June 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
163 
quaintance lias one of these stoves in his hall, and 
such is its efficiency that it warms the whole place 
beyond need; and I am satisfied that, as there is no 
noisome smell, dirt or any other objection, it will be 
found best of anything, for the use of amateurs, 
where great heat is not required, and where cleanli¬ 
ness and economy are considerations. Indeed, such 
is the smallness of cost in fuel that two might he 
ungrudgingly used, where one was found not suffi¬ 
cient. About a peck of coke will supply one for six 
or eight hours (according to size and draft); so that, 
feeding itself until the whole is consumed, two fill¬ 
ings, the one at three or four o’clock in the afternoon, 
and the other at ten, would carry the heat all well 
and safe through the night. 
I was greatly pleased on noticing your reference, a 
week or two ago, to the cottager's nosegay of gilli- 
flower; for such nosegay, with the addition of sotliern- 
wood or ladslove, has for many years been one of 
my noticeable delights of a village church congrega¬ 
tion—being amongst the almost unvarying appen¬ 
dages of a respectable cottager.—Q. 
POTATO CULTURE. 
I have been particularly desirous of learning the 
best mode of cultivating the potato, more especially 
for the benefit of the numerous holders of half-acre 
allotments in this parish (in which every labouring 
man has, for some years, had half an acre of good 
land at a low rent), amongst whom I have witnessed 
sad distress, on account of the loss of that staple ar¬ 
ticle of food. I have a beautiful piece of land, about 
three quarters of an acre in all, of which rather more 
than half an acre lies in a pleasant slope to the S. 
and S.W., surrounded by walls to the E. and N. 
An excellent wholesome soil, rather light, and the 
subsoil limestone rock; of all the pieces of land I ever 
saw, the best calculated to bear good and early pota¬ 
toes. I broke it up (it was an orchard) last year, and 
it bore, the first year, a very good crop of potatoes ; 
though half the crop was rotten, the remainder was 
excellent. 
Having read all I could get at, that seemed worth 
the trouble, about potatoes, 1 determined to try the fol¬ 
lowing various plans. When the crop was dug out, I 
put by, in a large dry room, a few sacks of the same po¬ 
tatoes that grew there last year, because I believe that it 
is not necessary to change the seed, and I wished to try. 
These were Soden's early Oxford, an excellent and 
very early potato. I laid them out, their heads all 
one way, according to Cuthill’s excellent plan, and 
left them, on straw, to shoot. Before planting time 
they had produced fine strong shoots, from three to 
eight inches long, very thick and strong. (1 planted, 
in October, a few perches of these, before they began 
to shoot, hut not on the slope—at the bottom of it, 
. where there is a clay subsoil, much less fit for po¬ 
tatoes. I put them in deep to avoid the frost.) I 
bought a sack or two of Ash-leaved Kidneys, but not 
having room for them in-doors, I dug a trench as 
Cuthill advises, in which I laid them to shoot; and 
along with them I placed a few sacks of Pretty Betties, 
grown in the same orchard. I also sent to Fifeshire 
for some other early potatoes, to see whether change 
of seed was an advantage or not. 
In the month of November I trenched the whole 
of the ground, 20 inches from centre to centre, as 
Cuthill advises, and sowed over the ridges 2 cwt. of 
salt and 4 bushels of soot to 15 perches. It is exactly 
according to Cuthill’s plan, but seems to be a very 
small quantity. In the middle of January I began 
planting. I took all the sets out of the room, had 
them laid very carefully on trays, rejecting every one 
that had the smallest injury to the young shoot, laid 
them at the bottom of the trenches, and turned the 
ridges over them. I did the same thing with the 
Betties and also with the Ash-leaves. The Scotch 
ones I had not taken so much care with, having no 
room to lay them out singly; hut they were planted 
as above. The early Oxfords (which had been laid 
out in a room,) have all come up wonderfully strong, 
shoots as thick as my little finger, and thicker in some 
places. They came up very early, long before those 
of the same sort planted in the autumn, and were 
cut off three several times by the frost, (excepting a 
few which I was enabled to cover with straw, and 
where I hope to dig young potatoes in eight or ten 
days). But they have recovered themselves most 
wonderfully since I wrote to you, and are now, not¬ 
withstanding their having been cut off by frost, large 
and strong in the stem and leaf, looking as green and 
rich as ever I saw a potato in my life. They are the 
admiration of everybody here. The Scotch potatoes 
are also looking very well. They were cut off once 
by the frost, but have made play since wonderfully ; 
but they are not so fine as the Oxfords (of which, you 
will remember, the seed was grown in the same land). 
I now come to the Betties and Ash-leaves. You will 
remember that they were laid by to shoot in a pit. 
They were covered with straw and earth heaped over 
them, to keep them from the frost. There they shot 
wonderfully in the winter. They were taken out in 
January, like the Oxfords, very carefully; but the 
difference between them was this : the Oxfords, in¬ 
doors, had been kept quite dry; those in the pit, 
though in a rocky soil, had got damp. This last 
circumstance I am sure it is which has caused them 
to rot. They were not pitted in a heap, you will un¬ 
derstand, hut laid in rows, no one potato being on 
any other—one potato thick, I mean; so no fermen¬ 
tation could take place, hut they got damp there; and 
though the few that have come up are unusually 
strong and fine, at least 19 out of 20 rotted in the 
earth and never came up. This and two or three 
other experiments I have made, prove to me clearly 
that whatever be the original cause of the rot, dry¬ 
ness is its cure, and moisture only increases it. 
May I be permitted to add that my intention in so 
acting with my potatoes was this: to get them all out 
in June, manure the ground immediately with stable 
or farm-yard dung, plant it with mangold-wurtzel 
(saved in a bed for the purpose), pull and store the 
mangold-wurtzel in the beginning of November, and 
then trench, salt and soot again, and so, without any 
change of seed at all, get two crops every year off the 
same piece of land. I did this to show the allotment 
holders what the land is capable of. Owing to cir¬ 
cumstances, the late frosts, &c., I fear I shall not be 
able to do it this year; but I feel sure that it is, on 
light and well drained land like mine, easily to be 
done, and if I live I will try. I shall be very happy 
to shew you the land, &c., ii’ ever you come this way; 
and, as we are close to a railway station, you may 
perhaps pass us some day. I must add that no other 
potatoes in this neighbourhood, that I know of, have 
failed, excepting only those which were allowed to get 
damp in my pit in the winter. Rev. T. E. 
FLOWER STAND OR TABLE. 
A description of this, which I have had in use for 
the last four years, may interest some of your read¬ 
ers. It has a pillar and claw about one foot ten 
