- 5 6 
THE 
GARDENING WORLD . 
April ii, 1908. 
The Best Potatos and 
How to Grow them. 
In order to grow good crops of Potatos 
of good quality the ground should'be well 
trenched in the autumn and some good 
stable manure thoroughly worked in ; no 
slipshod, haphazard way will do. Leave 
the ground as rough as possible for the 
wind and frost to pulverise it. The best 
soil is a good friable loam. Everyone 
has not got this, so make the best of what 
you have. In January or February give 
a good dressing of soot; nothing else will 
be required until planting time. The 
preparation of the sets is of the greatest 
importance ; the sets should be kept in a 
cool, airy place, .free from frost. They 
should be placed in boxes, eye end up¬ 
wards, to promote strong, sturdy sprouts. 
As soon as the sprouts begin to grow, go 
over them and remove all the sprouts 
except the two central ones, as they pro¬ 
duce by far the best crops and also the 
best shaped tubers, and when planting 
time comes you will have sets with two 
strong sprouts only. The last week in 
March, or early in April, is the best time 
for planting, if the weather is favourable 
and the land is in good working order. 
Never plant in wet ground. Begin by 
taking out a trench 5 or 6 in. deep and 
2 ft. apart for early varieties, and give a 
dusting of wood ashes and superphosphate 
of lime; also a good dressing of soot. 
Plant 12 . or 15 in. apart for early varie¬ 
ties ; draw the soil into the drill and 
make level. For second earlies make the 
drills 30 in. apart and plant the sets 
15 to 18 in. apart in the drills. Late or 
main crop varieties should be 3 ft. apart 
and 18 to 24m. apart in the drills. After 
the shaws make their appearance they 
should be flat hoed between the rows, to 
keep down weeds, and before earthing up 
give a little dressing of nitrate of soda, 
keeping it off the plants and drawing the 
sod carefully up to the plants. 
Bv spraying twice during the growing 
season—say. in June and aga ; n in August 
—with Bordeaux mixture, they can be 
pro‘ected from disease. If wanted for 
showing, dig a few davs before the show 
to ~et the skin hardened. Wrap them up 
as soon as lifted in soft naner, to keep 
them airtight. Choose tubers nearly all 
the same size as possible, even shape, 
with clear skins and perfect in every way. 
If thev are kept in dry sand they will re¬ 
tain the : r freshness and beauty. 
The best ea.rlv varieties are Midlothian 
Early, Duke of York, Sir John Llewelyn 
and Ninetvfold. Second earlies : — Cigar¬ 
ette. Windsor Castle and Snowdrop. Late 
or main crop :—Up-to-date, Duchess of 
Cornwall, Superlative, Table-talk, The 
Warrior and The Factor. The last-named 
is the best Potato ever placed in the hands 
of the British horticulturist. 
W. West. 
Bradford. 
-- 
Crocus biflorus Weldeni. 
Besides the large varieties of Cloth of 
Silver Crocus there are several small 
flowered varieties which are very distinct 
in their wav. The above is one pf them, 
and has white flowers with yellow anthers 
and orange stigmas, 
Garnations. 
C 
A GOOD DISPLAY. 
To those lovers of these beautiful and 
fragrant flowers, whose pockets will not 
allow of an expensive collection of named 
varieties, the following hints may be of 
service. 
When we speak of Carnations from seed 
we think of the many single flowers we 
have noticed in our batch, which perha.ps 
may have spoilt us for a further trial. 
Now, from a reliable strain this is not 
the case at all. Often have I had a good 
batch of seedlings with only two or three 
single varieties among them. The strain 
I would recommend is Sutton’s Vanguard. 
Procure a packet of seed now and sow in 
pans in a mixture of loam, leaf mould, 
and sand. Sow the seed thinly and cover 
with tine sifted soil with a sprinkling of 
sand on top, and then cover with a sheet 
of glass and place in heat. When the 
seedlings appear, care should be taken in 
the watering, or damping will be the re¬ 
sult. When large enough to handle, lift 
them with a wooden label with as much 
soil as possible, and pot them off singly in 
small pots, say, 60s. Place them on a 
shelf close to the glass, and when the 
roots have got well hold of the soil, feed 
them with liquid manure about twice a 
week, taking care not to give it too 
strong. Soot water -is an excellent thing. 
Gradually harden them off and plant out 
in the open ground in rows about 18 in. 
apart and 2 ft. from row to row. Now 
comes the most interesting part, watching 
for each plant to show a bloom. The col¬ 
ours are most striking, and each plant 
will carry scores of blooms all through 
the season until cut off by frost. This 
useful strain of Carnations can be grown 
to flower through the winter, by carefully 
lifting a few of the best plants and pot¬ 
ting them up, keeping them in the shade 
for a few days in a cool greenhouse and 
afterwards giving them a good light place 
on the stage. They may be lifted when 
in bloom and will not suffer in the least 
if the trowel or spade be pushed well 
down all round before raising them from 
the soil. I always make it a rule to go 
round the plants in August and pull off 
a few side shoots from each of the best 
and put these in as cuttings. Do not cut 
these shoots from the parent plant, but 
break them off with the finger and thumb, 
pushing them downwards; then take off 
the lower leaves with a sharp knife and 
make a slit up the cutting about half-an- 
inch. When all the cuttings have been 
treated in this manner, dip the slit ends 
in water and then into silver sand; the 
sand will stick to the end of the cutting 
and some of it will work into the slit. 
Dibble them into a box of sandy soil and 
place in a cool frame for the winter. 
Nearly everyone will strike if treated in 
the manner described. 
J. Smith. 
-- 
“ Garden Cities and Town Planting.” 
The name of the monthy magazine 
issued by the authorities of the First Gar¬ 
den City has now been changed as above. 
This indicates that its attention will not 
be confined to Letchwonb, but is to take 
notes of other garden cities in variou; 
parts of the country and to give' special 
attention to town planting. The first 
garden city at Letchwortii has given a! 
good example of how to set about towr 
planting, inasmuch as something like 
thirty streets have been laid out and 
planted with an equal number of kind; 
of tree, each street being planted with one 
species or variety of tree. 
The Midland Daffodil Society. 
The ninth annual report of this society 
for last year is now on our table, and 
also contains the schedule of prizes' and 
rules for 1908. The statement of account; 
for 1907 shows that the society is in a 
very prosperous condition, there being 
^85 gs. 8d. balance in the hands of the 
treasurer to the next account. Like the 
Carnation and some other societies, thi; 
society prints the names of the winner; 
of last year’s prizes, together with the 
names of the Daffodils which won the 
prizes. A schedule like that cannot but 
be of great service to those who intend 
commencing to compete, as it gives an 
idea of the varieties likely to win in the 
contest when well grown. The schedule 
also contains four full page illustration; 
of winning Daffodils, and this we think 
is a new feature in the schedule of a hor¬ 
ticultural society 1 . A large class for a 
collection of 50 varieties of Daffodils, in¬ 
cluding the Polyanthus type, is well 
worth competing for, seeing that fourteen 
guineas are offered in four prizes. Prize; 
are offered altogether in fifty-seven 
classes. The show will be held in the 
Botanic Gardens, Edgbaston, Birming¬ 
ham, on Thursday and Fridays 23rd and 
24th April. The secretaries are Messrs. 
Joseph Jacob and Herbert Smith, Tenby 
Street, Birmingham. 
The Flrtt Garden City. 
The 9th annual report of the Garden 
City Association shows that a considerable 1 
amount of improvement has been made 
at Letchworth, the first Garden City, dur¬ 
ing the past year. There are now over 
5,000 inhabitants, which means about an 
increase of 2,000 during the year. About 
z?8 houses and cottages have been built. 
Over sixty acres have been let for small 
holdings. A recent valuation shows that 
the property has now increased in value 
t0 .{A3 1 >693 6s. id. above its original cost. 
There are 970 houses built, or in the 
course of erection, with a value of about 
,{,314,000. When the association com¬ 
menced, the population on the land was 
only 400. We believe it is to be limited 
to 30,000. 
Floral Clocks. 
A correspondent in “Country life" 
sends an illustration of a beautiful Cactus 1 
flower from Chindwara, Central Pro¬ 
vinces, India. This blossom opens at 
sunrise and shuts at 7.30 a.m. And it is 
an interesting fact that certain flowers 
have definite times for opening. So it 
occurred to the great Swedish botanist, 
Linnreus, to make a sort of floral clock 
of such blossoms. Among the flowers 
used may be noted a species of Ipomoea, 
which opened at four in the morning; 
Coat's Beard, opening at five; Star of 
Bethlehem—which the French call Dame 
d’onze heures—at eleven. Among the 
evening flowers, the evening Primrose 
marked the hour of six, and a species of} 
Cactus that of eight, 
