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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, February 1, 1859. 
cottager in this neighbourhood (Ashford) has for the last twenty- 
tivo years gone upon the plan of using no manure at all to his 
Potato crops, and yet he tells me that he has always had fine 
crops, and never once has had the disease amongst them. He 
is noted for his Potatoes. He contends that the poorer the soil 
the better the Potato ; this, however, I confess, I do not under¬ 
stand. We havo been in the habit of growing our Potatoes on 
a good loamy soil, and have generally had the disease among 
them, more or less. Last year, we put no manure on the land, 
but in lieu of it a quantity of sand : the crop that came off the 
land thus treated was very fine in size, and excellent in quantity 
nnd quality : the Potatoes were beautifully mealy and free from 
disease, and we never had so large a crop before. 
In 1857, at the time of sowing our Potatoes, we tried all sorts 
of experiments. We put into the ground with them sulphur, 
charcoal, and lime, separately and in combination, but to no 
good purpose—the crop was all equally indifferent. I strongly 
recommend a trial of the plan we adopted last year, in any but a 
light soil. I feel sure no one will be disappointed. 
If the Potato, however, be badly cooked, it matters little 
whether the soil is rich or poor; whether you do or do not use 
sand; unless, indeed, the Potato is very first-rate, which nowa¬ 
days is seldom the case. Here is a receipt for cooking Potatoes, 
which was suggested to me by an observant neighbour of mine, 
and by which an inferior Potato may be rendered mealy. 
Pick out your Potatoes, so that the quantity you intend for 
dinner shall be as near of the same size as possible, and put into 
the pot with them sufficient water only to reach half, or a third 
of the way up them : they should never be covered with water. 
This is a most invaluable, although such a very simple receipt. I 
have had a square pot made for the Potatoes ; for a round pot, 
since they must not bo piled one over the other, would not 
hold sufficient for any number of persons. In boiling Potatoes 
for his pigs, which my informant did in a large copper boiler, he 
had observed that those uppermost, and partially out of the 
water, however small they might be, were invariably cracked and 
mealy, while those below were waxy.—C. P. C. 
TOADS LIVING WITHOUT AIR—GROWTH OF 
FLINT STONES. 
In a former paper on toads, I alluded to the fact of their being 
found alive in the hearts of trees, and even entombed in stones, 
and hinted that in such cases there might be some Binall fissures 
which admitted air. Since then, I have tried the following ex¬ 
periments on some of these harmless reptiles ; and, though they 
were not entirely satisfactory, they went some way in favour of 
my opinion. 
First, I put a toad into each of three small {lower-pots, covered 
over with clay, and over that a thick coat of cement. One of 
them had no air passage; another a small one, which I gradually 
reduced during two days, and then sealed up; and the next had an 
air pipe. After the toads had been buried a week, about two 
feet in the ground, I found the first one, that had been sealed up 
at first, dead, and the other two alive. This interment tended 
to show that toads die when they are suddenly deprived of air. 
Therefore, I put six others to a more severe trial. I about half- 
filled six small flower-pots with soft clay, on which I made an 
impression of a large toad in each one to hold its prisoner, and 
covered them all over with a much thicker coat of cement. Three 
of them were covered up at once, two gradually, and the remain¬ 
ing one had air from a pipe above ground, while the six toads in 
the pots were under it a full month. When dug up, four of the 
pots contained the remains of dead toads : the toads in the other 
two were alive. One of these had the air-pipe; the other hap¬ 
pened to be a small one, and, of course, he had more room than 
his dead companions. I should observe, that these were not in¬ 
jured from pressure, for they were defended with pieces of pots, 
under which they seemed easy until I began to shut them up 
about the middle of November. 
What I have stated is not favourable to the common belief of 
toads living for centuries in air-tight cavities. For instance, in 
the Literary Gazette, I read an account, said to be perfectly well 
authenticated, of a largo toad found in a round flint stone, which 
was broken, and the toad came out. He was in a hollow exactly 
the size of his body. It occurred at Blois, in France. The flint 
weighed fourteen pounds, and was found a yard deep, on digging 
a well. The French Academy of Scienco had the stone brought 
before them, with the toad in it. They pronounced it an au¬ 
thentic case, but did not attempt to explain it. This happened 
in 1851. 
For the sake of further inquiries into such interesting cases, I 
offer the following opinion concerning this French one. Perhaps 
the impression of the toad was made in the stone many centuries 
back: its body in the chalk was a nucleus for the silex to adhere 
to; in fact, if was the beginning, or the cause, of the growth of a 
flint stone. When this was broken, there happened to bo a live 
toad under it; consequently, tire workmen believed that it came 
out of the stone, especially as the toad fitted the impression. 
I need hardly observe, that this is contrary to the belief of 
those who examined the stone. It seems difficult, however, to 
decide on which side the truth is. But the fact of the impression 
of the toad in it tends to show that flint was formed in the chalk 
above the level of the sea; whereas it is generally considered 
that marine animals had been the nucleus of flint stones—such 
as sponges, echinidce, or sea hedgehog, &c. Perhaps the remains 
of these retained their crystallising power in the top of the lime 
deposits of the sea, while those below, being of a much earlier 
period, lost it. There being few or no flint stones at the bottom 
of chalk pits, favours this theory.— J. Wighton. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Portable Hothouses (A Subscriber). —We forwarded your note to Mr. 
Beaton. Glazing on the rafter has been long practised. 
Cyclamen vernum (J. F. A.).— If the flowers of this Cyclamen are all 
purple, with a deeper-coloured eye, there can be no question about its 
being the true and veritable Cyclamen vernum. The leaf is the samo, in 
looks, as that of several seedling Persicums in our collection. The flowers of 
vernum being also very different in shape from those of Persieum, out- 
correspondent (J. F. A.) would not confound the two, even if he had a 
purplish, early-blooming Persieum. Mr. Beaton will be very glad to have 
this Cyclamen for the Experimental; also, the plant which looks like the 
Cossack Grass, and which he believes is not in cultivation. It is far wide 
of being a grass, however. Can anyone tell the name of the “ Spanish 
Grass,” which is so much used instead of wire, in making bouquets in 
Paris ? 
Dwarf Rocket (Rusticus). —The dwarf Rocket does not come from 
seeds, and the way to keep it, is, to renew it every year by cuttings. It is 
a most difficult plant to do well when the soil does not suit it. We have 
had it doing as freely as a w-eed, and, keeping- a few plants from flowering, 
we could divide them, in spring or autumn, and depend upon them ; andin 
another part of the country we were most completely beaten by it; for do 
it how we would, it would not do; and we have not seen a plant of it in 
bloom for the last ten years, and then it was at the Piue Apple Nursery, 
Edgeware Road, London. Perhaps Mr. Arthur Henderson knows more 
about it than all the gardeners put together. Just try him, and go by what 
he says. 
Name op Orchid (E. M'-Morland). —It is Odontoglossum Pictonensc. 
Liquid Manure {Kate).— Sheep’s dung collected now, and kept cool as 
well as dry, may be preserved a long time without losing its strength. Twelve 
hours is time enough for it to remain steeping in water, for forming liquid 
manure for your pot plants. Put a pound of it into two gallons, stir fre¬ 
quently, let it settle, then strain, and us« it without any further addition. 
Two moderately-sized plants of Dielytra spectabilis are enough for your 
No. 2 pots. We have only one plant in the same-sized pots, but they are 
old plants. Put them under cover, and keep them there until in a state of 
growth fit for the outside of your drawing-room window. We hope this 
is sheltered, otherwise high winds will break the plants. 
Laurel-destroying Grubs. —We believe that the small grubs which 
cat the alburnum in circles round the branches of the common Laurel, 
and so kill them, are tile caterpillars of the pretty little moth, Dasycera 
((Ecophora , of Latr.), Oliviella or Sulphur ell a, the Yellow Under-winged 
Tinea, which appears in the perfect state in the spring.—J. O. W. 
Churn [J. S. L.). —We can recommend Anthony's Churn. It is sold by 
Messrs. Burgess and Key, Newgate Street. 
Liquid Manure Barrow ( A Constant Subscriber). — You will And an 
engraving of one in our Number 422. It is made by Messrs. Gidnc-y, of East 
Dereham. As you are in Ireland, you cannot employ a more able chemist 
than Professor Apjolin, Trinity College, Dublin. Sulphuric acid is the best 
fixer of ammonia you can use for manure, liquid or solid. 
Liquid Manure Tank [A Country Pumpkin).—We have a circular well, 
four feet in diameter, and'.sixteen feet deep. Its sides are formed of bricks, 
set in cement; a coating of cement also faces the bricks inside, and clay 
was puddled down behind them as the well was built. The bottom was 
similarly constructed. It is quite water-tight. 
Pomegranate Blossom (An Old Subscriber). —The Pomegranate, like 
the Loquat of China, is one of those fruits which deteriorates so much by 
hothouse, or orchard-house cultivation, that it will not pay for its keep, 
and our climate is not sufficiently warm for it to ripen on a south wall. 
Therefore, the Pomegranate is only valued here for its scarlet flowers, and 
to be grown like Myrtle trees, to stand out about terrace gardens in 
summer, and to be put out of sight during the winter. The same treat¬ 
ment as a standard, or bush, Rose would need in a pot, will suit the Pome¬ 
granate in all respects. It blooms thus in the south of England, as well as 
it does around Paris. 
Walnut-shell Dye (C. Z.). —We have been making many inquiries 
about this, but can obtain no satisfactory infoimation for you. Weave 
