OCTOBER. 
217 
The plants from the June sowing will he ready for use by the end of Sep¬ 
tember ; those from the July sowing at the end of October; and it is advisable 
that a good supply of these latter should be tied up when very dry, to blanch, 
and on the approach of frost to be lifted and stored in frames or pits for an 
early winter supply. For a later supply the earliest plants from the August 
sowing must be looked to, and full advantage taken of every chance 
afforded by dry weather to tie them up, either for covering from frost in the 
bed, or for lifting to store away. 
The Curled varieties are generally preferred for salads, and the Broad¬ 
leaved for stewing; but the latter when well blanched are very crisp and 
tender for salads, and by some are preferred to the Curled, being less bitter. 
Amongst the Curled varieties, that exhibited before the Fruit Committee 
of the Royal Horticultural Society last season, appears likely to be one of 
the best. 
Uedleaf . John Cox. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
The Potatos in this part are very badly diseased. I do not recollect 
having seen, since 1846, the late Potatos in gardens worse diseased than 
they are this season. The disease did not manifest itself here to any 
extent until the middle of August, so that the early kinds escaped with little 
or no loss. 
Mona’s Pride and Rivers’s Royal Ash-leaved were good crops and fine in 
quality. Myatt’s Prolific was a heavy crop everywhere, and fine. Haigh’s 
Kidney was fine, and here they escaped the disease much better than last 
year. Prince of Wales Kidney was very fine, but very badly diseased. 
Milky White was very much diseased. Dalmahoy and Daintree’s Seedling 
nearly all diseased. All the late sorts badly diseased, very few sound tubers. 
The Potatos in the field are also, I regret to say, going very much with the 
disease. The best and freest from disease that I know of were treated as 
follows :—The manure was spread on the ground last autumn, and then 
ploughed in, and the sets were planted rather earlier than usual in spring. 
These Potatos are a fine crop, and up to the present time (18th of Septem¬ 
ber), very little diseased. The situation is rather high, and the subsoil 
gravel, so that there has been no excess of moisture in the land. In an 
adjoining field, which is lower and a dead flat, with heavier soil and a more 
retentive bottom, Potatos last year were very badly diseased. Potatos in 
the markets here at present are already a shilling the weight of 21 lbs., a 
rather unusually high price at this season of the year. 
Fortunately for the public, the corn crops, which are now being harvested 
in good condition, are considerably above an average in this part of the 
country. Should flour keep at a moderate price, the loss of the Potato 
crop will not be so severely felt as it was last year. 
Stourton. ' M. Saul. 
TOADS IN IRELAND. 
Although toads are met with at a considerable distance from water, 
they were all originally bred in it from spawn deposited in the spring. 
From the absence of toads in Ireland, it has been ignorantly supposed 
that there is some peculiar quality in the soil which is hurtful to harmless 
and useful reptiles. I advert to this for the sake of noticing that there 
