March 14, 1908. 
THB QARDBNJNQ WORLD. 
187 
porcipg Potatos in Pots. 
Vagrant Thoughts 
on Spring. 
By PETER PENN. 
Now, Winter on his ice-bound car 
Is rattling north, o er crag and scar; 
The thrush and blackbird cheery sing, 
Blowing the bugle note of Spring- 
Saving, “Coming! Coming! Coming! 
The bpring is coming, man, to thee! ” 
February fill-dyke well sustained its 
role of the morose and the lachrymose, 
and in its latter days added to its dripping 
laurels by treating us to the heaviest 
drenching of the winter. Then, as though 
in emulation of its boisterous successor, 
it provided a gale of cyclonic and destruc¬ 
tive impetuosity, finally taking its exit in 
quite dramatic fashion amid rain storms, 
blizzards, and pyrotechnic displays which 
made everybody uncomfortable, set the 
timid Snowdrops and other imprudent 
firstlings of the infant year cowering in 
their sodden retreats', and the too pre¬ 
vious little songsters shivering in their 
feathers. I don’t imagine anybody is 
sorry February has gone, though I sup¬ 
pose the admonition conveyed in the pro¬ 
phetic distich, like a certain date in 
November, “should not be forgot.” 
“All the months in the year 
Curse a fair Februeer,” 
says the sage couplet, and that being so, 
February ought to be embarrassed with 
benedictions. In behaving badly she has 
done well. 
HOW TO OBTAIN 
EARLY HOMEGROWN TUBERS. 
Forcing Potatos in pots is one of the 
iinplest methods of obtaining a few early 
tome-grown tubers, three good varieties 
hat lend themselves to forcing being 
Sharpe's Victor, Sutton’s May Queen, and 
■lyatt’s Ashleaf. Seed Potatos for grow- 
ng in pots must be carefully selected, 
diole, medium-sized tubers being the 
test, and these must be placed on end, 
>road end upwards, in a shallow box hav- 
ng the bottom covered with leaf-soil and 
ie stood in gentle warmth on a ereen- 
louse shelf exposed to the light as much 
1 s possible, to induce them to sprout be¬ 
fore they-are planted. Potatos with only 
>ne or two sprouts or shoots are the best 
or the purpose in question, and all 
prouts with the exception of one or two 
f the strongest should be rubbed- out, 
.nd as soon as the retained shoots are 
bout three-quarters of an inch in length 
•he tubers may be planted. 
Ten and twelve-inch pots are suitable, 
he former being large enough to take two 
ubers and the latter three. The pots 
aust he well drained with broken crocks 
=nd rough compost siftings, and the soil, 
diich should be of a loamy nature, have 
ome old hotbed manure and road scrap- 
Qgs mixed with it. The soil should be 
•laced in the greenhouse for a few days 
iefore required-for planting, in order that 
ts temperature may be the same as that 
n which the tubers have been sprouted. 
Tie seed must be planted so that the 
shoots are about three-quarters of an inch 
below the surface of the soil, and those in 
the large pots are best planted low down, 
so that the surface of the soil is some 
three inches below the pot rim, this pro¬ 
viding space for top-dressing or earthing- 
up when the plants require it. 
A temperature of 55 degrees will be suit¬ 
able and quickly cause growth to make 
its appearance above the surface, after 
which the plants should be liberally sup¬ 
plied with tepid water, to keep them grow¬ 
ing nicely. As soon as they are of suffi¬ 
cient size a top-dressing or earthing-up 
of rich soil should be given. The large 
pots should be filled to within an inch of 
the rims, whilst the smaller pots will re¬ 
quire a zinc collar fitting to each rim, as 
shown in the sketch, to provide space for 
the top-dressing. After the plants have 
been earthed-up, weak liquid manure 
may be given twice a week until the 
haulms commence to turn- yellow, when 
stimulants must cease and also water be 
gradually withheld, and in a short time 
the •‘ubers will be ready for use. 
- ORTUS. 
-—+++ - 
B.Iue Tits and Fruit Trees. 
Blue tits are very largely vegetable 
feeders and great destroyers of fruit, es¬ 
pecially Pears. A habit of theirs is to 
peck holes in Pears near the stalk, which 
lets in the rain, wasps, etc., and finally 
rots and destroys the fruit; 
Nature's ways are very often grim and 
often very relentless. In the unbringing 
of her gentle progeny, the flowers,she does 
not spare the chastening. Days of fitful 
sunshine now alternate with lashings of 
icy blasts, with deadly frost grips, and 
pitiless, numbing torrents. Qreat is the 
slaughter among the innocents that the 
harvest of blooms may be forthcoming in 
their greatest perfection. The law of the 
survival of the fittest is as inexorable in 
the vegetable kingdom as elsewhere, and 
the graceful, delicately-fashioned blos¬ 
soms that deck field and garden often 
come, like most things of worth, out of 
great tribulation. 
And now, as W. C. Bryant sang years 
ago, 
The stormy March is come at last, 
With wind and clouds and changing 
, skies; 
I hear the rushing of the blast 
That through the snowy valley flies. 
This is not merely poetry, but in some 
respects a true prediction in so far as the 
present year of grace is concerned. 
March has brought us more snow and 
more rain, but it is time to cry “Halt! ” 
to these. For March, too, has its own 
special duties to fulfil in the economy 
of things, and it is to be hoped it will not 
belie its blustering reputation. At the 
moment of writing “the maniac winds” 
with which she is usually credited have 
not “gone bellowing by.” The world 
needs badly drying, and the sooner the 
surplus of moisture is driven from the soil 
and we get some of that dust, which every 
self-respecting March ought to provide, 
