TTIE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 8. 
70 
L founded upon confirmed experience, and sustained 
by science, it is that of planting potatoes on light soils 
in November, and on more retentive soils not later 
.than February. 
One fact recently communicated to us by Mr. 
Weaver, gardener to the Warden of Winchester Col¬ 
lege, is so curious as to deserve a special narrative. 
He planted his potatoes, being of the varieties known 
as Forty-folds, Looker’s Oxonians, Herefordshire 
Purples, and York Regents, during last November. 
He took up his crop early in August, and a larger, 
finer, or more healthy produce was never seen. At 
the tirno of taking them up, the stems of the Here 
fordshire Purples and of the Forty-folds were dead, 
but those of the Oxonions and Regents were partially 
green, being of larger and later growth. Brown spots 
and other symptoms of disease were on these stems, 
but they did not appear until the tubers were full 
grown. Not a single diseased tuber was among them 
when taken up, and they are now as sound as at first. 
As an experiment, Mr. Weaver left two rows of the 
York Regents in the soil until the beginning of Oc¬ 
tober, at which time, digging them up, he found one 
half of the tubers diseased. Does not this testify that 
varieties which are quite ripened off in August and 
their stems dead, as in the case of the Purples and 
Forty-folds, are out of harm’s way altogether? Se¬ 
condly, does it not also offer the satisfactory informa¬ 
tion that the disease is not immediately communi¬ 
cated to the tubers from the stems ? for if it were the 
Regents taken up in August would have been tainted 
in some degree. All this is further evidenced by 
another curious fact. We have seen part of a crop 
of an early variety called Julys taken up in August 
quite sound, and part left in the ground until Novem¬ 
ber. In the meantime, at the end of October, some 
of those taken up in August were planted, and these 
were sound and continued sound, producing a good 
crop in the year following, but those left where grown 
until November in soil precisely similar, and in the 
same garden, were many of them destroyed by the 
disease. Therefore, it seems that it is connexion with 
the diseased stems, and not merely being left in the 
wet soil, which occasions the murrain. In conclu¬ 
sion, let us impress upon our readers the golden 
rules of potato growing. 1. Grow none but those 
which ripen by August. 2. Plant whole, middle- 
sized potatoes. 3. Plant on moderately light soil 
manured some months previously. 4. Apply no ma¬ 
nure at the time of planting. 5. Plant now in 
light dry soils, but not until February in wet soils. 
6. Preserve your seed potatoes between layers of earth 
until required. 7. Plant as you dig; that is, dig 
enough for one row, and then plant it with the dibble 
so as to avoid trampling on the ground. 8. Let the 
top of the sets be six inches below the surface. 9. 
Do not earth up the stems. 10. Do not cut down 
the stems. 11. Take up the crop as soon as the leaves 
begin to look yellow in July or early August. 1 2. Store 
in a dry shed between layers of earth, sand, or coal- 
ashes. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Early Forcing. —Before reverting to the subject 
of hardy fruits, we must take an opportunity, whilst 
space and time permit, of offering a little advice 
about early forcing the vine and the 'peach', for we 
find that several readers of The Cottage Gardener 
either already force them, or desire to commence 
doing so. 
'The first requisite is to see that all necessary prun¬ 
ing is accomplished; this should precede every other 
operation. We need scarcely observe that neither 
vines nor peaches are eligible for early forcing, unless 
their leaves are cast; indeed, to commence now, the 
leaves should have been cast some five or six weeks. 
Early pruning is a matter of considerable importance, 
both on account of economising the strength of the 
tree, and also, in the case of the vine, to prevent 
bleeding, which is apt to occur when the pruning is 
deferred. 
There can be little doubt that, from the moment 
the leaves are cast, nature commences efforts to re¬ 
store what we may term suspended animation; it 
being probable that, about that period, the trees con¬ 
tain as little of the ascending sap as at any other 
period. However, we say this with deference, and 
do not offer it as a settled axiom in vegetable physio¬ 
logy, but as an opinion which we conceive to be 
strengthened by long observation. Be this as it 
may, the sap begins to rise many weeks before any 
particular distension or swelling of the buds takes 
place, and in so doing reaches to the terminal points 
of the tree; in late pruning, therefore, it is obvious 
that a waste of energies takes place, parts containing 
the revivifying liquid being in that case cut away as 
waste, and which never need have drawn on the re¬ 
sources of the root. 
Our space is too limited to lay down complete 
pruning maxims, but we may offer a little advice in 
our course. In the case of the vine, some spur prune, 
and others prune on the long rod system. We care 
little which, inasmuch as the mere system of pruning 
has not much to do with the qualities of the grapes. 
To be sure, the long rod system will give larger 
bunches, and, we think, berries also; but this has 
reference principally to exhibition matters. Spur 
pruning, however, has been on the increase during 
the last five years; and with regard to those who grow 
plants and other matters beneath their vines, spur 
pruning becomes almost indispensable. We would 
advise, as a general maxim, that all pruning of the 
vine be as severe as possible; that is to say, let every 
shoot be shortened back as close as likely-looking 
plump buds can be found. This will, in general, be 
to within a couple or three eyes of the base of the 
shoot. By such means only can the vine be kept 
within bounds and under system; for, were a mere 
lax mode of pruning pursued, the house would 
speedily become filled, with a vast amount of old 
shoots, which would at least create shade, and impede 
the necessary operations: they do more, according 
to the late Clement Hoare; they draw on the system 
of the vine in some degree, and there can be little 
doubt that Mr. Hoare was correct in this assumption. 
What we have here observed as bearing on pruning 
has nothing to do with the strict “long rod” system, 
nor with rigid “ spur pruning.” In the first, a regular 
