42 
January.  19,  1899. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
Three  years  ago  you,  Mr.  Editor,  came  to  see  me  along  with  another 
young  man  who  has  since  visited  the  Midnight  Sun,  and  lately  been 
footing  it  in  the  United  Slates  of  America,  and  for  all  that  I  know 
he  will  circumambulate  the  globe  before  returning  to  us.  You  may 
remember  how  he  felt  surprised  at  the  abundance  of  foliage  I  allowed 
on  my  Tomatoes,  and  made  a  start  to  lop  away  a  portion  of  it  at  once. 
“Not  so,  on  any  account,”  1  struck  in;  “it  is  the  pride  of  my  life 
to  maintain  it  so  in  all  its  integrity,  as  well  also  as  you  can  see  upon 
the  Potatoes  and  other  things ;  thanks  to  Tait,  Buchannan,  and 
Peter  Barr’s  anti-blight  powder.”  I  did  not  then  say  that  I  was 
touring  about  my  district  some  few  weeks  before  preparing  a  report 
of  the  fruit  crops,  that  I  noticed  something  uncanny  in  a  few 
places  upon  the  foliage  of  Chrysanthemums.  I  was  not  a  cirorver  of 
the  flower. 
When  I  erected  my  Potato  seedling  house  here  I  enlarged  it  to 
become  dignified  to  a  “  greenhouse,”  and  caused  three  iron  pillars  to  be 
placed  to  support  the  extended  glass  roof.  To  furnish  these  I  sowed  to 
run  up  them  and  look  pretty  Nasturtiums  mixed  with  Canariensis.  But 
the  stricken  foliage  I  had  observed  upon  Chrysanthemums  caused  a 
premonitory  feeling  with  me  that  we  should  hear  of  it  much  farther 
afield.  Anticipating,  I  begged  a  few  cuttings  from  a  neighbour  whose 
plants  were  suffering.  I  would  plant  them  against  the  pillars  for  a 
change,  and  for  a  purpose,  to  test  what  effect  the  anti-blight  powder 
might  have  upon  their  foliage  to  prevent  it  from  becoming  diseased. 
Those  who  have  cared  to  read  my  experiments  with  it  in  these 
pages,  or  those  of  my  visitors  who  have  published  their  observations, 
and  learnt  our  good  opinions  of  its  qualities  in  preserving  leafage, 
while  annihilating  fungoids  and  immatured  insect  life,  will  be  in  a 
measure  prepared  for  what  I  am  going  to  say. 
Well,  to  secure  the  desirable  effects,  the  anti-blight  powder  should^ 
in  a  glass  house,  be  applied  early  in  January  onwards,  and  fairly 
continuously  through  the  succeeding  months,  in  dry  impalpable  con¬ 
dition,  by  the  agency  of  a  Malbec  bellows.  It  is  then  and  thus 
the  benefit  is  secured.  The  powder  will  not  injure  the  tenderest 
foliage  or  the  most  delicate  flower  if  not  applied  too  bountifully  ;  on 
the  contrary,  infantile  shoots  thrive  under  it,  and  for  those  of  older 
growth  the  leaves  soon  become  robust  in  their  greenery  without  any 
syringings  with  water,  at  least,  they  do  so  with  me  in  my  Potat — I 
beg  its  pardon,  my  greenhouse,  where  I  grow  Grapes,  Figs,  Tomatoes, 
seedling  Potatoes  in  their  first  stages,  herbaceous  plants,  and  now 
Chrysanthemums.  I  have  also  lately  had  under  the  glass,  from  the 
outside,  Eoses  and  Honeysuckles’  to  prove  what  effect  tlie  powder  may 
have  upon  those  implacable  harbourers  of  aphis,  mildew,  and  red 
spider,  under  cover. 
This  multum  in  parvo  house  has  only  the  ground  for  a  floor, 
which  of  necessity  must  be  watered,  otherwise  I  have  purposely 
desisted  from  syringing  the  wall,  the  wood  and  glass  work,  the  Vines, 
or  any  foliage  in  the  structures,  during  a  period  of  five  years.  As  a 
rule,  I  think  too  many  splashings  about  under  glass  unnecessary — a 
mere  rule  of  thumb.  I  wish  I  could  prevail  upon  my  good  old  chum, 
‘‘A.  D.”  to  draw  out  of  that  Bourdeaux-Bordelai  rut  for  drier  compost. 
With  his  greater  suasion  his  friends  would  soon  learn  to  bless  him. 
To  return ;  I  applied  the  powder  as  above  to  the  Chrysanthemums; 
they  retained  their  foliage  intact,  feathered  comidetely  dowm  to  the 
ground,  and  flowered  beautifully. 
This  behaviour  of  them  against  the  pillars  urged  me  to  procure 
cuttings  from  a  distance  in  greater  variety,  to  be  grown  in  pots.  As 
soon  as  they  were  placed  they  were  made  to  undergo  the  bellows’ 
pepperings,  and  so  on  through  their  rooting  stage  and  other  two  shifts 
or  pottings,  and  outside-sentry-go,  as  is  usual.  I  ought,  though,  to 
mention  the  soil’s  nature  that  I  grow  them  in.  It  is  procured  from 
off  my  garden  experimental  Potato  plot,  a  fairly  good  loam,  from 
a  site  w'hereon  was  burned  a  heap  of  collected  debris — tree  prunings 
and  other  combustible  matter.  This  is  cooled  by  distribution  ’with  a 
rake  during  the  charring  process,  to  secure  the  potash,  by  preventing 
the  sticks  of  wood  as  charcoal  wasting  aw’ay  to  grey  ashes.  Whilst  it 
is  quite  hot  about  2  inches  of  the  surface  soil  is  shovelled  up  to 
ecome  stored  away,  and  afterward  mixed  with  the  cooled  sprigs  of 
charcoal,  thus  making  sure  that  alt  there  was  of  living  insect  life 
is  dead,  and  we  get  a  lasting  easy  compost,  in  which  we  do  not 
hesitate  to  grow  most  things.  Results :  I  pin  my  faith  to  the 
mystic  number  three.  I  believe  I  have  never  given  any  of  my 
experiments  off  for  these  pages  under  a  three  years’  probation.  This 
three  years’  trial  obstructive  of  “  rust  ”  deposit  on  Chrysanthemums 
gives  me  hope  that  the  same  agreeable  circumstances  may  happen 
for  others,  should  they  feel  inclined  to  work  after  the  manner  I  have 
irointcd  out. 
I  have  read  many  queries  and  remarks  in  contemporaries :  Your 
own  in  issue  November  3rd,  1898,  page  343  ;  Mr.  G.  Abbey’s  intensely 
absorbing  scientific  researches,  December  13th,  pages  284-5;  and, 
with  great  pleasure,  Mr.  Massee's,  on  page  286-7  of  the  same  issue  of 
the  Journal  of  Horticulture.  Mr.  Massee's  remarks  are  more 
accordant  with  my  homely  researches  than  anything  I  have  previously 
met  with  ;  they  mostly  agree  with  what  I  have  observed  and  written 
about  for  the  last  six  years  or  so  in  regard  to  my  Potato  disease 
spores,  which  float  or  become  dispersed,  imperceptibly  to  the 
naked  eye,  in  warm  weather  and  bright  sunshine,  to  rest,  if  theylsan, 
upon  the  surfaces  of  congenial  foliage.  But  where  these  are  powdered 
over  with  the  anti-blight  the  microbes,  or  whatever  t'ne  scientists 
properly  call  them,  cannot  meet  with  this  destination  otherwise 
than  by  the  penalty  of  instant  death  ;  per  contra,  they  would 
insinuate  between  the  cuticles  into  the  pabulum,  to  quickly  mature, 
and  from  the  under  sides  cast  their  spores  on  to  the  surfaces  of  the 
leaves  below  to  become  their  prey,  or  to  be  dispersed  by  the  air  or 
some  sportive  syringe  in  their  billions  round, 
I  must  not  dwell  much  longer  on  the  subject  or  I  fear  you  to  say 
that  I  am  “swamping”  you.  I  will  beg  room  for  another  paragraph 
apropos  to  our  important  and  indispensable  autumn  flower.  My 
friend  in  Gloucestershire  who  sent  me  cuttings  had  his  wife  up  to 
place  his  flowers  at  the  Reading  Chrysanthemum  Show,  whilst  he  was 
further  afield,  for  those  of  Oxford  and  Banbury.  He  takes  prizes 
wherever  he  goes.  Feeling  interested,  his  wife  came  to  see  my 
“  missus,”  and  the  “  Mums.”  She  expressed  herself  delighted,  and 
surprised  at  their  perfect  healthiness,  as  she  said  she  had  been  obliged 
to  spend  nearly  all  her  time  in  sponging  the  “  rust  ”  from  the 
leaves  of  the  very  plants  propagated  from  those  from  which  mine 
were  taken.  To  clinch  this  nail,  so  far  as  I  have  driven  it,  a 
young  gentleman  who  was  staying  with  our  rector  having  a  camera 
with  him,  kindly  came  and  “took”  the  enclosed  photo,  about 
the  middle  of  November,  It  takes  in  about  two-thirds  in  length 
of  the  plants  in  the  greenhouse,  but  sufficient  for  you  to  see 
the  representation  of  redundant  foliage  which  “feathered”  from  the 
surface  of  the  pots  upwards.  The  iron  pillars  I  have  pointed 
out  by  marks,  to  show  how  those  plants  maintained  their 
last  yeaCs  foliage  intact,  quite  to  the  ground,  as  I  did  not  cut 
them  down. 
Again — for  one  moment — I  seem  to  recognise  the  facile  hand  of 
an  “  Old  Provincial  ”  as  that  of  an  old  contributor  (is  it  PownalTs  ?), 
but  of  cou  se  our  Editor  never  divulges  incognitos.  The  paper 
impresses  one  how  quickly  flows  a  “record”  of  life  in  achievements 
towards  old  age,  and  has  caused  me  to  write  this  article  for  the  pages 
where  I  introduced  myself  in  1850.  I  had  not  long  then — viz.,  when  I 
wrote,  struck  thirty-twm  years  of  age ;  I  W'as  over  head  and  ears  struggling 
with  the  ’taties  and  other  problems.  I  was  tolerably  well  grounded  in 
horticulture,  and  very  soon  after  my  first  epistle  came  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Johnson,  the  first  genial  Editor  and  founder  of  this  paper 
requesting  me  to  write  some’  articles,  and  to  send  him  a  specimen.  I 
did,  but  nervously  tried  to  back  away.  Another  letter  to  say  that  “  ho 
who  could  write  the  paper  I  had  sent  could  write  anything  he  wanted  to 
bend  the  printers’  backs  with,  and  I  was  to  set  about  it  at  once.” 
Thus  I  became  fairly  hooked,  and  ever  since  I  have  annually,  more  or 
less  according  to  what  I  have  completed,  “bent  the  printers’  backs” 
for  these  pages,  in  the  City  of  London,  by  explaining  away  some  “  new 
thing  ”  anent  improvement  for  the  cultivation  of  our  native  soil,  and 
in  publishing  the  experiments  I  have  carried  out  for  the  betterment  of 
our  food,  or  the  beautifying  of  God’s  fair  earth.  But  .  .  .  Lord 
