JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 15, 1833. ] 
227 
unless they will fetch a high price. We have lately known lambs 
sold very young at 40s. and 42s. This is folly at present, because 
they are worth money now according to their weight, and there never 
was a time that lambs would pay for making heavy weights like the 
present. We have been so much accustomed to productive summers 
as regards sheep food, that numbers of young farmers have never 
encountered the difficulties of maintaining sheep through a season of 
drought. As, however, cycles of seasons are said to repeat them¬ 
selves, it will be well now to be prepared for a dry cycle in various 
ways with regard to cattle management, for correct and foreseeing 
treatment and provision for cattle in advance for a dry season will 
always be right for a wet one. 
PECULIAR REQUIREMENTS OF DIFFERENT 
POTATOES. 
Haying for many years taken special interest in the cultivation 
of the Potato both in the field and in the garden ; having made 
not a few experiments in their culture, and been instrumental in 
inducing others with more space to do the same ; and having 
collected much evidence from farmers personally known to me, 
as well as having studied outside reports, I was more than usually 
interested in your Potato election, as well as in the extract from 
Messrs. Suttons’ pamphlet. I had commenced a paper on the sub¬ 
ject of the different cultural treatment required by different varie¬ 
ties of Potatoes, but seeing Messrs. Suttons’ pamphlet advertised 
in your columns, thought it better to send for it in case the result 
of my observation had been forestalled, in which case plagiarism 
might have been imputed. But as what observations I have to 
offer are perfectly original, so far a3 is known to me, and are of 
more than usual importance, especially at this time, just when 
farmers and gardeners are thinking of planting, I hope to help to 
produce even better results than any mentioned by Messrs. Sutton. 
Stated shortly it is this : Strong-growing Potatoes, like Scotch 
Champion, produce better crops, of better quality, when manured 
with mineral manures only. We have repeatedly proved this in 
the garden. Scotch Champion, planted on good soil and heavily 
manured, invariably produces an immense crop of haulm and a 
miserable crop of tubers, most of which are unfit for use. With 
no manure the produce has been fair, producing on an average 
during the last four years about 7b tons per acre. With kainit 
Pig. 61 .—The egg. (See next page.) 
applied at the rate of 2 cwts. per acre the produce has been fully 
10 tons, and with 2 cwts. of superphosphate added the produce 
has been close on 13 tons gross. We may premise that the soil is 
very favourable for Potatoes. In the case of Magnum Bonum 
the results have been better in all cases except the last, but it 
must be remembered that 1 ton of Magnums are certainly equal 
to 1£ ton of Champions. When to the mixture above was added 
1 cwt. of nitrate of soda the produce of the Champions went down 
to 9| tons, and the Magnums to ll£; but the experiment wa3 
only tried once. With a half-hundredweight of the nitrate the 
Champions produced at the rate of almost 11 tons, and the Mag¬ 
nums 13^ tons. These represent gross weights, but as only one- 
fortieth of the Magnums had to be rejected, and fully one-tenth 
in the Champions, it requires no more to prove which is by far 
the more profrable Potato. The produce and the market price 
will soon decide which is fitted to survive. On the home farm the 
results were pretty much the same as above, except in the case of 
those heavily manured with ordinary manure. In this case the 
produce of both were considerably superior to what was obtained 
in the garden ; we feel certain because the soil was poorer in 
nitrogen. 
Farmer No. 1, to which we will now refer, after trying both, 
with plenty of manure had very fine crops — of top a, but the 
bottoms were unsatisfactory. Champion gave 5£ tons of good 
Potatoes and If ton of utter rubbish ; Magnums fully 8 tons of 
good and 5 cwt. of bad ; Victorias gave 10 tons under the same 
conditions, but this was in the favourable year—-in this district— 
of 1880. Next year only an acre of Magnum and half an acre of 
Champion were planted. Half of each had a half manuring, half 
had nothing. Those with a half manuring gave Champions nearly 
7 tons of good Potatoes, where no manure was used 7^- tons—an 
actual excess over the half manured. Magnums, half manured, 
gave 8f tons ; unmanured 6^ tons. Victoria*, on which he had 
relied, produced only about 2 J tons of sound tubers, but the disease 
attacked these very badly. 
Last year mostly Magnum Bonums were planted, and, with the 
exception of experimental plots, half manured. Tart was un- 
manured ; part had 2 cwt. of kainit ; part three ; part four ; part 
three of kainit and one of superphosphate ; and part had two of 
each. This experimenting was done on the basis of the Munster 
trials, which were reviewed in your columns a year ago. Un¬ 
fortunately I must leave figures now, but in a short letter I am 
informed that those which had the mixture of superphosphate and 
kainit in equal parts are “ magnificent—never saw such crops ! 
The rest of the series are good—indeed, very good ; but the last 
beat the others. The next best after the half-and-half are those 
which had 3 cwt. of the potash salts and one of superphosphate.” 
“ But many have grown good crops with heavy dressings of 
farmyard manure ?” Yes ; and farmer No. 2 does it, and yet he 
is a very bad farmer, whereas No. 1 is a most excellent one. How 
can such facts be reconciled ? This puzzled me, and yet the 
problem was easily solved. No. 1 collects and prepares all his 
