190 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 2, 1893. 
Under good maiiagement this is so profitable a crop that it 
should be cultivated much more extensively near every large 
town than it is, or we might add, on farms within reasonable 
■distance of a town or railway station in view of a prompt and 
profitable disposal of it. If it answers to grow Potatoes for the 
London market in Scotland, it certainly ought to do so in 
southern or midland farms. Many a farm do we know with 
«very advantage of soil and situation where Potato culture never 
enters into the general scheme of cropping, and yet a field or 
two of Potatoes would certainly prove a profitable investment. 
It IS probably owing to the risk of loss from disease that the 
ordinary farmer so seldom attempts growing more Potatoes than 
are required for his household, and so it has come to pass that 
certain districts have a monopoly in the supply of home-grown 
Potatoes. Custom rules in this as in most other things 
atfecting farm management, and in the great corn growing 
districts there are very few farmers who have turned to such 
things as Potatoes, fruit, or butter to help them in their need. 
How they cling to corn is shown by the fact of some 17,000 acres 
more land having been under Wheat in 1892 than in 1891 in the 
counties of Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk. 
Notwithstanding the reports of much land out of cultivation 
in Essex, many of the farmers in that county do better devoting 
part or the whole of their land to dairy farming, or to the 
cultivation of fruit and vegetable?. It was here that we saw 
heavy crops of Beauty of Hebron Potato lifted for market while 
the haulm was quite green last summer, and the planting of 
successional crops of green vegetables for winter and spring 
use. here was no loss from disease simply because the crop 
was clea’’ed and sold before disease could touch it. No better 
sort of Potato than Hebrons could be had for such smart practice. 
Well was it described in the report of the Woburn experiments 
on Potato disease last year as a “ gcod ear’y cropper, clean 
skin, shallow eye, very saleable.” Be it remembered this applies 
to it as a field Potato, which answered admirably under ordinary 
conditions of culture, when Myatt’s Ashleaf growing beside it 
was comparatively a failure. 
Beauty of Hebron, Reading Giant, and Imperator are among 
the best early, intermediate, and late sorts, in the order they 
are named, for field culture. They are all heavy croppers, and 
full crops are quite certain to be profitable if heavy losses from 
disease can be avoided. That this can be done by the timely 
and persistent use of bouillie bordelaise appears prob.able, and 
the outlook for Potato growers seems brighter than it has done 
for many years. The chief points requiring attention are soil 
well tilled and well manured ; seed of medium size, cirefully 
selected, and so managed that it sustains no loss of vigour from 
premature growth before planting ; the prevention of loss from 
disease, and the judicious sale of the crop. Deep, rich, alluvial 
soil, like that in the fens, may be best; but we have had very 
heavy crops in soil that is naturally poor and thin on the 
Hastings sand formation, and are bound to regard all sound 
loam and mixed soils as well adapted for the successful culti¬ 
vation of this crop. There must be no placing of the seed 
Potatoes in heaps during the winter, or there will be much 
abortive growth. Many a heap have we seen opened at planting 
time with long, slender, white growth from the tubers interlacing 
the whole mass, representing just so much wasted vigour. It 
must surely be worth while to avoid this by spreading out the 
seed tubers thinly—preferably in single layers in some building 
having windows for the daily admission of light, and yet out of 
which frost can be kept. 
The best plan of all is that of placing the tubers on end, with 
the eye end upwards, on shelves arranged in any convenient 
way; and though we h?ive been asked how any farmer can be 
expected to have time or convenience for doing this, it is obvious 
that a man resolved to do his best is bound to adopt the best 
method of seed preparation. If in the autumn tillage of the 
land that por'ion of it intended for Potatoes was thrown into 
ridge and furrow, making the farrows the right distance apart 
for Potatoes, when planting time comes the work is done expe¬ 
ditiously and in the best way. There are the furrows ready to 
our hands; we have only to apply manure, place the seed in the 
furrows, level down the ridges, and the work is done. An 
excellent chemical manure for the purpose is made by mixing 
one part kainit, or half-part of m iriats of potash, with three 
parts of superphosphate, adding one part nitrate of soda for 
p'or land, and using from 4 to 5 cwt. per acre. This is sown 
broadcast over ridge and furrow at the time of planting. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Reports from districts situated widely apart tell of arrears of 
ploughing. This is a serious matter, especially on stiff land farms, for 
the soil has been so saturated by an exceptionally heavy rainfall in 
February that it can hardly be got into condition for sowing till late in 
the season. Every spring shows how invaluable autumn ti lage is, yec 
the difficulties involved in ploughing arrears would seem to have no 
influence upon autumn work. Let spring corn show a full plant before 
sowing Clover or mixed seed among it, but lose no time in sowing the 
fodder crops as soon as the Barley or Oat plant is visible along the rows. 
Push on all sowing when the soil is dry enough for the work to be done 
expeditiously and well. Finish under-draining now on pasture, get the 
sods placed carefully on the soil in the drain trenches as soon as possible, 
pass a heavy roller over each line of sods to press them well into the 
soil while it is moist, and follow at once with chemical manures wher¬ 
ever they are to be used. Clear up all broken drain pipes and see that 
everything is neat and in perfect order before each portion or job of 
work is left. Pasture generally is very bare, no cattle can be out upon 
it for some time, and the beneficent effect of regular manure dressings 
will tell well now, as it is only by such sound practice that an early 
bite on pasture is possible. Where Rye is at all backward it should 
have an immediate dressing of nitrate of soda at the rate of a hundred¬ 
weight per acre, and it will then soon be ready for folding ewes and 
lambs upon. After the folding it may be left to grow again and be 
harvested for the seed and straw, or it may be ploughed at once for 
drilling Thousand-headed Kale. 
Follow Swede folds closely with the ploughs, and sow either spring 
corn or fodder crops without delay. Do not forget how useful two or 
three successional sowings of Vetches are. Some land to be laid down 
to permanent pasture has been sown with Oats, which will be most use¬ 
ful next winter ; the Grass and Clover seeds will also soon be sown, and 
we may expect enough herbage upon it next autumn after harvest to 
make it worth while passing the sheep over it, but they will be with¬ 
drawn by the end of September. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
OAMDEX SQU.4.RB, LONDOX. 
Lat.51° 32'40" N.; Long. 0^ 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
Date. 
9 A.M. 
Ix TOE Day. 
j Rain. 
1893. 
February. 
Barometer 
at 32°, and 
Sea Level. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion of 
Wind. 
Temp, 
of soil 
at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass. 
Inchs. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday .. 19 
29-871 
48-4 
47-3 
S.E. 
42-8 
57-0 
46-4 
86-8 
44-8 
— 
Monday .. 20 
29-597 
42-9 
40-4 
S.E. 
42 6 
48-2 
39-2 
58’2 
33-4 
0-177 
Tuesday .. 21 
28-/61 
46-9 
46-7 
S. 
41-9’ 
47-7 
41-0 
52-0 
36-5 
0-416 
Wednesday 22 
28-986 
35-7 
35-7 
N.W. 
41-9 
37-3 
35-3 
4T8 
35-1 
0-153 
Thursday.. 23 
29-465 
34-1 
32-8 
N.E. 
40-1 
35-8 
32-2 
42-8 
31-8 
— 
Friday .. 24 
29-356 
33-2 
32-3 
E. 
39-0 
37-0 
31-1 
44-9 
31-0 
— 
Saturday .. 25 
29-248 
32-0 
30-8 
N. 
38-0 
42-8 
28-2 
76-7 
24-8 
0-182 
29-326 
39-0 
38 0 
40-9 
43-7. 
36-2 
57-5 
33-9 
0-928 
REMARKS. 
19th. -Lightning soon after midnight and about 3 A.M. ; rain till 3.30 A.M. ; sunny and 
warm all day. 
20th.—A little sun early ; overcast, with occasional drizzle till mid-day ; bright sun¬ 
shine from 3 P.M. ; cloudy evening and rain after 10.30 P.M. 
21st.—Rain early and from 9.30 A.M. to 1.30 P.ll. ; fair afternoon, but rainy again in 
evening and night. 
22nd.—Almost continuous rain or wet snow from 0 A.M. to 7.30 P.M. but very slight 
after 1 P.M. 
23rd.—Enough snow, to cover the ground about 4 A.M. , nearly all melted by 9 A.M.; 
overcast throughout. 
24th.—Overcast, with occasional smaL flakes or single crystals of snow fall’ng in 
morning; gleams of sun after 3.30 P.M. 
25th.—Bright sunshine almost throughout. 
Temperature near the average, barometer much below it, in fact unusually low. 
Rainfall more than double the average.—G. J. Symoxs. 
