JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
158 
[ August 19, 1880. 
to be distinguished. The constant rains had prevented these 
looking their best. One other Rose I was struck with—Egeria, 
said to be an enlarged Princess Mary of Cambridge. Cannes la 
Coquette I was sorry not to have time to go and see, having heard 
it highly spoken of by that fast-rising authority Mr. C. H. Haw- 
trey. With such a guide and in such a garden a more interesting 
Rose visit it were hard to pay.—A. C. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
The. Potato disease is to the fore again in the columns of the 
Journal, and well it may be seeing that it is so prevalent in fields 
and gardens. Like “A Kitchen Gardener” I am unable to 
accept the dictum of a correspondent on page 110, that “about 
one-half of the losses by the disease arises from the want of know¬ 
ledge and apathy on the part of the growers.” 1 have perhaps 
paid a3 much attention to the subject as the writer in question, 
and have made as many experiments in the selection of seed, 
manures, and mode of treatment as most people have, while I have 
certainly had more than “three-quarters of an acre” of land for 
experiment, or indeed three-quarters of a mile either. Our author 
thinks that with care in the raising of seedlings some may be 
produced absolutely disease-proof. Let us hope it may be so. but 
the prospect is not good. I can remember when the Fluke, 
Paterson’s Victoria, Redskin Flourball, and some others were 
uninjured for a year or two. But what about them now ? Then 
followed the Scotch Champion, Magnum Bonum, and Grampion ; 
but I have seen all those varieties affected this year in a garden 
where the greatest possible care has been taken in their cultivation, 
and special means were adopted in selecting and preparing the 
seed. I am sorry to have to record this visitation, which was cer¬ 
tainly not the result of “apathy” on the part of the grower, while 
his “knowledge,” scientific and practical, of gardening in its 
widest scope is, perhaps, not exceeded by that of any reader of 
the Journal. 
Ever since the terrible destruction of the crops in 1845 I have 
been “ mixed up ” with the malady, and this more than once to 
such an extent that, in common with others who have been 
employed “sorting” Potatoes for weeks together, the heaps often 
a mass of rottenness, our fingers have become diseased, and we 
have had to relinquish the work and enjoy a holiday with our 
hands in poultices. I have thus very intimately been “ mixed 
up ” with the disease, and from then to now have endeavoured 
to learn something about it practically, and to ascertain the con¬ 
ditions under which it spreads. Long experience has enabled me 
to distinguish the disease at a glance, and I am not mistaken 
when I state that it has attacked the varieties above named. And 
now, having submitted my credentials, I will refer further to this 
perplexing subject. 
I do not attempt to enter on the philosophical part of the ques¬ 
tion and pretend to treat learnedly on spores, hyphae, &c., or I 
might, as many have done before me, be floundered in a sea of 
scientific conjecture. Whether the roots decay by excessive 
rains and the plants become enfeebled and fall a prey to the 
apparently ubiquitous visitant, or whether the sap of the plants 
becomes impure by the foliage being overgorged and thus form a 
suitable nidus for the fungus, or whether the fungus is the 
original cause of the evil, matters not; the results are the same, 
and are governed by the same conditions—namely, a superfluity 
of moisture in the soil and air in combination with a high 
temperature. 
It is well for men of science—and no one has a greater respect 
for those accomplished individuals than 1 have—to urge the im¬ 
portance of burning the haulm of the plants and destroying all 
diseased tubers instead of leaving them on the land ; but I know 
from most carefully conducted experiments that our scientific 
friends have probably not tried, that if diseased haulm and tubers 
are dug into the ground, and diseased Potatoes are planted in that 
ground, that not a vestige of the murrain will follow if the season 
proves hot and dry, while during a wet, warm, and murky season 
the crops are liable to destruction in gardens where the above 
preventive measures have been rigidly carried out. That the 
burning of the haulm and diseased tubers is calculated to destroy 
a great number of diseased spores is certain ; and if everybody— 
there is the point—would carefully carry out the practice indicated, 
much good would in all probability result ; but for one or two 
individuals only in a parish to be thus diligent, the remainder 
being passive, will no more result in stamping, or rather starving, 
out the murrain than the persistent killing of flies by the same 
diligent few would end in the annihilation of those insects from 
the districts where they abound. 
I will now record an instance bearing on the apathetic and 
ignorant part of the question. Last year a farmer planted several 
acres of Potatoes on light sandy land. Had the summer been dry 
the produce would have been scabbed and worthless, but as it proved 
wet the crop proved valuable—realised in fact £30 per acre. If the 
seed had been carefully selected and special attention given to cul¬ 
tural details a good text would have been provided for a Potato- 
disease writer ; but neither one nor the other was the case. The 
seed was just taken as it was, the small unsaleable tubers—the 
waste from a large store that many people would call “trash,” yet 
a splendid disease-free crop was produced. Had the same sets 
been planted in rich wet ground the crop, like all others in such 
ground and district, would have been worthless. Seed from the 
above disease-free crop was again planted on poor sandy land this 
year, also on some heavier and better ground by the same owner, 
and in the former case the tubers are perfectly clean, in the latter 
they are seriously diseased. Much seed was sold of the celebrated 
crop referred to, and planted in many fields, plots, and gardens ; 
but the disease is general in them all where the ground is low, 
wet, and at all rich. In such a case as this the selection theory 
breaks down utterly, and I have known it break down in a similar 
manner before. On the sandy soil referred to the rain passed 
through as if through a sieve, and that reason, and no other, was 
the cause of the clean healthy crop. 
Soil so worked that the rain can pass through it freely, and 
much wider planting than usual, are the only modes that I find 
of avail in securing good and fairly sound crops of late Potatoes. 
Magnum Bonuras and Champions are terrible soil-exhausters. 
Dwarf forms of those varieties with thick leathery foliage and 
woody-textured stems would be as welcome to Potato growers in 
this district where hundreds of acres are grown as would be a 
new planet to astronomers. 
Hundreds of varieties of Potatoes have been raised during the 
past twenty years, but we have about as much disease as ever. 
Only the early varieties escape—those that are ready for digging 
before drenching rains combined with a high temperature call 
into action the fungus that devours the later crops.— A Lincoln¬ 
shire Potato Grower. 
FLORAL EXHIBITION at the ALEXANDRA PALACE. 
On Saturday last an Exhibition of bouquets and table decorations 
was held in the great hall of the above building. Yery liberal prizes 
were offered in the several classes, which might have been expected 
to have induced a more vigorous competition than was actually the 
case. However, there were sufficient entries to occupy three long 
tables, and, the general arrangements being very satisfactory, the 
Exhibition fairly proved a success, a few groups of miscellaneous 
jflants adding much to the effect. 
Of the dinner table decorations there were several exhibitors who 
staged moderately tasteful examples of arrangement, but not marked 
by any especial merit. The prizetakers were Messrs. Dick Radclyffe 
and Co., Holborn ; Mr. W. Soder, gardener to 0. Hanbury, Esq., Hol- 
field Grange, Essex ; and Miss Annie Williams, Sutton House, High- 
gate, who obtained the awards in the order named. Bouquets were 
numerous in the three classes devoted to them, but comparatively little 
diversity was shown in the arrangements. The flowers employed in 
the brides’ bouquets were chiefly Stephanotis floribunda, Tabernse- 
montana coronaria fl.-pl., Eucharis grandiflora, Lapageria alba, Bou- 
vardias, Gardenias, Pancratiums, white Pelargoniums and Spiraeas, 
with fronds of Adiantums cuneatnm and gracillimum. Miss A. 
Williams; Mr. J. Prewett, Hammersmith; Mr. W. S. A. Saltmarsb, 
High Street, Chelmsford ; Mr. J. F. Chater, Camberwell Road ; and 
Miss E. Stuart, Seven Sisters Road, were the successful exhibitors of 
brides’ bouquets. Of ball and bridal bouquets the best were from 
Miss A. Williams, Miss E. Stuart, and Mr. G. Phippen, Reading. 
Flower stands for a drawing-room table were fairly well shown by 
Messrs. Stuart and Prewett. 
The principal feature of the display were the exhibits in the class 
for a vase of flowers not less than a yard in diameter. Prizes were 
offered in that class of the value of £5, £2, and £1, the result being 
that four competitors appeared. Messrs. Dick Radclyffe & Co. gained 
the chief prize with a large glass stand composed of a trumpet-shaped 
tube 4 to 5 feet high, at the base of which was a wide shallow basin. 
In the upper portion were flowers of Lilium auratum, bunches of 
Mountain Ash berries, with leaves of Caladium and Grasses. Around 
the stem were sprays of Passiflora cmrulea, and at the base were 
Liliums, Dahlias, Gladiolus, Delphiniums, and small plants of Ophio- 
pogon Jaburan—a bright and elegant arrangement. Miss Annie 
Williams was placed second with a large wicker stand containing a 
large number of flowers ; Gladiolus, Ixoras, and Bougainvilleas being 
especially noteworthy. Mr. G. Phippen followed with an antique 
vase of flowers, Clematises being employed with excellent effect. 
Mrs. Sutton Abbott also obtained a third prize. 
The general arrangements of the Exhibition were admirably carried 
out by Mr. J. Forsyth Johnson. 
Effects of Last Winter. —Many of your correspondents 
have written from time to time on the effects of the severe frosts 
