838 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENER. 
August 20. 
being pure as the driven snow, we can only observe that 
they smell rather strong of the shop ; and it is just possible 
that their wares may be as immaculate as themselves. But 
why not people look sharp after their own seed potatoes ? 
Who, that depends on this staple commodity for the chief 
sustenance of his family, and in his own person enjoys a 
dish of floury potatoes; who, of that caste, we say, but can 
secure a little seed before it is corrupted? But, some will 
say, they arc not ripe enough ! Well, admitted, for mere 
argument’s sake ; but behold the dilemma—unripe seed or 
diseased seed! 
There is an awkward impression abroad as to the ripeness 
ol‘ seed. The potato is said to be simply an underground 
stem. Now, who would refuse to propagate from a cut¬ 
ting of a stem, merely because a little unripe in the ordinary 
acceptation of that term ? Or, who would prefer a ripe 
diseased shoot to a partially ripe sound one ? Judging 
by analogy, this appears to be the true position of the 
question. 
Early planting, removal from the soil the moment the 
black spot shows itself in the stems, and a speedy drying,— 
even greening slightly,—together with the lowest possible 
temperature aftetwards, and a total avoidance of fermenta¬ 
tion, are, we believe, the necessary storing precautions. 
The seed should bo taken the moment any one tuber can 
be found with the rot commencing; and if they are very 
unripe, our advice is to bury them in layers, after laying to 
dry for a day or two, in a mixture of dusty soil, quick-lime, 
and charcoal dust, well blended, placing layers of the po¬ 
tatoes and compost alternately, for nearly a foot in depth, 
on the iloor of a dry shod or outhouse. Hero they may 
lay for a fortnight, or so, when they may be taken out and 
spread thinly to green, either in-doors or out, only they 
must be preserved perfectly dry. We have an upstairs room 
over the fruit-stores, on the north side of the building, and 
here we keep our seed potatoes spread on the floor until 
November, when, if their room is required, we place them 
in a pit, putting layers of <try straw between the layers of 
potatoes; or, if the room is not required, they remain all 
the winter, which is the best plan, covering them through 
frosty weather, nearly a foot thick, with spoilt dry hay, or 
old litter. Thus managed, we rarely lose a potato; and in 
the spring, even as late as April, if any be left, they are as 
firm as when taken up, indeed, firmer, for they cut more 
like a sound carrot than a potato. Now, although we cannot 
boast like some of an entire freedom from the disease, wo 
have it very light, as compared with many, but then we 
plant early, and take up early. 
Boot Caors in General.— But little cultural advice can 
be given as to these during this month; cleanliness is the 
main thing, both with regard to the present and succeeding 
crops. It has been a tiresome summer for weeds, but such 
seasons are by no means uncommon, and simply call for an 
increased degree of perseverance. It is rare that earnest 
labour goes unrewarded. If any allotment man or cottager 
is well-a head with liis work, and can spare time, he may 
dig down the centre, between root crops, with some advan¬ 
tage to the present crop, and a good deal to the succeeding 
one. The “bolters," or those mangold, carrots, <fcc., running 
to seed, must bo pulled clear away from the rows, and used 
up; and any thinning which has been neglected, completed 
in the first week. 
Carrots. —In some places these will he grubbed; if so, 
we advise what we generally practice, and that is, to pull 
them immediately, and to crop the ground with greens, or 
some of the cabbageworts, or sow it with a very early turnip: 
the Dutch will do well. It is not commonly known, that 
grubbed carrots, when the tap root is gone, only become as 
hard as sticks by remaining in the ground, under the false 
idea of their still growing. The fact is, that they are losing 
I instead of gaining; and the dread of unripeness is the 
cause of many a carrot crop being all but lost. ‘What else 
can become of them, the tops perspiring until they flag ? 
When drawn in this way, they should be immediately cut 
into the quick, and buried in damp sand or soil. We dare 
say that a soaking in lime-water, or brine, for a dozen hours 
before pitting, would destroy the grub left in them ; or, it 
may be, water at a temperature of 120°, for a quarter-of-an- 
liour or so; indeed, the latter might be brine; we never tried 
it, but the thing is worth trial. These carrots will keep 
until Christmas ; and it is to bo hoped every good cultivator ' 
will have a later and luckier bed to succeed them. 
Vacant Blots. —In such perilous times with the potato, 
it seems almost a farce to talk of vacant ground. To those 
who have any, we say, lose not a minute—get in some 
of the cabbage-worts, or sow quick-bulbing turnips. Let 
all decaying crops, even those of a doubtful or suspicious 
character, give way to something more certain. If the 
party possesses no plants of the cabbagc-wort tribes, let 
them at once throw in some early turnip seed, if only to 
keep the weeds down, although the latter is but a narrow 
policy. If such turnips are not wanted at home, perhaps ! 
some civil farming neighbour will exchange potatoes or 
corn for them : such may be made a mutual accommodation. [ 
Onions. —We have long since given advice as to the early 
harvesting of this crop, in order to get another crop off the 
same land this autumn. We can do no better than quote 
our own practice, and amount of success this season. 
Onions sown in three four-feet beds, each bed fifty yards 
long, in the second week of March ; ground trenched thirty 
inches in depth, bringing up three inches of subsoil; no 
manure used, being in good heart from former manurings. 
In May thinned by hand at twice; no hoeing; ground 
rolled, when dry, solid nearly as a turnpike road ; the onion 
blades perfectly erect, until pressed down last week—scarcely 
a blade down with storms; the beds thrown up nearly a 
foot above the ordinary level. A finer crop was never 
grown, and that, too, on land which only a few years since 
seldom or never produced a crop, five seasons out of six 
being carried by the grub. Wc attribute this to the trenching 
up some subsoil, and to hard rolling; this, with the absence 
of the small hoe—hand-weeding being substituted—the 
onions bid defiance to storms, which, by throwing down the 
crop in an early stage of growth, do immense damage. The 
height of the beds ensures an early harvest: our onions will 
be off in four or five days (Aug. 17), and a crop of turnips 
sown in drills, without digging or manuring, Onions ro 
quire careful drying; it is well to dry them in large baskets, 
carrying them in doors every evening. Afterwards, also, 
they should bo kept very dry; they succeed well in an up¬ 
stairs room, where there is generally a fire beneath. 
Shallots keep best in a room with fire; we have seen 
them in excellent order, in March or April, suspended in a 
cabbage-net at one end of a warm kitchen, where they had 
hung all the winter. When we consider their native 
country, Balestine, there is no marvel in this. 
Winter Greens : the Cabbage-worts , &e.—Again we refer 
to the severe visitation of the potato disease as an extra 
reason for securing pleuty of useful greens, and high culture 
afterwards. Green kale may yet be planted ; Savoys it is 
too late for; Coleworts, from a July sowing of early-hearting 
cabbages, may be planted in the first week, and if the soil 
is rich they will come in for Christmas. Those planted 
earlier will now require some culture, soiling them well up 
their stems. The young cabbage seed-beds, sown in the j 
middle of August, must be clean weeded, and if the young I 
plants look drawn, or sickly, some dry and loose earth may 
be strewn amongst them, an inch in depth. These young 
plants are much better pricked out, as gardeners term it, 
when about three inches in length. 
General Cleaning and Burning. —The month of Sep¬ 
tember offering, in our opinion, the best period in the whole 
year for making a general clearing of all plots, hedges, 
boundaries, etc., <fcc.; thus obtaining a lot of charred mate¬ 
rials to carry out the cropping in the ensuing spring. The 
benefits derived from this ameliorator have been pointed out 
on all sides. Almost every cultivator of repute uses char¬ 
coal or charred materials. It. is a capital improver on coarse 1 
soils, even as simply tending to correct the. staple ; but it 
has considerable chemical powers ; the power of giving out 
carbonic acid to the roots of plants. There is still another 
point in which to view the matter: soils, with frequent crop¬ 
ping, become what practical men term “ worn out; ” that is 
to say, they refuse to produce certain crops in their original 
perfection, and engender the club-root, fingers and toes, &c., 
amongst the cabbageworts, with failures amongst other 
things, which appear to the ordinary observer as unaccount¬ 
able. Burnt materials impart a freshness to the soil which 
mere manures cannot accomplish ; and it must, at least, be 
admitted, that such materials, after the ordeal it has passed, 
