Oct. 4th, 1884. 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
73 
would term “ hobbys ” or “ fads,” Mr. Fenn began 
earliest to experiment with: House-sewage, and its 
profitable use, especially in association with earth 
closets ; with the manufacture of garden fruits into 
home-made wines, of which he was one of the chief 
experts of the day; with the manipulation of the 
busy Bee, that industrious and profitable adjunct to 
gardens ; or with his most famous of all experimental 
subjects, the Potato. In all these matters Mr. Fenn 
has done good and useful service, and not letting his 
light be hid under a bushel, has told again and again 
in the columns of older contemporaries, what he had 
done for the edification of others who might care to 
tread in his footsteps. 
But our present purpose is to sketch shortly Mr. 
Fenn’s Potato career, especially as a raiser, and to that 
end we have to go back to days when the best known 
of kinds were the Early Shaw, Ashleaf, and Cambridge 
to home-raised kinds, so that the outlook for an 
earnest raiser was not encouraging. 
Always favouring beauty and quality in preference 
to mere size, Mr. Fenn had discarded not a few fine 
field sorts that, though big croppers, seemed to his 
refined taste too coarse. It was, therefore, with much 
natural disgust, that he saw the public taste running 
rampant after kinds akin to those he had thrown 
away, simply because they were expensive and 
immensely productive. Presently International Kidney, 
a splendid kind, probably the finest and handsomest 
kidney ever raised, and certainly not behind the fancied 
Americans in quality, and Woodstock Kidney, brother 
to the previous one, and a Potato of sterling worth 
and beauty, both raised from the old Dawes’ Matchless, 
were put into commerce to become famous throughout 
the kingdom, and then Mr. Fenn fairly took the bull 
by the horns, and using some of the Americans as 
trial, to be condemned ; how, after years of testing, the 
hundred sorts have to be cut down to a dozen, and how 
much of patience and labour has been exhausted in 
those years of trial, pen fails to describe. Truly, the 
chief reward for the earnest worker in this path is 
found in the gratification of his love for his children 
and in little else. 
Mr. Fenn has, we learn, in contemplation the raising 
of a batch of seedlings by intercrossing with some new 
or original species recommended for disease-resisting, 
properties. That will be, we fear, a thorny path to 
travel, and full of rocks and pitfalls. In spite of all 
that enthusiastic botanists may say, we fear the game 
is not worth the candle, but if our good friend in his now 
pleasant and truly rural home at Sulhampstead, near 
the busy town of Reading, thinks he can find pleasure 
and interest to do so in his declining years, we can 
but wish him success in his efforts, whilst looking to 
Kidneys, Regents, Lapstones, and a few others. With 
some of these cross-fertilization was commenced in 
the old Rectory Garden at Woodstock, the seed pro¬ 
duce being raised with exceeding care under glass, and 
treated almost as exotics. From out of these seedlings 
again intercrossed with other old kinds, came even¬ 
tually Onwards, Rector of Woodstock, Early Market, 
Bedfont Prolific, Bountiful, Early White Kidney, and 
some other kinds, most of which in their day made 
excellent reputations. All these kinds were of first- 
rate table quality, a feature Mr. Fenn has always 
specially laboured to secure, fairly good croppers, and 
having tubers of average size. Several trying disease- 
seasons, however, tested these kinds severely, and just 
then the introduction of many attractive and most 
prolific American sorts into our markets, led the 
public to favour these novelties largely in preference 
parents, intercrossed them with certain of his own 
best kinds, and thus began his Anglo-American race, 
of which not a few of the members rank amongst 
the finest and best Potatos of the day. Reading 
Russet, a beautiful red-round, Prizetaker, hand¬ 
somest of red kidneys, and both of splendid table 
quality ; Lady Truscott, Early Regent, Fifty-fold, Early 
Border, with some few others, are kinds familiar in 
the mouths of Potato-growers as household words, 
and not a few more are to follow. 
In the years spent in raising these kinds, much that 
was deterring and disappointing had to be overcome. 
Though really valuable benefactors to the human 
family, we doubt whether the labours of any such 
bring less profitable results than do the labours of 
Potato raisers. How many of the promising kinds 
grov r n from the first have, after three or four years’ 
the results with scepticism. For the last few years 
Potatos have been so good and so abundant, that the 
phrase “ disease-resisting ” as applied to any one 
kind, seems to be a misnomer. Potatos even now are 
cheap and plentiful beyond our highest hopes, and 
therefore new disease-resisting kinds, even if the 
product of some Mexican species of very questionable 
edible quality, will probably be long at a discount. 
Potatos in many kinds and colours are now being fast 
put into commerce. The work Mr. Fenn so nobly 
began has been taken up by many others, the mantle 
of the seer of Woodstock has fallen upon many 
shoulders, and we have now finer and better kinds 
of our own raising than can be found in all the world 
besides. All honour to the subject of our notice, and 
may he long be spared to his family, and numerous 
friends and disciples. 
