December IB, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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Kojai Society at 1.30 p.m. Richmoil Horticultural Sooiet,’ fl Annual 
£ Diniier. 
4th Sunday in Advent. 
Royal Metaoroljgical 3oo!efcy it 7 p.ai. 
THE POTATO CROP—SUPERTUBE RING. 
IIRYS A NT HE MUMS having had a fair share 
of attention of late, just as Boses have in their 
season, it may not be unseasonable to refer tc 
a subject that, if less attractive in its nature, 
is not less important—the Potato croji of the 
year, as influenced by summer heat and 
drought, autumn rains, and early winter frost. 
. . . -^ ie letter has probably done little, if any, 
injury in some of the southern counties, but in a great 
Potato-growing district in the north it is not easy to 
suggest how many tons of fine Potatoes were ruined in 
November. 
During August and the early part of September, 
when the ground was parched by the great heat and 
prolonged drought, the growing or languishing plants 
Bad such an exhausted appearance, especially on high 
■and not deeply worked and well-enriched land, that fears 
were entertained of the crop of tubers proving a failure. 
Ihey were small then, and their growth so much arrested 
that supertubering was generally anticipated on the occur¬ 
rence of heavy rains, with the dreaded result, that had 
been experienced in some previous years, of neither the 
original nor the subsidiary crop possessing substantial 
value, lhe late crops are now being alluded to that are 
mainly relied on for affording a supply of food for the 
population during a period of seven months, or from the 
end of September till the end of June, for new Potatoes 
are not cheap enough for the multitude till towards the 
close of the last-named month. 
A few years ago Regents, Victorias, and White Rocks 
were chiefly employed in field culture in the large Potato- 
growing districts for winter and spring use; but these 
have been practically superseded, and mainly by the 
Magnum Bonum. There is probably more of this variety 
grown than all others put together for market purposes 
dunng the period named, and its introduction and increase 
have been of unspeakable advantage to both cultivators 
and consumers. Its strong constitution has enabled it to 
practically escape the murrain in wet summers, and the 
same vigour has proved its capacity for struggling through 
a season of drought, and giving a good reward "for those 
who treated it well and waited for the harvest; but some 
growers did not wait long enough, while others waited too 
long, and both have been the losers. 
During the supertubering and disease eras in the 
1 otato s history, when the crops were so liable to ruin, 
the preventive that was more generally advocated than 
any other was early lifting, or taking up the crops as soon 
as the tubers attained a fair size, whether their skins 
were set or not, before the falling of the autumn rains 
that were so commonly followed either by the murrain or 
No. 390. —Vol. XV., Third Series. 
a second growth of tubers, both of which were at times 
disastrous. Early varieties were also strongly recom¬ 
mended, and not a few of their admirers predicted that 
in no long time late kinds would be obsolete. That 
\ie\\ of the future was not sustained, neither, it maybe 
i emarked, was it entertained by the most extensive culti¬ 
vators, whose crops extend over hundreds of acres and 
aie sold in thousands of tons. They tried the earlies of 
those days and found them wanting. The crops were 
oo ight, and the land after their removal became infested 
with weeds, which if not destroyed—and this involved 
expenditure—injuriously affected the succeeding Wheat 
ciop, or lendered its cleaning costly. A subject so 
gieat and of wide practical import as growing Potatoes 
loi the use of a nation, cannot be grasped in all its bear¬ 
ds? by growers of them in gardens with an acre or two 
in fields for a family’s consumption. Yet it is perhaps 
conect to say that those who have, with a few exceptions, 
gt own the least in bulk or area have written the most 
about the claims of varieties and methods of culture; 
anc, moreover, as the majority of teachers have practised 
—admirably it may be conceded, but on a small scale— 
in the south, their advice, especially in the early lifting 
of the main crops, as above indicated, has been substan¬ 
tially useless to the cultivators of the north, from whence 
ae bulk of the produce is drawn for general sustenance. 
The well-intentioned southern tutors founded their 
advice on early lifting on their experience that unripe 
tubers with tender skins, which ruffled at the slightest 
touch, would, if stored thinly and kept dry, soon set fresh 
skins, being then equal in appearance to crops that 
ripened in the ground; while they further found that 
those unripe tubers, though necessarily sad and watery 
when cooked, became under the treatment referred to, at 
least to a fair extent, mealy and of good quality. Grant- 
mg all that, the advice was all the same lost on northern 
cultivators. In the south the tubers of the main crop 
varieties, Regents, Rocks, Victorias, and others that 
ripen in late summer or early autumn, often attained a 
Ian useable size before the rains fell, but in the north 
at the same time the tubers were only about the size of 
Walnuts; and even if they had been large enough for 
use, storing the yield say from a plot of 100 acres thinly, 
and keeping the tubers dry to set their skins and develope 
starch, would be no easy task. It was, in fact, imnracti- 
cable, and experience proved it was the best policy to 
allow them to remain in the ground as long as they could 
grow, or till October. 
Let it be understood these northern Potato farmers 
are not ignoramuses wedded to old customs and practices, 
but intelligent educated men, who bring science to bear 
on their work, and who possess both the means and the 
will to do it well. They do not hesitate to invest freely 
in labour and fertilisers in bringing the land into the best 
condition mechanically and chemically for the crop on 
which so much depends, this practice being adopted 
because, as tested by the value of the produce, is found 
to be the most economical. A penurious system in cul¬ 
ture is the most costly of all, and though in many cases 
it is feared it is a matter of no choice, it has none the 
less contributed more than anything else to the unpro¬ 
ductiveness of the land, and to its depreciation in value; 
and what is more, nothing will restore it, if it is to be 
restored, but higher culture—better worked and cleaner 
land sufficiently fortified with the essentials of growth for 
the production of bountiful crops. If artificial aids, of 
whatever kind, can be brought to bear on the matter, let 
No. 2046.—Yoi, 1XXYIL, Old Series. 
