294 
JOURKAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
March  3l,  1898. 
The  Cheshire  County  Council  has  inaugurated  a  series  of  experi¬ 
ments  in  Potato  growing,  and  last  season  the  first  crop  of  the  series 
was  grown  at  their  Agricultural  School  at  Holmes  Chapel.  Unfortu¬ 
nately  the  field  on  which  the  Potatoes  were  grown  has  been 
recently  ploughed  up  from  old  pasture,  having  grown  a  crop  of  Oats 
in  1896,  and  been  grass  for  at  least  eighty  years  previously. 
As  the  soil  is  heavy,  there  is  a  very  large  store  of  unexhausted 
fertility  which  must  take  the  crops  several  years  to  reduce  to  ordinary 
farming  condition.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  whilst  the  general 
results  are  good  and  conditions  favourable  for  an  equal  test  of  the 
capabilities  of  the  several  varieties  on  a  virgin  soil ;  on  ordinary  farm 
land  much  greater  variations  might  be  found  to  exist  between  the 
different  sorts  as  regards  cropping  qualities. 
For  instance,  early  kinds  which  never  grow  too  much  top  would 
be  favoured  by  a  rich  soil,  whereas  a  vigorous  late  variety,  such  as 
would  be  suitable  for  medium  soil,  would  grow  too  much  haulm  and 
a  rough  sample  of  tuber  on  newly  taken  up  land. 
The  Oats  in  1896  were  not  manured,  but  last  year  20  loads  of 
farmyard  manure,  4  cwt.  superphosphate,  1  cwt.  kainit,  and  f  cwt. 
sulphate  of  ammonia  per  acre  were  applied  for  the  Potatoes,  and 
such  a  tilling  as  this  should  produce  an  excellent  crop  even  on 
poverty-stricken  land. 
The  varieties  chosen  to  experiment  upon  were  not  very  repre¬ 
sentative  ones,  most  of  them  being  comparatively  new ;  this  latter, 
however,  might  be  a  good  feature.  The  Bruce  was  the  one  most 
generally  known  to  the  farming  world. 
The  results  were  wonderfully  even,  the  early  kinds  producing 
about  10  tons,  and  the  second  earlier  about  14  tons  per  acre.  Of  the 
later  kinds.  Up  to  Date  produced  over  17  tons,  and  Bruce  over  13,  and 
these  were  respectively  first  and  last  in  this  section.  Now,' we  have 
found  that  Up  to  Date  can  beat  Bruce  by  much  more  than  25  per  cent.; 
in  fact,  we  have  grown  it  two  years,  and  each  year  it  has  just  given 
twice  as  heavy  a  crop  as  the  Bruce.  Our  experience  of  the  two 
varieties  convinces  us  that  on  ordinary  arable  land  the  Bruce  is  not  in 
the  running  at  all  with  Up  to  Date,  but  with  very  high  cultivation  it 
might  more  nearly  approach  to  it.  This  view  seems  to  be  borne  out 
by  the  result  of  the  Cheshire  experiments.  There  is  one  lesson  also 
to  be  learnt'from  them,  and  that  is  that  the  Bruce  is  still  one  of  the 
most  valuable  Potatoes  for  resisting  disease,  as  it  is  easily  at  the  top 
of  the  tree  as  regards  soundness. 
The  other  set  of  experiments  to  which  we  have  referred  is  that 
worked  by  the  Irish  Congested  Districts  Board  during  1897,  and 
from  this  series  we  think  much  valuable  information  may  be  gleaned. 
Several  well  known  varieties  were  tested  side  by  side  on  ninety-seven 
plots  to  ascertain  which  was  the  best  to  take  the  place  of  the  Scotch 
Champion.  The  varieties  included  the  following  well-known  sorts — 
Beauty  of  Hebron,  Up  to  Date,  Antrim,  Beauty  of  Bute,  Garton, 
Maincrop,  Irish  White,  and  Champion.  As  the  trials  were  spread 
over  a  large  variety  of  soils  in  very  widely  differing  stages  of  fertility, 
the  net  average  results  are  far  more  instructive  and  valuable  than  those 
of  the  Cheshire  County  Council  alluded  to  above. 
For  one  thing,  instead  of  an  equality  of  results  which  the  Cheshire 
experiments  practically  amounted  to,  we  find  in  these  Irish  experiments 
very  divergent  returns,  and  as  a  whole  the  lesson  learnt  is  that  the 
Scotch  Champion  still  fairly  holds  its  own,  easily  distancing  all 
competitors  but  one.  This  one,  however,  is  proved  to  be  distinctly 
its  superior,  and  far  away  in  advance  of  all  the  other  kinds  tried. 
The  Irish  White  did  fairly,  but  not  as  well  as  the  Champion,  and  of 
the  others  the  Antrim  and  Maincrop  came  in  about  an  equal  fourth. 
The  results,  as  regards  keeping  qualities,  are  not  yet  published,  but 
we  should  fancy  that  the  IMaincrop  w'ould  stand  well  in  this  respect. 
There  is,  however,  one  very  striking  result  which  is  common  to 
these  two  widely  different  sets  of  trials,  and  that  is  the  distinct 
superiority  of  the  Lp  to  Date  ;  and  when  we  remember  the 
wonderful  result  of  the  Lancashire  County  Council  tests  of  1895,  when 
manures  were  really  the  subject  of  trial,  but  where  the  Up  to  Date 
easily  out-distanced  in  every  case  the  other  excellent  varieties  used, 
there  is  only  one  conclusion  to  be  drawn,  that  in  the  Up  to  Date  we 
have  the  Potato  of  the  century.  The  Magnum  Bonum  was  a  great 
find;  but  Up  to  Date,  as  a  cropper,  is  so  immeasurably  superior  to 
everything  that  has  been  seen  that  it  is  almost  a  miracle.  It  has 
large  size,  good  shape,  and  most  vigorous  constitution,  the  haulm 
being  far  in  advance  of  any  other  variety  for  size  and  stability.  As 
to  quality,  opinions  differ  at  present ;  but  if  we  were  to  hazard  an 
opinion  we  should  be  inclined  to  say  that  the  quality  is  too  good  to 
last.  The  demand  for  seed  has  been  so  great  in  our  neighbourhood 
that  £7  and  £8  per  ton  has  been  a  usual  price,  and  offers  can  only 
now  be  obtained  of  very  small  quantities  at  fancy  prices  and  quite  as 
a  favour. 
What  is  most  wanted  now  is  a  good  second  early.  Up  to  Date  has 
only  one  fault — viz.,  lateness.  Can  anyone  find  us  a  Potato  as  good, 
but  to  ripen  in  August  ?  We  should  be  only  too  glad  to  give  it 
a  trial. 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
This  is  the  time  for  sowing  grass  and  Clover  seeds,  and  though  a  few 
may  have  been  sown,  the  bulk  has  yet  to  be  put  in.  Many  farmers  like 
to  sow  their  Clover  with  the  seed  grain,  and  even  drill  it  mixed  with 
grain,  but  this  latter  method  results  in  burying  the  small  seeds  too  deeply. 
They  should  be  well  covered,  but  near  the  surface,  and  they  like  a  firm 
seed  bed. 
Small  seeds  are  not  easy  to  sow  by  hand,  and  now  that  good  sowers 
are  becoming  so  scarce,  small  seed  drills  are  generally  used  ;  we,  how¬ 
ever,  do  not  like  them,  unless  they  are  used  for  simple  broadcasting.  The 
most  successful  method  we  know  is  to  Cambridge  roll  the  land,  and  broad¬ 
cast  the  seeds  either  by  hand  or  drill  ;  the  seeds  fall  into  the  numerous 
little  furrows  made  by  the  ring  roller,  and  a  light  set  of  harrows  will 
cover  all  up,  and  still  they  will  be  quite  near  the  surface.  Heavy  soil 
might  have  a  flat  roll  over  it  after  the  harrows,  but  very  light  land  would 
be  better  as  the  harrows  leave  it,  for  high  winds  sometimes  make  bad 
work  of  light  soil  if  left  too  fine  and  smooth. 
We  have  had  a  little  rain,  and  the  land  harrows  rather  better ;  but 
Turnip  land  recently  eaten  off  is  turning  up  very  rough,  and  requires  a 
heavy  rain  to  make  anything  like  a  fine  mould. 
Wheats  are  looking  wonderfully  well ;  they  have  been  once  more 
rolled,  and  will  now  have  a  good  harrowing.  A  dressing  of  nitrate  of 
soda  will  be  given  where  needed  in  about  a  fortnight.  Last  year  we  used 
sulphate  of  ammonia  as  being  relatively  cheaper,  but  prefer  nitrate  when, 
as  at  present,  it  is  the  cheaper  form  ot  nitrogen  available. 
Pastures  have  been  much  refreshed  by  the  rain,  partial  though  it  has 
been,  and  there  is  plenty  of  food  for  the  young  lambs.  If  frosts  would 
keep  off  there  would  soon  be  a  good  bite  for  the  cattle,  and  they  might  be 
got  out  from  the  yards.  It  is  to  be  hoped  we  shall  have  more  and  copious 
rain  next  month,  for  the  small  crop  of  last  year’s  hay  is  almost  gone,  and 
there  will  be  another  light  crop  if  the  season  remain  dry.  Springs  hold 
out  well  so  far,  but  we  fear  they  are  not  likely  to  stand  the  test  of  a  long 
drought. 
METEOROLOaiCAL  (OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square  London. 
Lat.  51°  32'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
Rain. 
1898. 
March. 
Barometer 
at  82°,  and 
Sea  Level 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
inchs 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
inchs. 
Sunday  . . . . 
20 
30-151 
40-9 
38-4 
N.W. 
43-7 
51-9 
36-0 
92-1 
32-6 
— 
Monday  . . . . 
21 
30-244 
36-8 
33-3 
N. 
42-1 
51-9 
27-8 
91-1 
23-0 
— 
Tuesday  . . . . 
22 
30-191 
34-4 
32-6 
N. 
41-1 
49-9 
27-9 
71-9 
27-1 
— 
Wednesday 
23 
-29-814 
39-7 
37-1 
W. 
40-2 
49-6 
31-1 
79-1 
28-8 
0-071 
Thursday  . . 
24 
29-760 
37  -9 
35-8 
N.W. 
39-9 
41-8 
34-3 
83-6 
30-1 
0-093 
Friday . 
25 
-29-860 
32-7 
32-7 
N. 
39-1 
87-1 
29-2 
44-9 
26-6 
0--278 
Saturday. . . . 
26 
29-567 
37-1 
35-1 
N. 
38-1 
38-8 
32-2 
45-2 
31-7 
0-265 
•29-941 
37-1 
35-0 
40-6 
45-9 
31-2 
72-6 
28-6 
0-707 
REMARKS. 
20th.— Bright  almost  throughout,  but  cloudy  about  2  P.M.  ;  clear,  cold  night. 
21st. — Brilliant  all  day,  and  clear  night. 
22nd.— Fog  till  9.30  A.M.,  then  fine,  with  faint  sunshine;  thick  fog  again  from 
noon  till  1  P.M.,  clearing  by  3  P.M.,  and  fine  after. 
23rd. — Overcast  morning,  with  drizzle  and  showers;  sunshine  at  midday  and  at 
5  P.M.  ;  N.  gale  in  afternoon  and  evening,  with  alternate  drizzle  and 
clear  sky. 
24th. — Alternate  sunshine  and  showers  of  snow  in  morning,  and  of  sleet  and  soft 
hail  in  afternoon  ;  snow  again  in  evening  (snowflakes  14  inch  diameter  at 
8  A.  M. ) ;  gale  in  afternoon. 
25th.— Gale,  with  incessant  snow  and  occasional  sleet  or  soft  hail  from  6  a.m.  to 
4  P.M.;  overcast  after. 
26th. —Overcast  morning  ;  rain  with  occasional  wet  snow  from  2  P.M.  to  10  P.M.  ; 
gale  throughout. 
The  latter  part  of  the  week  very  cold,  and  quite  exceptionally  uncomfortable. 
— G.  J.  Symons. 
