58 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 28, 1892 
that weeds give trouble for a time, but this is more than com¬ 
pensated for by the much larger amount of fertilising properties 
contained in them when used in a fresh condition. The materials 
already named should be thoroughly incorporated by turning them 
over on the potting bench two or three times, letting each 
shovelful of soil slide in a continuous train from the uplifted 
shovel on to the bench, instead of simply turning it over, which 
performs the work of mixing but imperfectly for potting very large 
plants. In addition to the mixed compost I like to have large 
lumps of both peat, loam, and charcoal ready at hand to drop in 
at intervals as the work of potting proceeds. Other remarks on the 
preparation of soils for quick growing, softwooded plants I must 
defer till another issue.—H. Dunkin. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
I ONCE heard a reader of the Journal say that Mr. Gr. Abbey 
“ likes rummaging amongst the mysteries.” His article on page 40 
last week reminded me of the observation. It is an able philo¬ 
sophical dissertation, and as Mr. W. G-. Smith a few years ago 
said very much what Mr. Abbey says now, and showed in an 
illustration what his disciple explains, we may take it that these 
fungologists are correct in their statements. A few of Mr. Abbey’s 
observations open up subjects for comment, inasmuch as deduc¬ 
tions may be drawn from them that are not calculated to lead to 
the best practical results—good crops of Potatoes by careful 
selection of varieties and good cultural routine. 
I happen to belong to a district in which Potatoes are the staple 
crop. Hundreds of acres are grown by men of bright intelligence, 
and many of them of considerable scientific attainments. They 
know as much about the theory of the disease as books can teach 
them, and more about growing the best crops of Potatoes than do 
most of the writers of those books. Not the least educated of 
these Potato growers, after trying the latest fungus preventives 
and taking note of the cost of periodical applications, have more 
faith in the selection of varieties and good management for 
obtaining the hoped-for results than in loose methods and 
doctoring. They know very well that some varieties of Potatoes 
would be devoured with the disease, while others growing by the 
side of them would remain comparatively free during a season like 
the last ; and such in fact was the case in fairly conducted trials of 
different varieties. When all are prepared and planted in the same 
way in ground exactly the same in texture and constituents, and 
some varieties succumb, practically all the tubers being diseased, 
while others yield profitable crops, is it not better, as one Potato 
farmer puts it, to grow the strong and disease-resisting than to 
doctor the delicate ? ” 
It is well to know what will prevent or destroy fungoid 
enemies, as in small plots or special varieties of Potatoes in 
gardens, and in the culture of Tomatoes under glass, the know¬ 
ledge may be useful. Mr. Robert Penn appears to have so found 
it in preserving some of his Potatoes ; but if he had kept a record 
of the time he spent and the cost of maierial used it is possible the 
gain would not be so great as appears on the surface. Practical 
men who prefer good crops of Potatoes to a “ fight with the 
fungus ” attach very little importance to “ trials ” in which the cost 
involved is not clearly stated. “ There is no accounting for taste,” 
remarked a farmer whose Potato crops were good enough to bring 
him £30 an acre last year ; “ no accounting for taste, for though I 
have made £2000 by my crops, Penn, who has saved perhaps 
2 tons with his puffer, may be as happy as I.” Then he went on 
to say, '* My neighbour over there ‘ brothed ’ his, but after all his 
trouble his Regents did not bring him in half the money that my 
Giants brought me that were left to fight their own way with the 
fungus.” This farmer was therefore evidently of the same opinion 
of the other who arrived at the conclusion after obtaining all the 
evidence he could on the subject by wide and close observation that 
“ it is better to grow the strong and disease-resisting than to doctor 
the delicate.” 
It may be admitted as a truism that there can be no fungus 
growth without fungus spores to produce it, neither can there be 
fungus growth from spores in the absence of the necessary con- 
ditions for such growth. The spores of the fungus that cover 
damp walls with mould are no doubt always at hand, but walls in 
a suitable condition for their germination must be provided before 
there can be any fungoid growths on them, “ mould,” and so it is 
in the case of plants. Potatoes must be in a state of receptivity 
before they can be taken possession of by the parasitic enemy, 
and this state is influenced and promoted by the weather, by the 
character of the growth, and possibly by the condition of the sap. 
It is quite certain that all varieties cf Potatoes and other plants are 
not to the same extent taken possession of, nor indeed are all parts 
of the same plants. The weaker varieties are first sei 2 ed as are 
the weaker parts of the inherently stronger. Yet Mr. Abbey says 
‘‘We are bound to relinquish the idea that climatal influences and 
constitutional weakness are predisposing causes to fungoid attacks.” 
He may be so bound, but in face of the fact that most people who 
rely on their Potato crops as an important means of livelihood 
know quite well there is no disease to give them any concern in 
seasons when climatal influences do not call the spores into action, 
his dictum will not and cannot be accepted except by what may be 
termed, without the least disrespect, fungolog'.cal faddists. 
Surely all the world knows that there have been seasons in 
which Potatoes have been for all practical purposes free from the 
fungus causing murrain, and the immunity from attack, or tnore 
correctly, perhaps, the resistant power of the plants, was entirely 
due to climatal influences. 
If the proposition of your philosophical correspondent was 
sound all varieties of Potatoes in a district of the same altitude 
would suffer alike and every year. This is wholly contrary to 
experience, and exactly the reverse is true. It may be taken for 
granted that more phytophthora spores settle, or at least remain on 
plants in hollows and flat and damp places than on knolls, but all 
the same in these flats some varieties are eaten up with the disease 
before others are affected. What is the cause of the former being 
victims but constitutional weakness or peculiarity ? and what is 
the reason of the latter escaping with comparative immunity but 
their greater constitutional strength? Mr. Abbey himself says 
one cause is that “their tissues are hard and dry.” Does not 
this hardness and dryness, and consequently greater resistant 
power to fungoid germs, indicate strength ? It is that or nothing, 
and this strength is induced by climatal influences, which are more 
powerfully and beneficially active on knolls than on low flat land 
in a murky and dripping season ; yet we are told we must ignore 
these influences, and also weakness of plant as predisposing 
causes, though he adduces evidence of the potency of both. 
It seems to me and to some other of my Potato growing friends 
who are not particularly scared by the fungus, the practical deduc¬ 
tions which accrue from Mr. Abbey’s intellectual discourse are that 
we need not trouble ourselves about the inherent weakness of 
varieties, but simply plant those of known high quality, and dress 
them with fungicides systematically, regardless of the weather, to 
secure sound crops. Having in view the experience of the past we 
may be certain that there will be seasons in the future when such 
doctoring would be entirely superfluous ; and if, as it will not be, 
the practice indicated became general, a vast amount of money 
expended in labour and materials would be simply wasted. 
Regarding the subject of Potato culture from a commercial point 
of view, which alone is a fair test of the relative value of methods 
pursued, we have to recognise the fact that for some years past the 
supply of produce in our markets has been so abundant as to keep 
down prices to a very low level indeed. Potatoes have not been 
cheaper within the memory of man than during the past ten years. 
This is not the result of doctoring, but of planting the most freely 
varieties of constitutional vigour, good yielding properties, and of a 
quality that meets the wishes of the millions of consumers, whether 
they are growers or purchasers ; and also in the culture of these 
varieties, “ attending well,” as Mr. Abbey advises, “ to those 
essential conditions which experience has proved are best calcu¬ 
lated to produce healthy plants and abundant yields of Potatoes.” 
If with his facile pen Mr. Abbey can make clear those con¬ 
ditions in respect of the best weight of sets to plant and methods 
of preparation, also the best distances to plant, the most approved 
methods of preparing the soil, the best manures or fertilisers to use 
for strong land and light, with the quantities to use and the time 
or times when they can be the most effectively applied, he will do 
more good to the many than by preaching on phytophthora, 
however interesting his discourses may be ; at least, that is the 
opinion of many growers of Potatoes besides— J. Johnson. 
NOVELTIES AND NEW VEGETABLES. 
It has been my custom every year to give a description of 
new varieties of vegetables which I have tried during each 
successive season, and I now commence my task, trusting that 
the experience I have gained will be of some use to those who 
may he meditating trying this year some of the newer varieties 
of vegetables. Perhaps the most important novelty is the new 
volume of “Our Journal” just commenced. Twenty-three years 
ago I frequently saw the Journal in the hands of a very good 
gardener whom I had known from boyhood, and when ten years 
later I commenced to take a practical interest in gardening and 
