September 29. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
005 
. have previously noticed, in The Cottage Gardener, the j 
value of this vegetable, as a substitute for the Potato; and 
from the almost total failure of the Potato-crop this season, 
I am every day more convinced of the importance of giving 
; every possible attention to cultivate this valuable vegetable 
on a larger scale. I am much pleased with the experiments 
that I have made with them this season, and with the result 
of their produce, which is very abundant, although I took | 
! very little pains with them, merely digging holes on the j 
level ground, in odd corners, and filling them with manure, i 
j and sowing the seed in a little mould on the top of the j 
! manure. I also grew them on my manure heaps. As j 
! they ripen, we are now using them as a substitute for the 
Potato, in the way I have previously described; and, in my 
humble opinion, they are not only an excellent substitute, 
but they are really a luxury. We have found the easiest 
method of cooking them is to cut them in quarters, and boil | 
them with the peel on, as it is taken oft' after being boiled 
| much easier than when raw, and saves a deal of time and 
! trouble. 
Potatoes. —From an experiment that I have made in 
leaving a portion of my Potatoes in the ground up to the 
present time, I find, in taking them up, there appears to be ; 
two or three at some roots perfectly free from the disease; ; 
and, from observations that I have made in other seasons, 
I have found those that remain sound up to this time will 
continue so, and be perfectly safe to stoi-e for the winter, 
and will be fit for seed the following spring. 
Parsnips and Carrots should be taken up the latter end 
of this month, and carefully stored for the winter. It is a 
good plan to pack them in layers, with sand, in a cool, dry 
shed. 
Where Mangold Wurzel are grown, the end of this month 
is a proper time to take them up, as they are more liable to 
be injured by the frost than the Swedish Turnips. As soon 
as taken up, the tops should be cut off, not too close, and 
then laid iu heaps, and covered well with straw and earth, 
so that they are quite safe from the frost. 
Every opportunity should be taken to dig over the ground ! 
as it becomes vacant, and, where necessary, to trench or 
double dig it, and to let it stay in a rough state during the i 
winter, that it may have the benefit of the frosts. It is very 
important that stiff clay-soils should be done in this way ; it 
is wonderful the effect the frost has in improving such soils 
when so exposed. John Sillett. 
BREEDING FROM ONE-YEAR OLD FOWLS. 
Any information bearing on the question, whether it is 
advisable to breed from birds one-year-old or two-years-old 
will be interesting to many of your readers. If the chicks 
of birds one-year-old are more subject to “ weakness of the 
legs ” than those of older birds, certainly the latter are to 
be preferred; for though by the aid of medicines we may 
effect a cure, yet we must ever aim at prevention, and only 
when that has been neglected seek a cure. During the 
present season I have bred about 100 Shanghae chickens, 
almost all from birds of last year, but have had only one, a 
cockerel, affected with this complaint of the legs. He was 
let alone for some weeks, I, having in past years, got sick of 
doctoring; however, I determined at last to try cod liver oil, 
which has, apparently, completely cured him. It sometimes 
happens that through lying about much the limbs become 
likewise attacked with rheumatism—a free use of mustard- 
seed I have then found beneficial. After six years ex¬ 
perience, I am inclined to prefer breeding from birds one- 
I year-old.— Wm. Jno. Beery, Chaldon, near Coulsden, Surrey 
SPARANIS. 
Being a constant reader of The Cottage Gardener, and 
feeling a deep interest in the object of its publication, I 
thought, seeing the list of Sparaxis contained in the number 
published last month rather incomplete, that, if the following 
one was worthy of insertion in your columns, the interest and 
amusement it might be the means of communicating to 
some of your readers would amply repay me for the little 
trouble I had taken in writing it. 
Sparaxis alba or leucantha. —It is almost white; there is 
a tinge of yellow in the centre of the flower; grows fifteen 
inches high. 
S. bicolor. —Blackish-purple; and whitish-yellow centre. 
S. bulbifera. —Beautiful golden-yellow ; grows strong, and 
blooms abundantly. , 
S. carulea. —Slate-colour ; yellow centre. \ 
S. nigricans. —Black-purple, mottled with red; with yellow 
centre. 
Pheasant's Eye. —White, with a yellow centre, surrounded \ 
with black ; does not grow above nine inches high. 
S. rosea punctata. —Bose coloured, mottled with white ; 
yellow and black centre ; a strong-growing and great bloomer, i 
S. tricolor. —The original variety, grown in the Channel 
Islands under this name, was of an orange-scarlet colour, 
with yellow and black centre ; an exceedingly pretty variety. 
(Quite right.) 
S. tricolor grandiflora. —The original variety was of the 
richest velvety crimson, with black and yellow centre, ! 
gorgeous to look at when blooming in masses; but they 
have grown and seeded so freely, and produced such an 
abundance of varieties, and of so many colours, that it 
would be impossible to describe them. I have seen them 
growing and flowering in tho season of every hue and 
colour. I would refer you to any lover of flowers who has 
seen them on a fine sunshiny day for a description of them. 
I could hardly trust myself with the task. 
S. tricolor crispa. —A peculiarly crumpled-leaved variety of 
tricolor, more peculiar than pretty, of a rich crimson colour, 
with black and yellow centre. 
S. variabilis. —Avery pretty rose-coloured variety, with brigh t 
yellow centre; the flowers do not expand so broadly as 
tricolor grandiflora. 
S. versicolor. —Large light variety, with pale-yellow centre, 
and reddish colouring on the outside of the jietals. A bold, 
strong-growing variety. 
I have found and still find it very difficult to keep the 
varieties distinct. I have selected twenty or thirty varieties 
from the beds of tricolor grandiflora, some seasons, but have 
not found them, even under circumstances which were 
favourable to their general cultivation and flowering, keep 
true to colour. They sport much, and I have invariably 
observed, that the sport is from darker to lighter colours ; 
which, I think, tends to establish the theory, that the darker 
coloured varieties are hybrids, and that the lighter ones 
are the original stock; versicolor and bulbifera, to wit. 
Chas. Bd. Saunders, Cwsarean Nursery, Jersey. 
[We are indebted for the. above account of some of the 
best seedling varieties of Sparaxis to one of the most 
celebrated growers of the tribe in Jersey, Mr. Saunders, of 
the Caesarean Nurseries. The twenty-four varieties, which I 
mentioned as exceeding my powers of description, had come 
to me from the Caesarean Nurseries through a London 
agent; and I am glad to find that Mr. Saunders takes the 
same view of his own seedlings. They richly deserve to be 
grown in masses, wherever the climate is suitable for them 
iu the open air. With the ordinary contrivance of cold pits, 
lights, and mats, they can be grown in any part of this 
country just as well as they grow in the open gardens in 
Jersey, provided they are planted out in prepared beds, and 
not in pots, in the usual way. Here, in England, we have 
not one gardener out of twenty of our very first-rate men i 
who understand the proper culture of a tithe of the very 
commonest bulbs. They even do not know their mere names. 
When I threw down the glove, and challenged the whole 
fraternity of blue-aprons, cabbage-men and all, I did expect 
to encounter an adversary here and there on the subject of 
bulbs, to keep up the interest and excitement inseparable 
from fair and respectable criticism, hut hitherto all has gone 
on smoothly, and so I fear it will do all the way down to 
Zepliyranthes. It was just the same, a few years ago, with 
a friend of mine, who wrote a popular description of Ferns ; 
but now Ferns are ably treated of and discussed upon freely 
enough in all our periodicals, and I trust it may he the 
same with Bulbs also, for they deserve to be much better 
known than Ferns, or most tribes of plants, especially the 
section of half-hardy ones, to which this series is confined. 
I I was not aware that seedling varieties of Sparaxis turned 
