268 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 1, 1905 
Potato Sutton’s Centenary. 
In dealing with the value of a Potato we feel more confidence 
in recommending the merits of those which have been estab¬ 
lished for a few years rather than those which are absolutely 
new, or which have been grown for so many years that they 
are beginning to deteriorate. The first time that Centenary 
came under our notice was on September 11th, 1900, when it 
was brought before the Fruit and Vegetable Committee of the 
Royal Horticultural Society by Messrs. Sutton and Sons, Read¬ 
ing, by whose courtesy we are able to reproduce a figure of it. 
On that occasion it was accorded an Award of Merit. The 
variety appeals to us from its excellent appearance and good 
cropping qualities. 
It may be described as a shortly pebble-shaped Potato, but 
sometimes nearly round. The skin is white and rather lough, 
which we used to consider the sign of a good quality Potato. 
This rule may not always hold good, but it has been associated 
with wood quality in many varieties coming under our notice 
for many years past. Its general features and characteristics 
may be explained by the fact that it was the result 
of a cross between Early Regent and Magnum Bonum, 
the former being a round, white Potato, and the latter, 
as is well known, a white kidney of great repute, which was 
sent out by Messrs. Sutton and Sons as a heavy cropping 
Potato, disease-resisting and of excellent quality. For these 
reasons our employer at that time secured it for planting in 
the fields in order to keep up a succession to those grown in the 
garden. The soil being heavy, it was calculated that Magnum 
Bonum would succeed better in the fields than any other kidney 
then grown, and we had several of the best of them. 
Having said as much, it will readily be granted that both 
parents of Centenary were of great repute in their day, and 
even now are to a certain extent cultivated and appreciated 
for their excellent qualities. The new variety has shallow eyes, 
and the tubers generally are of such good shape that it makes a 
useful Potato for exhibition purposes. While it crops heavily, 
the tubers are all of fairly even and average size, and if grown 
under ordinarily good cultivation, the tubers are of a useful 
size for table purposes. 
We have never been an admirer of very large Potato®, ex¬ 
cept for the feeding of horses and cattle. A Potato that 
requires cutting in order to boil it. properly loses greatly in 
flavour in the process, no matter how honest and earnest the 
cook is to serve the article properly for the table. The flesh is 
white and the table quality excellent, while at the same time 
the variety crops heavily in soils of fairly average quality. It 
is a second early variety. 
Comments on Current Topics. 
The Ceriman Fruit (page 87).—Yes, it will bear fruit in¬ 
definitely, but I fear it will not ship well. To pick it green 
as we do Bananas, and let it ripen after being picked and 
shipped, destroys its flavour, and it would shed its outer coat. 
In fact, while it is a most highly flavoured fruit, I cannot hope 
much for its popularity, except where it is grown. Although 
hardy, vigorous and quite at home in warm, moist parts of the 
West Indies, it is not at all plentiful there, and all the plants 
I saw were cultivated. 
Street Trees for Smoky Cities (page 94).—I do not know 
that you have a smokier town in all Great Britain than this 
dear old Pittsburg, and as I have planted thousands upon 
thousands of trees in this industrial city, let me tell you some¬ 
thing about them : 
The Ailanthus thrives in the blackest parts of town where 
no other tree will live, and in the worst conditions as regards 
soil, but no one plants it where other trees will exist. Our 
folks hate the smell of the male flowers when they are in 
bloom. Next comes the common Locust, It is all right in 
a young state, but a prey to stem-borers and leaf-miners when 
it grows older, and it is never a handsome tree with us; it 
and its several varieties behave far better with you. I have 
covered naked hillsides with it down to the mouths of coke 
ovens and reekihg railway yards, and high, almost perpen¬ 
dicular, slopes of rock and clay and gravel or shale, setting the 
young trees 3 ft. to 6 ft. apart, and they have clothed the 
nakedness as with a solid mass of bushes. For this purpose I 
used two-year-old seedlings cut back to 3 in. to 4 in. of the 
ground, and planted in spring, driving a hole into the ground 
with a pick or crowbar and tamping the plant with the heel. 
If planted ih autumn, the frost will heave the roots altogether 
or partly out of the ground. 
The Carolina Poplar is very largely planted here as a street 
tree because of its very rapid growth, and it will thrive almost 
anywhere. But it is a dirty tree, short lived, a prey to borers 
and leaf caterpillars, and as the trees advance a few years the 
leaves begin to drop in July and keep on dropping until all 
are shed in November. Hence we never recommend this 
Poplar. 
The Oriental Plane—your London Plane is a variety of it—^ 
is, all told, our best street tree in smoky parts. If given good 
ground to begin with, it is fast growing, and it keeps its leaves 
well into late autumn, and it is clean. As it gets old, however, 
it is not so pretty, and the exfoliation of the bark is distasteful 
to many people. Our own American Plane (Platanus occi- 
[Copyright Sutton and Sons- 
Potato Sutton’s Centenary. 
dentalis) is not at all so good a tree as is the Oriental; it 
suffers very much from a serious leaf disease ih May and 
June; in fact, about the 1st of July the American Plane here¬ 
abouts is the ugliest tree out of doors. 
The soft or silver Maple (Acer dasycarpum), here often 
called Water Maple, if given good soil and moisture, grows 
fine along our streets in smoky parts, but as it advances in 
growth its main branches should be shortened back, otherwise 
they keep on growihg out lank, long and over-heavy, and then 
are very apt to get broken by wind storms. 
The Norway Maple also grows well in smoky parts, but it 
is a little slow in starting. It needs good soil and moisture. 
In a comparatively young state it is a pretty tree, and it keeps 
its leaves until late in autumn, but old trees are a little too fai- 
spreading and bunchy at the top to be pretty. 
While all the other Maples grow in our suburbs, the Norway 
and the Silver are the only ones fitted for the smoky streets 
near our foundries and factories. And the Sugar Maple, which 
is perfection among street trees and indigenous in our woods 
here, hates smoke. 
The Sycamore Maple your correspondent refers to behaves 
admirably in half-smoky places, but along our black, smoky 
streets it is unhappy. In cultivation, old trees of it have given 
me a good deal of bother with the myriads of little seedlings 
that come up under it year after year. Still, it is a pretty 
tree. . , 
The Linden trees (Tilia) are very unhappy in dense smoke, 
but out a little way they behave • very well. Our American 
