THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, November 25, 1856. 181 
“ crumbs” answers the purpose, equally with the earth which 
is thrown out, of forming a permeable medium for the roots 
of the fruit-trees or vegetables that are to grow in it. 
At this season of the year - , with short, foggy, and cloudy 
days, and the vicissitudes of the external atmosphere being 
frequently very sudden, it is necessary to be careful that 
plants in greenhouses, &c., do not suffer so much from damp 
as to fog off, nor from fire-heat, to be excited into premature 
growth, which will also increase the difficulty of preserving 
them through the winter. The general object should be to 
retain them in a dormant state, and beat and water to be 
applied as moderately as possible, merely to keep the plants 
from flagging and frosts. But with plants as with animals, 
that the system may not be reduced to a point from which 
it may be doubtful if they would have sufficient stamina to 
rally, occasional fires in the day will be useful during dull, 
damp, or rainy weather. 
Plants in cold, pits that have been excluded from light and 
change of air during frost, though but for a few days, must 
not be too suddenly exposed either to cold northerly winds 
or the direct rays of the sun, but should be very gradually 
inured to the admission of light and air. A free admission 
of air, when the weather is favourable, will be advantageous; 
at the same time care should be taken to prevent, as much 
as possible, strong currents of dry or cold winds from pass¬ 
ing through the houses or pits, as they are very injurious to 
vegetation. 
Camellias, Heaths, Epacrises, &c., now swelling their 
flower-buds, will require a more liberal supply of water. 
As a great deal of rubbish accumulates about the gardens 
at this season, such as the stems of Hollyhocks, Dahlias, 
Phloxes, old Pea-sticks, and prunings of fruit-trees and 
shrubs, it is a good plan to collect them into a heap to he 
charred. By such means they become a more excellent 
manure for horticultural purposes than is generally appre¬ 
ciated. Let the larger pieces be broken small, and be mixed 
with the soil for pot-plants, and the ashes to be used in the 
drills or beds when vegetable seeds are sown. Whoeverhas 
seen and inquired the method adopted by charcoal burners 
will be at no loss how to act. The great object in charring 
is to produce heat without flame. For that purpose the 
heap or stack should be piled with a few small faggots, 
mixed with straw' or shavings in the centre, and then the 
most combustible portion of the materials next to them, 
and the greenest or most gross part of the rubbish out¬ 
side, the whole to be covered with earth or green turves, 
with an opening or chimney in the centre, where the pile 
or heap is ignited. When properly set a-going, the opening 
on the top to be gradually stopped as fresh holes are made 
lower down, which are also to be stopped by degrees until 
they ultimately reach the bottom, when the whole are to be 
closed, and carefully watched to exclude air, and an ad¬ 
ditional covering put on where there is any appearance or 
danger of smoke or flame breaking through; a few days 
more and the charring process is finished. 
Protection is indispensably necessary for all such plants 
and vegetables as are susceptible of injury from frosts, 
that may now, after the late forewarnings of their severe 
approach, be expected to visit us with greater severity 
before Christmas. All stores of Potatoes, Carrots, Beet, 
and other such roots, should be examined, and any defective 
ones removed. Cover the stores merely sufficiently to exclude 
"frost without fear of generating heat in the mass to excite 
growth, or to produce putrefaction. When Rhododendrons, 
Azaleas, and other such showy American plants, are growing 
either singly or in masses, and exhibit any indications of 
having exhausted the soil, they should be supplied with a 
top-dressing, three or four inches thick, of leaf-mould, rotten 
dung, or, which is best, cow-dung, to give vigour to the 
plants for flowering. It will also prevent rapid evaporation 
in summer, and will keep the ground cool and moist, which 
is essential to the successful management of this beautiful 
tribe of plants. 
All vacant pieces of ground should be deeply dug or 
trenched, leaving the surface in ridges, or as rough as 
possible, and all composts, soils, and manures frequently 
turned, to expose them to the pulverizing and grub-destroying 
influences of frosts and thaws.—W illiam; Keane. 
THE POTATO MURRAIN. 
A good deal has been said, at different times, touching 
the Potato disease; yet, from all that has been said, very 
little has been ascertained respecting its immediate cause, 
so far as to enable us to apply any remedy or preventive of a 
permanent kind. Still, like many other diseases, if we can¬ 
not altogether prevent it, we have the power to remove some 
of the causes that help to produce it, or to reduce it to a 
milder form when it is produced. I believe that that im¬ 
provement must be effected chiefly in the management of 
the ground that Potatoes are planted in, and by planting 
the sorts that will suit the locality. 
From what I have observed at different times, let the 
season be what it will, I have always found the crop to be 
good where the ground was naturally or artificially made 
dry, but not shaded. In the year 1850 I found the roots 
near to Black Currant bushes were sound, and free from 
disease; but not so under Apple and Medlar-trees of low 
growth, though equally dry ; also in a bed that had been dug 
deep the previous year, and had been planted with Cab¬ 
bages. 
In the spring of that year a man in the neighbourhood 
caught a mole uninjured; I gave him threepence for it, and 
turned it into the garden. I was called a fool for my pains. 
This mole made runs under every row in the above bed, and 
this bed was more productive than those other adjoining beds 
of the same size. This mole also completely tunnelled a bed 
of Cabbage-plants that stood the winter, and that was the 
earliest and best bed of Cabbages ever remembered in that 
garden, even by men who had lived on the premises for 
forty years. 
Before the introduction of the mole the garden was very 
much infested with the surface-grub mentioned by Mr. 
Robson the other day; but the mole very soon cleared them 
away, and we had but few plants eaten off after that time 
during our stay there. But this is apart from my purpose. 
I believe most people will admit that deep digging is 
advantageous to insure a crop of Potatoes, as is, also, early 
planting. And so say I; but not so early as to be cut off 
with the frost before the middle of May. I believe it is an 
advantage, in the generality of seasons, to get them ripe 
before the days begin to shorten, or the nights get cold, as 
the earth and vegetation will take more moisture, conse¬ 
quently they will be kept dryer; but, at the same time, I am 
of opinion that, be the time of planting whatever it may, if 
a quantity of rain falls at a certain age of their growth, the 
Potatoes are sure to be diseased ; and, from my own obser¬ 
vation, I conclude that that age is from the time they are 
from about half-grown to full-grown; for I well remember, in 
the year 1853, July was a wet month, and the Potatoes gene¬ 
rally were very bad. 
A neighbour of ours planted as we did some ship Pota¬ 
toes. We planted in March, and although we had a good 
crop in size and quantity, the Potatoes were very badly 
diseased. Our neighbour could not plant till the end of 
May, having a crop of Broccoli on the ground; and although 
his Potatoes were affected in the top at the time ours were, 
only not so much, yet the dry weather revived them again, 
and he dug a most excellent crop both in quantity and 
quality. 
Also, there was a farmer in the neighbourhood who was 
generally “mowing when other people were busy sowing,” 
had about two acres of Potatoes planted at about the same 
time, and they were only a few inches high, and were being 
earthed up at the wet time. People in the neighbourhood 
said, were they theirs they would plough them up and sow 
Turnips, and, had he been more thrifty, probably he would 
have done so; but he had a better crop than his neighbours. 
In the year 1852 the portion I rented was partly a wheat 
stubble, and partly where Swedes had been fed off by sheep. 
The farmer favoured me by letting me have a part of the 
latter. The ground generally was poor, high, and dry—very 
shallow on the Bath White. Now, the part that had the 
Swedes on yielded Potatoes larger and more in number, 
but much more diseased than on the other part. I attri¬ 
buted it to the treading of the ground by the sheep; for, 
on a part where the Swedes had been carted home and 
not trodden, the Potatoes were very much better than on 
either of the other parts. 
