216 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 2, 1880. 
Esq., at Penalvern, near Penzance, on Friday last, August 27th. 
It was the finest the Society ever held, and was perhaps without 
exception the best that has been held in Cornwall this year. 
Coleuses were well exhibited by Major Carew, who obtained first 
prize. Begonias were also well represented. For fine-foliage 
plants the chief exhibitors were Major Carew and R. F. Bolitho, 
Esq. (Mr. R. Wakely). Calceolarias were shown by E. Bolitho, 
Esq. (Mr. G. Maddern) and T. S. Bolitho, Esq. (Mr. Westcott) ; 
Balsams by Major Carew ; Dahlias by T. S. Bolitho, Esq. ; and 
Fuchsias by Major Carew and A. H. Michell, Esq. (Mr. Branin). 
The Caladiums were magnificent. Those exhibitors enumerated 
above were the chief prizetakers in the other plant classes, which 
were fairly represented. The chief exhibit of Pelargoniums was 
from Mr. C. Thomas, who has one of the best collections of 
Pelargoniums in the county. From E. Bolitho, Esq., Trewidden, 
came the largest and handsomest Adiantum Capillus-Veneris var. 
cornubiense in Cornwall : it was nearly 3 feet in diameter. Mr. 
Henry Hodge, St. Austell, contributed a good display of Gladioli 
spikes and cut Roses. Mr. Hender, Plymouth, exhibited some of 
his magnificent double and seedling Petunias and nearly a dozen 
varieties of Abutilons, also a truss of the new Fuchsia Edelweiss, 
which appears to be very good. Mr. George Fox had a stand of 
Dianthuses and Pelargoniums. Mr. J. G. Mitchinson’s stand was 
decorated with Gladioli, Roses, Marigolds, Asters, Dahlias. The 
products of the cottagers were without exception remarkably 
good, especially the vegetables.— W. Roberts, Penzance. 
WASPS. 
Can anyone account for the extraordinary number of wasps 
this year ? The two last years were so wet and unfavourable for 
them that it might have been expected that none would have been 
left. About this neighbourhood nearly all the bees have died, yet 
the wasps are more abundant than ever. I have tried many kinds 
of baits and traps : that described in last week’s Journal is an 
old one, but the most successful I have found is the following— 
Take one ounce of quassia chips, one pint of beer, and one quart 
of water ; boil these together, and sweeten with treacle or sugar. 
Place this mixture in broken jugs, mugs, or tumblers. Place the 
jugs near the haunts of the wasps, and go round every morning 
with a colander to drain off the insects, which will be found in 
the vessels in great numbers. Though my garden is a very small 
one, I have for the last two or three weeks taken out of my traps 
daily above half a pint of wasps, and they still abound.—G. O. S. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
In my opinion the writer on this subject at page 194 is further 
astray in his assertions than he was before, and that was far 
enough, viewed from a practical standpoint. It is no great argu¬ 
ment in favour of one who professes to be able to prevent or greatly 
mitigate the Potato disease that he has to substantiate his opinions 
by quotations from the Times. Practical cultivators of crops make 
the daily papers their last means of gaining reliable information 
on such matters : and the article quoted is no exception to the 
general rule, as it is impossible to conceive an assertion with less 
foundation than the following—“ The ordinary gardener has gone 
on from year to year planting the same sort in the same plot of 
ground,” &c. Now I am sure that ninety-nine gardeners out of 
every hundred will bear me out that the very opposite of this is 
the case annually. Gardeners now-a-days try more varieties of 
Potatoes than ever, and take greater care in growing them ; and 
the extensive and excellent way in which the very newest varieties 
are grown and shown all over the country are matter-of-fact con¬ 
tradictions of the observations of the Times and your correspondent. 
As for the same-plot-of-ground theory, there are numerous 
farmers on this estate who have grown Potatoes for the last thirty 
years and never have the crop on the same ground twice, and the 
disease in such seasons as the past and present is just as bad with 
them as others. Your correspondent is also wrong in assuming 
that I advise a “ folded hand ” policy, as the very reverse is the 
case ; and I would say all praise is due to those who prevent or 
lessen such a terrible disease as that to which the Potato is liable ; 
but a cultivator must prove himself thoroughly worthy of meriting 
that praise before it is accorded. 
I shall not hesitate to express my disapproval of the writings 
of those who are unable to thoroughly verify their words by 
practice under long and varied circumstances. Let anyone con¬ 
sider the state of the Potato crop in any county in England, Ire¬ 
land, or Scotland during the past and present season and say if 
my remarks are unreasonable.— A Kitchen Gardener. 
The author of the assertion that “ about one-half of the losses 
by the disease arises from the want of knowledge and apathy on 
the part of the growers,” endeavours on page 194 to support his 
statement by a curious extract from a newspaper. There is a 
noticeable similarity of ideas expressed in the newspaper report 
and the paragraph preceding it. Our author says “ we have been 
following a waiting policy for thirty-five years ; ” the report says 
“ there is no matter of equal importance on which there has been 
less inquiry, less experiment, and less application of intellect.” 
Who, I ask, has been following a waiting policy ? If the “ we ” 
simply means the writer of it 1 have nothing more to say ; but if it 
applies to gardeners and cultivators generally, then I reply that 
there have been more Potatoes raised from seed during the last 
half of the period named, more varieties imported from abroad, 
more experiments made in preparing ground, trying manures, 
selecting and doctoring seed in endeavours to resist the disease, 
than during any other fifty years that your correspondent can 
name in the history of the Potato. Is this a “ waiting policy ? ” 
Then as to the non-application of intellect. What is the meaning 
of the researches of professors at home and abroad—men of ad¬ 
mitted eminence and great industry ? What is the meaning of 
the extraordinarily voluminous writings on the subject that have 
been published in almost every newspaper in the land within the 
past twenty years 1 What is the meaning, too, of the bewildering 
number of experiments that have been made by men of science, 
professional gardeners, educated farmers, and intelligent cottagers 
during the period named in this and other countries ? Does all 
this represent apathy and intellectual inactivity ? To the minds 
of most people it represents precisely the reverse ; and I may 
add that to this very intellectual activity and the working—not 
“ waiting ”—policy of others the author is indebted for the greater 
part of the interesting book he has published, about nine tenths 
of which is devoted to a discussion and narration of what others 
have written and done, his own practice being recorded on the 
remaining one-tenth portion of the volume. I fail, therefore, to 
see the foundation for the above statements—the apathetic and 
ignorant theory that is now advanced. 
I suspect the Potato disease during the past thirty-five years 
has been of far more importance to me, personally, than it has 
been to your correspondent, and I should not be surprised if my 
experiments have not been more numerous and conducted on a 
more extensive scale than has his. I have further read all, or 
nearly all, that has been written on the subject in at least two 
horticultural and two agricultural periodicals, and have tried 
everything within my power that has been recommended for 
combating the malady. Ten years ago I felt well qualified to 
write a book on the subject, but subsequent experience has taken 
the conceit out of me. I have learnt how to proceed best in my 
own case ; but all my notions, plans, and recommendations that I 
once thought so valuable for producing late and sound crops have 
in other seasons and districts been of no avail, and I am not 
ashamed to say that the only certain conclusion that I have 
arrived at is this: That when the summers are hot and dry we 
have no disease, and when they are excessively wet the crops that 
are out are practically ruined. 
I have raised seedling Potatoes, and always selected the very best 
tubers for seed, the same practice having been adopted with reputed 
“disease-proof ” varieties to prevent degeneration, yet my notions 
have been exploded and stock lost by the devastating murrain. I 
do not believe in “ disease-proof” varieties, having seen too many 
fail, and I do not agree in the wisdom of writers in the general 
press advising the people to raise new stocks from seed. If small 
growers attempt that practice they will lose more money than they 
lose now. That is work for agricultural societies with large farms 
at their disposal and Government grants to carry out the experi¬ 
ments. Such grants are made for growing flowers in the London 
parks for the people to look at, and I for one think they might 
with equal reason be made in the endeavour to produce what 
private individuals have hitherto failed to do—an improved race 
of Potatoes that will resist the disease. The object to aim at is to 
raise varieties that will crop heavily and be as early as the Ash- 
leafs, and at the same time continue of good quality throughout 
the winter and spring. A dwarf Champion and Magnum Bonum 
would no doubt be very welcome, but we are travelling in a wrong 
direction by raising Potatoes that are exhausting the ground for 
three months after the early crops are dug. This suggestion may 
betray ignorance, but scarcely in alliance with apathy. 
After long experience and close attention to the subject, em¬ 
bracing ten times more experiments than are referred to in “ The 
Potato Disease and How to Prevent It,” I have arrived at a 
totally different conclusion from the author on one important 
practical point. He advises that the tubers be planted 5 inches 
deep in early spring. I find that placing them on the surface 
and banking the soil over them is much better practice, as if the 
