214 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
LIFTING AND STORING THE POTATO. 
Y all accounts, and judging from the appearance of some of my early crops 
of Potatos, the disease is once more amongst us, and unless care and 
judgment are exercised in the management of the tubers after they are 
taken up, I fear we shall have many more potatos fit for the pigs than for 
our own tables. I therefore offer a few practical remarks on the subject. 
There is no doubt that the best policy is to lift the early varieties, and store 
them away at once. Nothing can be gained after the haulm dies down, by allowing 
them to remain longer in the ground. In places where large shady sheds or barn 
floors can be made use of, and where a current of air can be allowed to pass over 
them, they will dry more satisfactorily in such situations than if allowed to 
remain on the top of the ground, exposed to the sun and to all kinds of weather. 
Potatos should always be stored away in as dry a state as possible ; and should 
any disease he discovered* among them, I would recommend that but small 
quantities should be pitted together, certainly not more than a cart-load in each 
clamp. In the centre of this clamp should be placed a lump of lime about the 
size of a man’s head, and before covering them in, they should receive a good 
dusting of quicklime. The lime absorbs the moisture during the time the 
potatos sweat, and by so doing prevents the tubers from over-heating, whilst its 
application also greatly improves the quality of the potatos ; no doubt it absorbs 
much of the water from the tubers, and consequently they boil more floury than 
if pitted without lime. After the tubers have laid in small pits for at least one 
month, they should then be carefully looked over, and may be brought together 
into one or more large clamps, in the centre of which should be placed a large 
basket of hard lumps of lime ; or should the clamps be long, it will be found 
beneficial to insert other lime baskets at about 12 ft. apart. The whole heap 
should then be sprinkled well over with lime before covering it up. I always 
prefer to have my clamps made low and narrow, for they are then less liable to 
heat than those which are made up wide and high.— Edward Bennett, Enville 
Hall Gardens. 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
‘'BOM the usual Report on the State of the Fruit Crop , given in the Gardeners' 
Chronicle of August 12, we learn that the fruit crops are not only scanty, 
but from two to three weeks later than ordinary, though with the excep- 
ff tion of Scotland, the returns are more favourable than we could have 
expected. In the returns from Scotland the crops are most often described as moderate, 
though in several instances as total failures. In the northern counties of England they are 
reported under the average, with the exception of Nuts and Apricots, which are abundant; 
all crops being two or three weeks later than usual. For the rest, the returns may be 
summarized as follows :— Apricots, most abundant everywhere, but the fruit small and late. 
Apples, a very partial crop, plentiful in some places, thin in others (generally orchards), and 
in some a total failure ; the fruit small, and the trees suffering from curl, aphis, &e. Pears, 
a variable crop, under the average, generally very fair on walls, but thin on standards. Plums , 
