3G3 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Yay 12, 1887. 
tubers of the Fluke have not been deprived of a speck of 
growth for seven years, yet the vigour of the plants 
declined in soil in which “ Myatt’s ” flourished, and the 
stock of these is yet strong, while the Flukes became 
worthless. Depriving seed tubers of their first growths I 
readily admit is, and must be, weakening, and ought to 
be abandoned, but that the Early Asbleaf varieties owe 
their inherent vigour solely to the retention of those 
growths, and that late sorts have lost their stamina 
entirely through destroying them, is very respectfully, yet 
not less emphatically, denied. On this point the evidence 
of the Fluke is conclusive. It is the latest grower of all, 
yet has dwindled away almost more completely than any, 
to the regret of those who prized it beyond all late sorts. 
The comparative immunity of the Asbleaf varieties 
from deterioration is traceable to something very different 
from the cause assigned and disposed of—something as 
fundamental as that is artificial. The average summer 
in Great Britain and Ireland is ample for the complete 
maturation of our first earlies, but too short for the late 
sorts. The old Asbleaf proves this by remaining strong 
from generation to generation, while the late sorts decline 
and one by one drop out of cultivation. They fail more 
quickly in wet districts than in dry localities; under 
faulty preparation and culture than by superior manage¬ 
ment ; in the crowded lazy beds of Ireland, the High¬ 
lands of Scotland, and anywhere else, than by the wider 
planting in the more fertile soil of the carses of Scot¬ 
land and those plains of England where the greatest bulk 
of the best produce is raised for supplying the great 
centres of population with food. 
Plant for plant the dwarf first earlies have more space 
for the full and free development of their foliage under 
the direct influence of light than have the stronger and 
later sorts; hence the former assimilate and secrete the 
food gathered from the earth and the air under the bright 
sun of July and August, better than it is possible for the 
late kinds to do during the dull drizzling days of late 
September and October, with the plants’ main leaves that 
ought to do so much for perfecting the tubers spoiled by 
overcrowding, the later, weaker, and essentially imperfect 
having to do the best they can. That is the great cause 
of the deterioration of very late-growing Potatoes, and 
the Early Aslileafs prove it by their immunity instead of 
proving the reverse. 
The matter may perhaps he made plainer by a parallel. 
Late, much-crowded growths of Vines and fruit trees are 
proverbially unfruitful because unripe. The foliage not 
having developed has proved exhausting. Good foliage 
is sustaining by digesting and storing up nutriment in the 
stems. It is exactly the same with Potatoes, and cannot 
be otherwise. “ Train the laterals of Vines thinly, and 
permit no superfluous growths to obstruct the light from 
the first main leaves, nor check their free development,” 
that is, in substance, the sound teaching of Mr. Iggulden 
and other competent men. Early Ashleaf Potatoes are, 
as a rule, grown on the same principle, and have the 
requisite light and heat for their maturation; strong- 
growing very late sorts that need more light and more 
heat have less, hence their steady but certain deteriora¬ 
tion. They are in the same position as Vines that are 
grown on the thicket system and with their wood un¬ 
ripened year after year, hence both Vines and Potatoes 
fail. 
The question now arises, Is there no means of arrest¬ 
ing their collapse ? Certainly there is, but it cannot in 
all districts be entirely prevented. It may be to a great 
extent in salubrious Somerset, where gardening is so 
easy that crops grow almost without digging, at least—I 
beg pardon—trenching. There, and everywhere, careful 
selection and storing of seed : land well worked* and con¬ 
taining an adequate amount of potash, lime, and phos¬ 
phates, with nitrogen in the form of nitric acid or ammonia 
for inciting quick and strong root action for abstracting 
the minerals ; thin planting for ensuring the lull and free 
development of the main leaves, and their retention till 
maturation—those are the desiderata ftr producing the 
best plants and maintaining in the best manner the 
vigour of those varieties of Potatoes that are mainly 
relied on for food during eight months of the year; but 
in the meantime efforts must continue in raising new, 
vigorous, productive varieties of good quality from seed, 
for sooner or later existing late-growing sorts will fail, 
for the fact has to be admitted that the majority of 
Potato growers will continue on the old lines, not one 
out of ten of them being Iggulaens or Murphys. I wish 
they were. 
Mr. Iggulden has changed his mind on the benefits 
resulting from a change of seed ; perhaps he will change 
it again some day. In some soils change of seed is 
neutral, in others beneficial, in others, again, detrimental. 
I am certain that evidence in support of all these pro¬ 
positions could be adduced by cultivators. All I can say 
now on this debatable question is this—As a rule it is 
better to take Potatoes from a strong soil to a lighter 
than from a light soil to a stronger, and in my opinion 
seed Potatoes grown in a poor sandy soil are the least 
productive of all, wherever they may be jJanted. 
The great importance of this subject, bearing as it does 
on a staple article of food, and the wide interest attaching 
thereto, is the apology for this long string of evening 
cogitations by— A Thinker. 
WARM WATER. 
Many years ago the young men employed in the gardens in the 
neighbourhood of a provincial town founded a mutual improve¬ 
ment society, which as an association met at stated intervals in 
that town for the discussion of questions connected with their 
calling. The cut flower mania was not then started, at least not to 
an appreciable extent ; nevertheless the best methods of arranging 
cut flowers and other matters connected therewith came up for dis¬ 
cussion. It was the general feeling of the members on that occa 
sion that cold water was the best medium for preserving the flowers 
in glasses ; but one young man, who is now not unknown as a good 
gardener, expressed his conviction that for flowers grown in warm 
houses warm water should be used. It does not appear to be a 
matter of much importance, but it will be found that warm water 
is better than cold, especially during the winter and spring months, 
when so many of the flowers used for vase-filling are grown under 
glass. I am not prepared to state the reason why this should be 
so, but most likely it is because warm water is more readily 
absorbed, and the flowers on that account become more rapidly 
accustomed to their changed conditions. This is seen in a very 
marked degree when the flowers have been cut for some time—say 
after a long journey—when warm water freshens the flowers much 
more rapidly than cold water does. 
But if of value for flowers when cut the employment of warm 
water for refreshing plants in pots is of much greater value, and 
particularly in the case of plants grown in apartments in dwelling 
houses. In cold weather when fires and hot-water pipes keep thi 
atmosphere of rooms not only very warm but also very dry, it is 
an almost impossible matter to keep the soil in pots from becoming 
more or less dried. In any such extreme cases I do not hesitate t > 
water with decidedly hot water, applying just a little, which soak) 
into the dry soil at once, then a little more, until the whole soil is 
soaked. Anyone who has had experience with such plants as are 
here referred to must know how hopeless it is to get cold water 
to do its duty unless the plant is removed and pot and soil 
immersed in the water, and then it takes a long time before the 
air in the soil gives place to the water. By using hot water, (n 
the other hand, the soil is moistened in less time than it has taken 
rr.e to write about it. 
