258 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 5, 1894. 
astray on me,” and that was what had happened. When thoroughly 
cleaned, dried, put together, ground if necessary—a simple and 
easy work for which I use the very fine silver sand applied in 
the stables for cleaning bits—they (or she) can have a coat of 
varnish, paint, or enamel, and be put in dry comfortable quarters 
for the winter. 
With the diagram of any machine it is easy to obtain and 
replace any worn part at small cost, and with the periodical over¬ 
hauling I advocate screws and nuts are readily removed ; but where 
the useful and now indispensable lawn mower gets nothing but the 
constant pushing and no farther care nor thought, the inevitable 
breakdown too often means a break up as well in hammering or 
forcing those parts fixed by rust, dirt, and neglect. — E. K., 
Duhlin. 
POTATO AND ONION EXPERIMENTS at WARMINSTER. 
Under the auspices of the Technical Education Committee of the 
Wilts County Council experiments were conducted with the crops 
mentioned last year, evidently with great care, and the results are given 
in a report almost of a luxurious character. This report has been 
prepared by Mr. E. S. Beaven, Hon. Secretary of the Committee of the 
work ; and Mr. E. H. Smith, the Superintendent of the operations. It 
is a credit to both for the painstaking manner in which everything 
appears to have been done and the results collated. It is possible, 
indeed, that some persons of an utilitarian turn of mind may even regard 
the proceedings as almost needlessly exhaustive ; but, on the other hand, 
those who delight in exact methods will find a happy hunting ground 
in the array of figures set forth as representing the outcome of the 
experiments. 
First the soil was carefully analysed, and judging by its mechanical 
components and chemical constituents we can but marvel that such 
a sandy and gravelly medium, containing such a small amount of 
available plant food, should yield Potatoes at the rate of upwards of 
15 tong per acre on unmanured plots. In one instance we have 
17 tons 9 cwt. as the yield without manure. With farmyard manure at 
a cost of £8 an acre the crop is given as equal to 20 tons 16 cwt., and 
with a “ complete ” chemical manure, costing £3 123. an acre, the yield 
of Potatoes was 21 tons 16 cwt. According to the present price of 
Potatoes it would seem to be more profitable to grow them without any¬ 
thing at Warminster than to use farmyard manure, though there was a 
decided gain by the chemicals. 
Experiments with close and wide planting resulted in a gain by the 
former of about 7 per cent. This is supposed to be due to the dry season, 
as no doubt it was, as the previous year wide planting gave the best 
yield. Over a great number of years the best growers of Potatoes in 
Lincolnshire, where the cultivation is so extensive, have found that, 
taking one year with another, the most profitable planting distances for 
the ordinary late varieties, such as Magnum Bonum—now being super¬ 
seded by the Bruce—are rows about 27 inches apart, sets ll inches 
asunder. This is more trustworthy information than a year or two’s 
experiments anywhere. The Warminster distances were—rows 31 inches; 
sets 17^ inches ; and 22 by 15 J inches respectively. 
As this is the Potato planting time, the experiments with different 
sized sets, whole and in a cut state, at Warminster will be suggestive, 
and we therefore cite the following, the same extent of land being 
planted in each case :— 
Size of Sets and 
lbs. 
Yield of Produce. 
lbs. 
6 oz. seta (whole tubers) 
... 143 
4 oz. sets (halves). 
... 129 
4 oz. sets (whole tubers) 
... 134 
2 oz. sets (quarters) 
... 125 
2 oz. sets (whole tubers) 
... 109 
1 oz. sets (single eyes)... 
... 63 
Considerable care was exercised in the selection of these sets so as 
to make the comparison, though on a small scale, accurate, and the 
results are generally confirmatory of those which have almost always 
been obtained in similar experiments carefully made, and point to the 
conclusion that a good-sized whole tuber makes the best and most 
profitable set. The Committee have been favoured with the following 
results of a similar trial on a large scale made by H. P. Jones, Esq., of 
Portway House, Warminster:— 
18 perches planted with Imperator :— 
4| perches uncut seed gave a yield of 642 lbs., or 10 tons 3^ cwts. per acre. 
13^ perches cut seed gave 1404 lbs., or 7 tons 8^ cwts. per acre, showing 
a gaia from the uncut seed of 2 tons 15 cwts. per acre. 
18 perches planted with Sutton’s Masterpiece :— 
9 perches uncut gave 830 lbs., or 6 tons 11^ cwts. per acre. 
9 perches cut gave 615 lbs., or 4 tons 17^ cwts. per acre, showing a gain 
from uncut seed of 1 ton 14 cwts. per acre. 
IS perches planted with W’nite Elephant:— 
9 perches uncut gave 1045 lbs., or 8 tons 5^ cwts. per acre. 
9 perches cut gave 1035 lbs., or 8 tons 4 cwt?. per acre, showing a gain 
from uncut seed of li cwt. per acre. 
Many experiments were made for preventing disease by spraying 
V. ith Bordeaux mixture at the end of June and end of July. This, in 
the case of late varieties, resulted in an average gain of 3 tons an acre. 
As a result of the trials Imperator and some very late foreign varieties 
appear to be regarded with favour for future planting. In the great 
Potato growing districts Imperator, after being grown for many years, 
is superseded and practically ostracised because it does not pay, and 
though late “ foreigners ” may have answered well last year in 
England, the season was abnormal. We should hesitate to recommend 
them on the experience of one such year alone, and will await the 
results of further trials, which are conducted so well at Warminster. 
Onions. 
The experiments with Onions are necessarily inconclusive, seeing 
that preventive applications were applied too late. The destructive 
fly took hundreds of persons by surprise last year in commencing work 
much sooner than usual. We know of one instance where a market 
grower commenced sooting immediately the plants were visible, and 
by continuing it, keeping the land black, succeeded in harvesting a full 
and valuable crop of Onions, while in the gardens around the crops 
were ruined. We fully agree with the concluding paragraph of the 
Warminster report—namely, “In view of the enormous and increasing 
importation of foreign Onions, reaching in 1891 over 4,000,000 bushels, 
it seems desirable to extend the experiment with Onions in other 
directions, and it is proposed, in addition to the trials of insecticides 
next year, to test the effect of ‘ transplanting,’ which has been canried 
out on a large and profitable scale in America for some years past.” 
We have received a critique of the Warminster experiments from 
a correspondent, but it cannot be published this week. 
PEAR BEURRE RANGE. 
Thebe can be no mistake about the value of this large, delicious 
Pear for late use. Like most Pears it ripened a month earlier this 
season than usual, as the result of the great amount of sunshine 
during the whole of last summer ; but it was just the kind of weather 
we require for Pears on our heavy soil for bringing up their true 
flavour. 
Never in my twelve years of experience in this district have I known 
Pears to swell to such a size and develop such fine flavour as in 1893. 
In the case of Beurr4 Ranee, which is grown on a wall with a west 
aspect, the average weight of the fruit was from 10 to 14 ounces each, 
and the flavour excellent. Usually this Pear will keep some time after 
being fit for table without deteriorating in flavour, but this year more 
than fifty per cent, started decaying from a centre on the outside as soon 
as the fruit approached the ripening stage. This form of decay has 
been very common in all Pears and Apples this season, and after careful 
examination I am satisfied it is the result of being punctured by wasps 
when the fruit was hard and unripe—hence, as they became ripe, they 
began to decay at the injured spot. In nearly all I examined, both 
Apples and Pears that started decaying in this premature manner, there 
were little hard cores about the size of a pin’s head close to the skin 
in the centre of the decayed patch. The amount of damage done to 
fruit by wasps last year will never be known. We gave up six large 
bush trees of Beurr4 d’Amanlis entirely to them, which prevented them 
to a certain extent attacking other varieties. Beurr6 Pears are sweet 
long before ripe, hence the preference of wasps for them. Indeed, they 
devoured them to their skins long before they could ripen. 
We have already killed several queen wasps this year, and a sharp 
look out is being kept for them, as no doubt they will muster in great 
numbers this spring after such a favourable season.—J. H. W., Leicester 
Frith . 
HARDY FLOWERS FOR EXHIBITION. 
“ Inquirer ” (on page 241) asks too much of me. The list of hardy 
herbaceous and bulbous plants that was published in the Journal on 
February 22nd was not for the benefit of “ amateur champions,” but 
solely for the benefit of “ inquirers after the truth 1 ” I really could not 
trouble again those who so kindly, and at so much trouble, enabled me 
to tabulate the results which produced that list. I take it that 
stands of herbaceous and hardy flowers are judged much as Roses 
are, where a Marechal Niel Rose at its best would not receive more 
points than, say, a Dupuy Jamain at its best, and yet the “Niel” is the 
more popular flower. I have never yet seen a list of Roses showing 
which count most; I have seen many lists of those which are most 
frequently exhibited. 
In exhibiting hardy flowers, consider the generally setting up of the 
bunches, with due regard to the blending or contrasting of colours, 
consistent with regularity in the height of each row, making as it were 
as far as possible an inclined plane of the stand ; doubtless this is 
always a consideration with good judges. 
If “Inquirer” will take my list, and then take any good trade 
catalogue, he will get all the information he needs to begin with. His 
own experience must teach him the rest, combined with that knowledge 
gained by visiting the shows, comparing the awards, and tak ng down in 
order the names of the bunches of the winning stands. Will the Editor 
of the Journal kindly forward to “ Inquirer ” the catalogue I am sending 
with these few notes ? In it “ Inquirer ” will find the botan’cal name, 
the requisite soil, the colour, and time of flowering, of a'most every 
herbaceous and bullous p’ant now grown.—J. A. Williams. 
[“Inquirer” sent us his address, but we had no occasion to preserve 
it. If he sends it again the catalogue shall be forwarded as requested.] 
