has the climate anything to do with the 
remarkable difference of opinion as existing between English and 
French Rose-growers ? Out of our list of seventy-two best exhi¬ 
bition Roses the verdict of France pronounces for seventeen only 
as belonging to the class “the best Roses.” 
Let me now give some of the names high in merit in France. 
Baron A. de Rothschild (second only to La France), Jules Mar- 
gottin (sixth), Charles Margottin, Souvenir de la Reine d’Anglc- 
terre, Madame Boll, Louise Odier, Elizabeth Vigneron, Geant des 
Batailles, Elize Boelle, and Emp6reur de Maroc. Surely with r, gard 
