September 20, 1888. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
271 
I notice that many of the field crops are all but stemless. This I regard 
as a peculiarity of the Potato crop of 1888. I never knew them to 
lose their stems so early and so completely before. It may be partially 
due to disease, but not altogether, as I notice some varieties which are 
very little diseased have lost their stems as much as those which are 
nearly wholly diseased. It seems to me that the excessive wet, cold, 
and absence of sunshine has caused the stems to perish so freely. 
Potatoes will not swell without a healthy stem and green leaves. Has 
this dying of the stems prematurely been general all over the country 1 
It certainly has in our county, and while on a little judging tour lately 
I noticed the same thing in at least six other counties. The question 
will naturally arise, How will it affect the Potatoes ? It has done so 
already in the smallness of them, and I am also of opinion it has 
interfered with the quality. Some varieties that were excellent on the 
table last year are the reverse this season, being soapy in texture and 
Inferior in flavour, and I do not see any prospect of their improving. 
Further, the early dying down of the stems is certainly not in favour of 
the tubers maturing thoroughly for seed, and I fear the evils of this 
season will show themselves in an objectionable form in the crops 
of 1889. 
I am greatly in favour of using no tubers for seed excepting those 
that have developed freely and matured thoroughly, but these will be 
■difficult to find, and great care should now be taken that the tubers for 
seed are selected from the best ripened rows. We do not dig up all our 
Potatoes and select the seed tubers after the best have been picked out 
for use, but a few rows are left intact for seed, and this is a good way of 
securing fine planting tubers. In the month of June, when many of 
our early Potatoes were dug for use, two rows of each were left for seed, 
and as these were developed and partially ripened before the bad 
weather set in, we are sure of having a quantity of good early seed at 
least; but it is the midseason and late varieties that will be difficult to 
secure, and it is these that attention ought to be directed to now. 
The stems of these died down so fast that the ripening of the tubers did 
not keep pace with them, as is generally the case, and this year a ripe, 
or seemingly ripe, stem is no indication of a ripe root. We have proved 
this, as in digging some to see what the result of the decayed stems was, 
we found the skin quite loose on the tubers, and a slight friction brought 
it off. This is proof that they were not ripe, and I would not dig and 
store Potatoes in this condition, as they would not keep well, and 
although they may not mature much more if left in the ground the skin 
will be sure to become firm, and this is an advantage. 
The disease is more general and severe this season than it has been for 
seven years. Last year we lifted several tons of tubers, and a hat box 
would have held all the diseased ones we could pick from them, but this 
year half of some sorts are diseased ; others are not so bad, but all are 
affected, and a well known gardener was telling me the other day that 
three parts of his crop was destroyed. It is therefore a year when 
disease has to be taken into account, and there is no resisting it. Some 
amateurs in the neighbourhood cut all the stems off level with the soil 
so soon as the leaves began to spot and wither, and I think these are now 
the worst diseased. Others trod the ground very firm over the top of the 
drills. That was useless. In short, the murrain has run its course, 
and we are as helpless to resist it as if such a thing as curing the Potato 
disease had never been suggested ; but we ought to do our best 
with the sound tubers, and advantage should be taken of dry days to dig 
and store the crop. Do not attempt to gather them as they are turned 
■out, but throw them on the surface on a fine morning, where they can be 
exposed to the sun and wind to dry. This is a good stride towards their 
successful storing, as unless they are stored dry they will not keep well 
during the winter. It is also of the greatest importance that the bad 
tubers be separated from the good, and the best time to do this is when 
they are spread out on the land after digging. 
The best place for storing Potatoes when newly lifted is in a dark 
but airy shed, and if they have to be placed in a light shed for a time 
they should be covered with straw. This is better than sheets or mats, 
as these retain the moisture too much. We shall this ] r ear store Potatoes 
for use that would have been given to the pigs last year as being too 
■small for the kitchen.—A Kitchen Gaedenee. 
COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE AND AMERICA. 
fBead before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society by Mr. AV. J. Stewart of Boston.] 
(Concluded from page SIS.') 
Is it surprising that horticultural exhibitions, pure and simple, 
appear to be losing ground 1 The time when people would crowd into 
a hall and gaze with open-mouthed wonder on a table covered with 
dishes of Pears, and Radishes, and Apples, or rows of bottles filled with 
a variety of flowers, is past and gone. Commercial floriculture. gives 
the people a free exhibition every day throughout the winter in the 
florists’ windows on Tremont Street such as in the horticultural exhibi¬ 
tions of a few years ago was never dreamed of. The same is true of 
fruit. The Italian fruit-stands on our street corners, with their loads of 
Strawberries in April and May, and of Peaches and Water Melons in 
July, would have been worthy of an admission fee twenty-five years 
ago. Even Orchids as rare novelties have seen their best days. The 
commercial florists have their eyes on the Orchids, and they arc doomed. 
They will not long be the flower of the few. Not all of the work done 
by the florists, however, has been in the direction of art or good taste. 
We have seen floral designs, so called, which were nothing but hideous 
! monstrosities; and such things have given the critical a fair founda- 
j tion for wholesale denunciation of the whole business. Perhaps the 
best way to remedy this state of affairs is to educate the public to 
a higher appreciation of work that is really artistic. 
Floral designs need not be monstrous, and many even that are 
formal can be made beautiful in the hands of a true artist. Here is the 
opening for the successful floral exhibition of the future. At the recent 
Orchid Show held in New York, the most noticeable feature and that 
which went farthest towards making it a success was the manner in 
which the grouping was done. Everything was arranged with an eye to 
artistic effect, so that altogether it made one perfect and harmonious 
whole. Luxuriant banks of Ferns filled the shady corners, while beauti¬ 
ful Pitcher Plants hung above. Orchids which grow naturally in the 
air were attached to old mossy branches overhead, while under the shade 
of Palms and Tree Ferns whole colonies of Cypripediums peeped forth 
from verdant banks. After seeing such a picture, no one would think 
of going back to the old style of exhibition where each contributor sets 
up his own row, and the result is a lot of loose ends and detached 
groups without harmony or system, and what might otherwise be a 
grand and beautiful display is completely spoiled for lack of a compre¬ 
hensive plan and a master hand to carry it out. 
Within the past three years a remarkable movement has been taking 
place among the florists. I hey have not only a national society which 
is already a magnificent organisation, but they are uniting in different 
cities all over the country into Florists’ Clubs, so called. What is the 
cause of these simultaneous movements, and what will be the result ? 
I think the cause is principally that the commercial florists find that the 
horticultural and agricultural societies and similar organisations, from 
their very composition and nature, cannot adequately represent or serve 
the best interests of so large and progressive an element. The gentle¬ 
man of leisure with his few dozen of pet Raspberry bushes will care¬ 
fully pick off a couple of quarts of fruit and hie him to the city ; 
occupying his whole Saturday forenoon with arranging them in a dish 
on a table, and watching with jealous eyes the dish of his neighbour 
alongside. Another will buy a couple of baskets of Verbenas in the 
spring, take them home, and plant them in his little front garden, and 
when they come into flower he too will start for the city with his 
Verbena flowers, which he will stick into a row of bottles, and then 
hang around to see whether the committee will not recognise his self-denial 
by placing upon his exhibit a considerate one dollar gratuity. But com¬ 
mercial florists have no time or inclination for such trifling. It is too 
far behind the times. Regarding essays and discussions, there are so 
many questions that are all-important to the commercial florist of 1887 
that he cannot afford to divide the time with the market gardener, the 
farmer, and the fruit grower. 
When the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was organised 
floriculture was but a babe in this country. There was nothing to be 
made from it pecuniarily. Its members had but little in the way of 
precedent or example to encourage them, and it mattered not whether 
they were carpenters, farmers, or dry goods dealers ; they were welcome 
so long as they thought enough of horticulture to use their money and 
their efforts for the good cause. All honour to them. They builded 
better than they knew ; and what more can be wished for the new 
organisations than that at the close of an equal period of time they may 
be able to point to a record of usefulness' equal to that which is the 
pride of the Horticultural Society ? If it had not been for this and 
kindred societies commercial floriculture would not have been what it is 
to-day. But, as the child when grown to robust stature leaves his 
father’s home and strikes out to make his mark in the world—as the 
thriving offshoot from the potted plant, finding its quarters .cramped, 
must be taken away and put in a place where its ambitious vigour can 
find room to work, so the commercial florists, as they feel their strength 
and as they begin to know their needs, strike out for themselves in 
order that they may devote all their time and their best energies to 
those questions which most concern their own welfare. They do not by 
this action sever the ties that bind them to this paternal home. They 
will be seen and heard here, and you will find them all the better sons 
for having got away from their leading strings and proved their own 
strength. 
They are now taking a lesson in self-reliance and independence— 
not as individuals, but as a body. The influence which can be exerted 
by such a union of interests, and the pressure which can be brought to 
bear wherever and whenever it is necessary, were shown in Congress last 
winter, when an oppressive bill to double the postage on seeds .was 
withdrawn, chiefly through the efforts of the Society of American 
Florists. There is plenty of work for them that has not yet been 
touched. The disgraceful practice of sending out goods under false 
names, which has flourished in so many quarters, must be attacked with 
vigour and fought relentlessly until this stigma is. removed from the 
reputation of American dealers ; and the travelling impostors who have 
been going over the country unmolested for years, with their gaudy 
pictures of flowers the like of which never grew, will soon find the place 
too hot for them. , , 
The florists are at last beginning to think and act for themselves, and 
substantial benefits cannot fail to follow for them and for the public. It 
has been a long struggle for them. Hard work all day and often all 
night, without a holiday and with scarcely a Sabbath that they can call 
their own—this has always been, and to a certain extent always must 
be their lot. These men who have reversed the seasons and have turned 
dreary winter into a long summer day, whose vocation is to make the 
home brighter, to add to the beauty and joy of the bridal festival, to 
cheer up the sick room, and to lessen the loneliness and nesolation of the 
funeral, have come up from very humble beginnings. What they now 
have has been well earned, and the business of which they are to-day 
