THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
Grape, with a Muscat flavour, called Muscat de Sarbclle. 
The berry is of good size, and the flavour very agreeable, 
t It is said to ripen out of doors as well as the Black 
! Cluster, and, under such circumstances, it cannot fail to 
! prove a valuable acquisition. 
POTATO CULTURE. 
As the time approaches in which we should secuie 
good stock for the spring planting, I think a few remarks 
relative to this invaluable root may prove of service. 
Many a pen has been employed on them; many a 
tongue loud in their praise ; nevertheless, the subject is 
by no means exhausted. Indeed, what subject in gar¬ 
dening can be ? Who is there that will boldly affirm 
he has carried the culture of any one thing so far that it 
can never advance, but must remain stationary to the 
end of time? To me it is perfectly evident that our 
gracious Creator specially ordaiued it quite otherwise. 
Had such been the case, the world would soon have lost 
a great portion of its interest, and lethargy and indo¬ 
lence would speedily have paralysed the activity of 
mau—that activity of head and hands for which he is 
obviously framed, and which, indeed, is indispensable 
to the well-being of society. 
We are all now tolerably well acquainted with the 
past history of the Potato; the commencement and 
reign of the terrible disease by which they have been 
harassed is familiar to every one. It is, of course, well 
remembered, too, that remedial measui'es, or, indeed, 
curative ones, were suggested by the gross, and that, as 
to the latter, they all fell to the ground. Never had self- 
sufficiency a heavier blow.' From the philosopher to 
the ordinary peasant, all shared alike,—all their plans fell 
to the ground. But there were those who, without pre- 
tendiug to give an off-hand recipe for its cure, advised 
remedial measures, based on the natural habits of the 
plants, and suggested that, in all probability, though 
their advice was followed, it would require two or three 
I years more to recover lost ground. Who those were, 
j the public has had an opportunity of knowing, and also 
of witnessing that their advice was sound, as proved by 
subsequent events. But I must come to the advice 
itself, which was, that, in order to commence a reform, or, 
shall we say, a renewal of the plant? we should take all 
possible care over the seed for the ensuing year, both as 
regards selection and preservation. Selection, of course, 
implies that the seed be pure as to kind; that it be 
obtained when in a proper condition as to ripeness, &c.; 
and, above all, that it be free from disease. The latter 
has, doubtless, already commenced in several parts of 
the country, and is to be watched with jealousy. There 
can be little doubt that unripe seed is by far preferable 
to ripe seed diseased. It is most important, if this be a 
fact, that it be well recognised. The only question that 
remains is, at what early stage of the Potato’s growth 
we may depend on them for seed purposes. 
The county I live in (Cheshire) is noted for Potatoes, 
and has been for many years; and they are really not 
very particular about the ripeness of their seed. When 
I first came here, nearly thirty years since, I was per¬ 
fectly astonished to notice the unripe condition in which 
many of the farmers housed their seeds. Having my- 
I self been used to the gardening about the great metro- 
| polis, and to the practice of permitting the plant to 
become almost dead on the ground before the seed was 
removed, I had a complete prejudice against the Cheshire 
practice, and it took some time to remove it. After 
witnessing so much excellent success with seed that I 
had deemed unripe, 1 became convinced that my pre¬ 
vious impressions had not been correct. 
One of the principal standards of fitness for seed in 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August 12, 1856. 013 
these parts is the ready parting of the Potato from the 
string which holds it. Now this, although involving a 
possibility of error, is by no means bad as an off-hand 
symptom. If the Potato parts from the connecting 
string with ease, and not through the mere preponder¬ 
ance of weight in the produce, I should hold it an 
almost decisive symptom of ripiencss; but if any country 
clown, in forking out roots of heavy Potatoes, which 
tear themselves away by mere force of weight, thus 
thinks them ripe, why, I can only say that he would 
be very much mistaken. My opinion is this: As 
soon as any kind of Potato becomes discoloured in the 
foliage, it ceases, in the main, to lengthen in the stem, 
and shows every symptom of the absorbent powers 
having ceased, or being about to do so, when it may at 
any time be removed for seed. 
We all well know that it generally requires a little care 
to prevent early kinds of Potatoes from sprouting too 
soon. Early Potatoes in this part of England are so 
handled as to prevent, by all possible means, their 
sprouting before the desired time. So the question is, 
not who can sprout them first, but who can produce 
sound and well-hardened sprouts by the exact period at 
which it is expedient to commit them to the soil. 
People differ as to this; one party being for autumn 
planting, others prefer very early spring planting ; and 
the majority, as far as I have examined the matter—and 
that is not very lightly—do not make any fuss about the 
exact day or week, but rather direct their attention to 
the period at which it is expedient their stems should 
rise through the soil. Now, really, these things lie in a 
very narrow compass when common-sense is brought to 
bear on them. 
Of what use is it so planting Potatoes that their stems 
must rise through the soil in the middle or end of April, 
when we must admit that, in at least four seasons out of 
six, we have frosts as late as from the beginning to the 
10th of May—frosts sufficient to injure, if not destroy, 
the Potato ? Now, we all know that the longer seed 
Potatoes of the earlier kinds are kept in the soil, the 
more they become inclined to sprout, as well they may, 
if any rains occur, seeing they are surrounded by the 
very conditions most essential to germination—heat and 
moisture. It is no uncommon thing to see the Ash-leaf 
Kidney sprouting rapidly before they are taken from the 
soil; indeed, this generally happens if the haulm be 
suffered to become nearly dead with ripeness. Here, 
then, is a source of mischief. Potatoes removed from 
the haulm in such a state are inclined to sprout long 
before the desired period; and the unfortunate possessor, 
not knowing what to do with them, is induced to plant 
them early, in order to get them out of mischief. 
As it is quite probable that we shall have a pretty 
general visitation of the Potato disease before the 
season is over, let me advise the readers of The Cottage 
Gabdeneb carefully to select seed of the necessary kinds 
before they be anyways diseased. There are various 
practices as to the preservation of early Potatoes for 
seed, and I may here be permitted to allude to them. 
Some persons put them in pits, or hogs as they are here 
termed, as soon as taken up; but this I hold to be a bad 
plan. There can be no question but that dryness is an 
indispensable condition towards their keeping; but how 
shall that be the case in an ordinary pit? The best 
practice I am acquainted with is to lay them, the mo¬ 
ment they are taken up, in some open shed, stable, or 
outhouse, where the sun cannot shine on them, and 
where they are perfectly dry, the wind blowing on them 
if possible. Here they may lie for two or three weeks, 
or until they are slightly greened; and then I prefer 
putting them in baskets, or even tubs, and placing them 
in any dry upstairs room, where there is no fire, and 
where the air can circulate a little. Here they may 
remain until the end of October, or into November, 
