October  3,  1895. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
325 
POTATOES  AND  SOILS. 
Is  there,  apart  from  its  food  or  manurial  constituents,  an  ideal 
Potato  soil  ?  I  have  been  recently  occupied  in  getting  up  tubers 
of  many  varieties  of  Potatoes  from  different  soils,  and  have  found 
the  strangest  divergences  in  the  results.  One  soil  gave  disease 
frightfully,  another  a  beautiful  crop,  and  hardly  a  disease  spot  ; 
another  soil  the  most  ungainly  samples  possible,  another  samples 
that  were  clean  and  of  excellent  form.  Still  another  soil  would 
give  much  scab,  and  another  the  greatest  size  of  tuber,  with  fair 
shape.  These  are  odd  products,  all  serving  to  show  that  Potatoes 
have  their  fancies  in  soils,  if  the  term  may  be  so  applied.  Very 
liaely  it  might  be  possible  to  create  from  out  of  a  combination  of 
these  earths  the  ideal  soil,  or  it  may  be  that  any  such  effort  at  soil 
respect  was  it  more  gross  or  luxuriant?  than  was  the  haulm  in 
some  other  plots  where  disease  was  scarcely  evident. 
In  two  cases,  one  a  deep  black  sand  and  the  other  fairly  stiff 
bog,  animal  manure  had  been  applied  fresh.  In  one  or  two  others 
previous  crops  had  been  manured,  and  in  several  others,  the  soil 
being  distinctly  poor,  a  dressing  of  chemical  manure  was  given  when 
the  seed  tubers  were  planted.  The  crop  that  gave  the  best  average 
size,  clearness  of  skin,  and  neat  sample,  was  a  comparatively  poor 
chalk  marl.  This  had  previously  been  a  part  of  waste  ground, 
almost  a  net  of  couch  grass,  but  before  planting  had  been  deeply 
dug  and  fairly  cleaned.  This  description  of  soil  reputably  gives 
the  best  eating  Potatoes  ;  indeed,  I  learned  that  dealers  would 
readily  pay  IOj.  per  ton  more  for  those  than  for  others  from 
ordinary  market  gaiden  or  field  land. 
Fig.  53.— CEYSTAL  PALACE  SHOW.— OUR  ARTIST'S  CHOICE,  {bee  imge  314.^ 
construction  might  end  in  failure.  But  then  we  have  had  to  deal 
with  a  very  irregular,  indeed  an  abnormal  season,  and  the  causes 
which  led  to  certain  results  on  diverse  soils  may  not  be  presented 
next  or  following  years.  In  that  case,  any  attempt  at  artificial 
soil  combination  might  lead  to  failure  in  other  directions. 
The  chief  troubles  to  Potatoes  I  have  found  this  season  were 
first  severe  disease,  and  second  almost  outrageous  ill-shape. 
Disease  was  worst,  and  very  bad  indeed  on  a  light  porous  soil 
almost  the  texture  of  ashes.  Generally  around  as  well  as  on  this 
particular  plot  the  Peronospora  did  great  harm  to  the  tubers.  That 
would  indicate  that  a  very  porous  light  soil,  for  many  years  fed 
with  London  manure,  and  never  deeply  worked,  was  not  an  ideal 
one  in  any  case.  But  on  the  particular  plot  disease  was  exception¬ 
ally  rife,  and  that  may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  for  some  two 
or  three  years  it  had  been  the  receptacle  for  all  sorts  of  garden 
rubbish,  street  sweepings,  and  other  highly  nitrogenous  substances, 
and  when  trenched  last  winter  was  literally  smothered  in  nettles 
and  other  weeds.  Generally,  top  growth  wa*  luxuriant  after  the 
late  summer  rains,  but  not  excessively  so  and  certainly  in  no 
A  very  fine  crop,  but  perhaps  of  all  giving  the  most  unshapely 
tubers,  came  from  deep  sharp  black  sand.  It  was  possibly  to  some 
extent  due  to  the  ground  having  had  before  planting  a  good 
dressing  of  animal  manure,  although  at  the  time  of  lifting  there 
was  no  great  amount  of  disease  visible.  But  the  finest  samples 
and  best  crop  on  the  whole  came  from  sandy  bog,  or  gravel,  and 
lying  very  high.  This  was  quite  poor,  and  owed  the  heavy  crop  to 
the  artificial  dressing  and  the  much  deeper  working  than  the  soil 
previously  had  enjoyed.  The  result  seemed  to  show  very  clearly 
that  whilst  poor  soil  is  far  less  promotive  of  disease  than  is  soil 
much  enriched  by  heavy  dressings  during  previous  seasons,  it  is 
easy  at  planting  time  by  applying  a  moderate  dressing  of  super¬ 
phosphate,  kainit,  and  nitrate  of  soda  to  furnish  pretty  well  all  that 
the  immediate  crop  needs. 
It  may  be  thought  that  light  sandy  soils  would  allow  free 
percolation  of  moisture,  and  with  it  fungoid  spores  to  the 
newly  forming  tubers  as  readily  as  that  light  porous  soil  which  did 
furnish  such  a  disastrous  exhibition  of  disease.  I  am  not  sure  that 
such  is  a  correct  deduction.  Sand  is  an  admirable  filter,  and,  it 
