Pebniary 18, 1892. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
125 
plants, requiring much the same treatment as Gardenias, to •which 
theyare allied,both belonging to the natural order Oinchonacese. Yet 
the Musssendas require more closely pruning than Gardenias ; but 
1 ha've in'yariably had the finest heads from young plants which 
•have been treated as follows : — 
Select healthy cuttings of the young spring growth, but not too 
soft, and strike them in sand in brisk heat. Pot them off 'when 
rooted in small pots, using peat and a free admixture of silver 
sand. Plunge the pots in bottom heat and syringe the plants 
freely. Shift on as required, using loam with the peat when the 
plants have attained strength. Stop them once or twice, but not 
after July. I have occasionally struck five cuttings in a pot, and 
shifted them on without separating the plants, obtaining thereby 
good heads, but sacrificing compact habit. 
During the growing season the plants require brisk heat, a moist 
atmosphere, and plenty of light. Until the pots are filled with 
roots they should be plunged in bottom heat, and after that period 
they should be placed on a shelf in the stove as near the glass as 
possible to prevent the plants being drawn. After flowering they 
should be rested, and subsequently cut down, starting them again 
in heat and renewing the soil ; but young plants are the best.—W. 
ZONAL PELARGONIUMS FOR WINTER 
DECORATING. 
Those who require a grand display of this showy flower for 
decorating during the winter should now insert the cuttings of 
varieties chosen for the purpose. Nearly every grower has a 
selection of his own which he finds succeed best. 
Insert the cuttings in 60-size pots, five in each, and close to the 
•outside ; the compost best suited at this time of the year being leaf 
soil with plenty of coarse sand to keep the whole open, so that 
water can pass away freely. A warm vinery or any other house 
with a genial temperature is the best position to strike them in. 
As soon as they have plenty of roots they may be placed singly 
into go’s, and kept close for about a week, when they will be ready 
for a cooler and more airy atmosphere to insure a sturdy and com¬ 
pact growth. When these pots are fairly filled with roots they may 
be placed into those they are intended to flower in—namely, 32's. 
When they have started well into root-action they may be gradually 
hardened until they can be safely stood out of doors exposed to 
the full rays of the sun. The side of a garden walk or frame ground 
is a first rate position for them. Care should be taken not to let them 
become dry, as it would be injurious to the growth of the plants 
and cause them to lose their leaves. 
They must be stopped and all bloom buds pinched ofE until 
about the middle of September, when they can be housed in pits 
and frames, and kept close to the glass with plenty of ventilation 
and liberal supplies of liquid manure, when they will soon be seen 
to push up abundance of bright flowers, which will be found most 
useful during the dull days of November and December. They 
can bo grouped together with other winter flowering plants, such as 
■Chrysanthemums, Salvias, Primulas, and Cyclamens. They are 
also useful for cutting purposes, and if kept in a temperature of 
about 50^ they will give an abundant supply all through the 
winter.—W. Penton. 
EXPERIMENTS IN TREATING THE POTATO 
DISEASE. 
(^Continued from page lOS,") 
Mb. Hatch states that the Colorado Potato beetle, Doryphora 
decemlineata, did not attack the Potato plants in the treated plats, an 
additional point of some value in the favour of the treatment. These 
experiments prove the efficacy of the Bordeaux mixture in arresting 
some unexplained disease, and from Prof. Goff’s description would appear 
analogous to Mr. W. G. Smith’s Peziza postuma and P. sclerotiorum of 
others. This disease obtained largely in a field of Potatoes that we 
observed very closely last year. The field was some 30 acres in extent, 
and the disease first appeared in the hollows, the tops of the Potatoes 
assuming a pale sickly hue, and in a short time were covered with a 
dense whitish coat on the under side of the leaves, the plants becoming 
brown and dried up in a short time ; those infected the third week in 
August being quite leafless by the middle of September, and presenting 
a dried withered appearance very conspicuous by strong plants here and 
there remaining quite green and apparent healthy, the disease proving 
most virulous on the spreading plants, whilst those growing strong and 
upright were comparatively free. In another field of about 25 acres a 
similar phenomenon appeared about three weeks later, this field lying 
higher and more open to the south-east of the other field about GOO yards 
away. The Potato tops collapsed in the last infested field as in the first, 
yet very much slower, the reason obviously due to the difference in the 
cultures. The cause, as usual, was attributed to the weather, and it 
certainly was cold and wet enough to damp the ardour of the most 
sanguine; but the most remarkable thing was that the crop was lifted 
sound, though there was a difference, that of the plants in the field first 
attacked were not half a crop, while the crop of the plants in the field 
last assailed was three parts to a full yield. Farmyard manure carted 
direct from the yard into the rows was used in the first field ; manure 
from fermented heaps was employed in the second field along with 
artificials. Those differences in the cultures were sufficient to account 
for the divergence in the results. The disease produced by the fungus, 
Phytophthora infestans, however,-was widely distributed in 1891. The 
year was wet, favouring the disease, and the summer was cold, dis¬ 
favouring the growth of the fungus, consequently the crops -were lifted 
comparatively free from disease. The worst diseased were in ground most 
warm and sheltered—that is, gardens. This seems to have been the 
case also in Wisconsin, U.S.A., and the experiment conducted there by 
Prof. Goff becomes strikingly phenomenal when taken along with the 
cultivator’s (^Mr. Hatch) additional notes, -^-hich we transcribe as 
follows : — 
Rot (Potato) has not been prevalent here (Ithaca, Richland County, 
Wisconsin, U.S.A. ; site, a hollock, 1000 feet above sea level; soil, light 
clay loam, incumbent on Potsdam sandstone, and in a good state of 
cultivation) for a few years. In order to secure its development for 
treatment we ordered a barrel of seed from Ohio, where rot was plenty 
last year (1890), but failed to secure any diseased Potatoes. We then 
planted with such seed as we had, mostly Snowflakes (a good variety for 
taxing disease), with a few mixed kinds. To still further ensure rot 
we planted late—May Slst—and supplemented four rows along one 
side of the plat, which we covered with a forkful of sheep manure in 
each hill. The heavy rains not only washed out some of the Potatoes, 
but so compacted the soil as to make them slow in coming up and 
getting a start. The last of July and the month of August were 
extremely dry and no rot appeared (dry weather remedists are welcome 
to any consolation found in that). Even the manured rows were sound 
and good, no Phytophthora being visible anywhere. (Note the mention 
of the manured rows, as evidence that Mr. Hatch was well aware of 
manure enhancing the liability of the plants to disease). There was, 
however, a blight of the foliage that has proved very general and wide¬ 
spread throughout all this region, (Just so, the dry weather was 
precisely the thing for distributing the spores of the fungus). The 
leaves turned yellow in spots, then brown, and the entire plants died 
long before the growing season was completed. The check rows in the 
experimental plat and my own Potatoes elsewhere on my farm were all 
seriously affected with this blight. By the 1st of September this was 
so emphatic that the check rows were easily selected from the plat, the 
treated plants showing most bright and green when frosty came. Still 
there was an occasional hill among the treated plants showing the same 
trouble as the untreated, but not in so large a degree. 
We had expected to use our field pump in a large barrel mounted on 
farm trucks with the Vermorel nozzle attached to the hose, but found 
we could not go over The plat and make the turns with the team with¬ 
out running into the Potatoes and injuring them ; so we abandoned its 
use, and did the entire work by hand with our Nixon climax pump, 
using a No. 3 Nixon nozzle. We overcame the difficulty of clogging by 
having a piece of brass wire strainer cloth soldered over the lower end 
of the suction pipe. This had a mesh finer than the orifice of the 
nozzle, and was a complete remedy for clogging, not only in using the 
Bordeaux mixture, but also in all other sprayings done by us. 
Anocher variation we made was in using the Bordeaux mixture. 
We hauled out for each treatment a barrel containing 12 lbs. each of 
copper sulphate and lime and 44 gallons of water, properly mixed to 
make the regular Bordeaux mixture. (This is the usual American 
solution of copper, used in making Bordeaux mixture, except that as 
many pounds of lime as of copper sulphate are taken, and represents a 
2i per cent, solution of copper sulphate). We also took another barrel 
of clear water. At the beginning we stirred the mixture, allowed it to 
settle a minute, and took out two or three pailfuls to use. After using 
enough of the mixture at full strength (the 2| per cent, solution ; please 
note this circumstance, for it is the key to the situation in contend¬ 
ing with Potato fungus) for the south-west corner, clear water^was 
added to the large barrel, and so on until the plot was gone over, lO to 
75 gallons in all being used. This would give about the following 
strength nominally to each plant;—South-west, full strength (2| per 
cent.) ; south-east, two-thirds; north-east, three-fourths; north-west, 
one-half (If per cent.). There was, however, about the same appearance 
in the consistency of the liquid used for each plat on account of the 
sediment in each lot being about all the water would carry, and the 
appearance of the plants after spraying was the same in each plat. 
From the time of the first spraying the application was always more or 
less visible. I thought there was a difference in the vigour of the plants 
in favour of the north-east corner, but suppose the figures as tabulated 
by Professor Goff will show this matter clear, which is done against Mr. 
Hatch’s view. At any rate, I venture the opinion, directly opposed to 
Professor Goff’s, that it may be well to experiment with Bordeaux 
mixture in a more diluted form than the regular formula. 
Another apparent result of the spraying was in regard to the 
Colorado Potato beetle. I found it necessary to go over the check rows 
with London purple the second time, but the treated part was almost 
entirely free from them. It would thus appear that where the mixture 
is used for rot and blight it may also be efficient as an insecticide. 
The foregoing results of experiments by Professor Goff, and notes by 
Mr. Hatch, are valuable, as showing the efficacy of the treatments jn 
