January  28,  1904. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
69 
These  means  are  those  of  the  maximum  and  minimum 
readings,  and  are  not  corrected  for  diurnal  range.  Of  the 
various  months,  January,  February,  March,  and  October 
were  warmer  than  usual,  the  excess  of  temperature  for  the 
latter  three  months  being  very  great  in  nearly  all  districts. 
On  the  other  hand,  June  and  July  showed  deficient,  and 
April  and  August  very  deficient  temperatures  almost  every¬ 
where.  The  remaining  months,  taking  our  islands  as  a 
whole,  did  not  differ  much  from  normal.  The  maximum 
temperature  reported  over,  our  islands  during  the  year  was 
85deg  at  London,  on  July  10th  and  11th,  and  the  minimum 
12deg  at  Newton-Reigny,  on  January  14th — an  extreme 
range  of  73“. — H.  II.  Harding,  F. R. Met. Soc., Bristol,  Jan.  13,1904. 
- ■  m%m  t - 
Gardeners  in  Distress. 
At  the  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Gardeners’  Royal 
Benevolent  Institution  held  at  the  C’ovent  Garden  Hotel,  London, 
on  Thursday  afternoon  of  last  week,  it  was  stated  that  out  of  at 
least  10,000  gardeners  in  the  United  Kingdom,  not  1,000  .sub¬ 
scribed  to  the  binds  of  this  charity.  That  is  a  reflection  upon 
gardeners.  It  will  come  as  a  surprise  to  those  who  are  wont  to 
talk  of  the  fraternal  co-operation  that  exists  in  the  ranks  of  pro¬ 
fessional  gardeners.  Whenever  one  hears  loud  pseans  about  the 
freemasonry  and  homogeneity  that  is  supposed  to  unite  gardeners 
to  one  another  everywhere,  do  not  let  us  forget  to  tone  the  psean 
with  that  fact — “Not  1,000  out  of  10,000  subscribe.” 
What  the  causes  of  this  lack  of  interest  are,  we  do  not  com¬ 
pletely  know.  This  we  believe,  that  if  the  auxiliary  branches  of 
the  Institution  were  established  in  different  sections  of  the  land, 
the  interest  in,  and  knowledge  of,  the  workings  and  benefits  of 
it  would  certainly  be  increased. 
The  Scottish  Horticultural  Association  has  over  1,200  members. 
Is  there  no  person  from  amid  that  host  who  will  arise,  propose, 
and  make  energetic  endeavours  to  establish  an  auxiliary  branch 
to  be  worked  in  connection  with  the  Association  in  Edinburgh? 
But,  no;  it  is  much  more  congenial  to  talk  of  it,  and  criticise 
and  argue,  and  throw  cold  water  upon  the  philanthropist  burning 
with  zeal  in  the  cause  of  suffering  men  and  women — the  fallen  in 
the  ranks  of  gardeners.  And  so  a  deaf  ear  is  turned  to  the  oft- 
repeated  entreaties. 
Coming  southwards,  there  is  York,  which  does  nothing;  Hull 
has  no  branch  ;  Leeds  and  Mancliester,  Nottingham,  and  Sheffield 
— none  of  these  have  an  auxiliary  that  contributes;  Norwich, 
Ipswich,  St.  Albans,  Cheshunt,  Wai'e,  Plymouth,  Southampton, 
Dover,  Maidstone — each  of  these  might  lend  assistance,  however 
small,  and  the  best  way  to  do  it  is  to  have  auxiliary  branches  of 
the  head  societj^,  each  with  a  local  committee,  a  treasurer,  and 
a  secretarj^  whose  work  could  be  quietly  performed  amongst  the 
gardeners  of  the  neighbourhood.  By  all  means  enlist  the 
patronage  of  local  amateurs  who  love  gardening  as  a  hobby,  and 
it  was  Mr.  Leonard  Sutton,  of  Reading,  who  proposed  in  his 
presidential  speech  at  the  friendly  .supper  in  London  last 
Thursday,  the  need  of  work  for  the  awakening  of  ainateurs  of  an 
interest  in  this  good  cause.  Mr.  Sutton  generously  promised  to 
arrange  with  Mr.  Ingram,  the  secretary,  for  a  plan  to  advertise 
the  Institution,  the  costs  of  which  he  will  pay.  Mr.  Arthur 
Sutton  guaranteed  the  pension  (£20)  for  one  applicant  during 
1904,  and  these  are  example.s  which  others  could  follow  were  they 
more  liberal  minded. 
Mr.  Bunyard,  of  Maidstone,  adopts  an  admirable  method  of 
advertisement  by  including  a  notice  of  the  Institution  in  his 
catalogues,  and  other  nurserymen  will  doubtless  accept  the  sug¬ 
gestion  to  follow.  The  dispensation  of  charity  is  surely  a  noble 
thing,  when  it  is  seen  and  proved  that  that  charity  is  urgently 
required.  Those  who  have  given  more  than  a  passing  thought  to 
the  organisation,  the  officering,  and  the  management  of  the 
Gardeners’  Royal  Benevolent  Institution,  must  have  felt  satisfied 
that  from  first  to  last  it  is  thoroughly  sound,  and  that  economy, 
combined  with  efficiency,  are  iirime  factors  in  its  working. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  call  special  attention  to  the  very  full 
report  of  the  year’s  business  which  we  print  on  another  page,  but 
we  do  so  that  it  may  not  be  overlooked.  It  is  there  shown  that 
204  pensioners  were  assisted  by  the  grants  of  £20  a  year  to  men, 
and  £16  a  year  to  their  widows,  but  very  many  cases,  at  the 
extremity  of  need,  were  insufficiently  provided  for,  notwith.stand- 
ing  the  Good  Samaritan  and  Victorian  Era  Funds,  which  help 
-  those  whose  pressing  needs  demand  a  pittance  while  waiting  to 
be  elected  as  pensioners. 
- - 
Radium  and  Seed  Germination. 
Mr.  Henry  Dixon,  in  a  recent  issue  of  “  Nature,”  gave  the 
result  of  his  experiences  with  radium  on  seed  germination.  He 
did  not  find  any  vei'y  apparent  quickening  of  the  process  of  ger¬ 
mination  or  other  material  change. 
History  of  the  Potato. 
{Continued  from  page  39.) 
The  positive  testimony  of  Gerard  pi'ovos  that  the  Potato 
was  forwarded  to  liim  from  Virginia;  and  how  they  reached 
that  iirovince  of  North  America  will  be  made  to  appear  pro¬ 
bable  by  tbe  sugge.stions  of  Humboldt,  in  a  following  page. 
Gerard,  we  may  conclude,  received  the  tubers  from  some  of 
the  settlers  in  Virginia,  who  emigrated  thither  about  twelve 
years  previously,  in  1584,  under  a  patent  granted  Ijy  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh.  And  thus  much  is  certain, 
that  in  1693,  Sir  Robert  Southwell,  President  of  the  Royal 
Society,  communicated  to  that  learned  body  the  fact  that  Iii.s 
grandfather  first  cultivated  the  Potato  in  Ireland,  and  tliat  he 
obtained  it  from  Raleigh.  Tradition  .states,  further,  that  Sir 
Walter  him.self  also  had  the  root  planted  on  his  estate  near 
Youghall,  in  the  south  of  Ireland  ;  and  that  he  gave  them  to 
his  gardener  as  a  desirable  fruit  from  America.  When  the 
berries  were  ripe  in  September,  the  gardener  brought  them  to 
his  master,  wdth  the  inquiry  of  disappointment,  “Sir,  are 
the.se  the  fine  American  fruit?  ”  Sir  Walter,  either  really  or 
pretendingly  ignorant  of  the  Potato’s  habit,  de.sired  them  to 
lie  dug  up  as  weeds,  and  thrown  away  ;  but  in  doing  this  the 
tubers  were  revealed,  and  found  to  be  the  available  produce.* 
Humboldt  rationally  concludes  that  the  Virginian  colonists 
obtained  the  Potato  from  the  Spanish  settlements,  for  it  is 
quite  clear  that  it  is  not  a  native  of  Virginia  nor  even  of  inter¬ 
vening  Mexico,  and  that  it  was  cultivated  in  Spain  and  Italy 
before  it  was  made  known  in  England  from  Virginia. 
Although  the  Potato  was  known  to  English  botanists  in 
1596,  yet  horticulture  was  too  ignorantly  practised  in  this 
country  to  permit  its  rapid  introduction  among  our  cultivated 
crops.  In  1619  they  were  here  a  desired  yet  expensive  luxury, 
for  in  that  year  of  .James  I.’s  reign,  a  small  dish  of  them  pro¬ 
vided  for  his  Queen’s  table  co.st  one  .shilling  per  pound,  when 
money  was  at  least  twice  as  valuable  as  it  is  now. 
Potato  cultivation  spread  rapidly  in  Ireland,  and  it  became 
established,  it  is  said,  in  Lancashire,,  and  that  portion  of  our 
northern  coast  still  celebrated  for  its  culture,  owing  to  some 
being  on  board  a  vessel  wrecked  upon  its  shore.  Yet  the  value 
of  the  root  was  not  generally  known  at  a  still  later  period,  for 
in  time  of  scarcity,  namely,  in  the  March  of  1663,  it  required 
to  be  recommended  as  a  crop  of  national  importance  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  Royal  Society.  The  writer  of  this  letter  was 
Mr.  Buckland,  a  Somerset.shire  gentleman;  and  the  recom¬ 
mendation  was  referred  for  consideration  to  a  committee  by 
the  .society.  The  report  of  that  committee  was  favourable, 
and  the  society  not  only  urged  its  cultivation  to  landed  pro¬ 
prietors,  but  requested  Mr.  Evelyn  to  enforce  tbe  society’s 
opinion  in  his  “  Sylva,”  then  publi.shing  under  its  auspices, 
although  it  was  no  favourite  with  him,  for  in  1664,  in  his 
“  Kalendarium  Hortense,”  he  says,  “  Plant  Potatoes  in 
February  in  your  worst  ground.”  Before  the  “  Sylva  ” 
appeared,  namely,  in  1664,  was  published  a  pamphlet,  the  first 
devoted  to  the  subject  of  cultivating  the  Potato,  and  bearing 
this  prolix  title:  “England’s  happine.ss  increased,  or  a  sure 
and  easy  remedy  against  all  succeeding  dear  years,  Dy  a  planta¬ 
tion  of  the  roots  called  Potatoes,  ivhereof  (wdth  the  addition 
of  wheat  flour)  excellent,  good,  and  wdiolesome  bread  may  he 
made,  every  year,  eight  or  nine  months  together,  for  half  the 
charges  as  formerly.  Also  by  the  planting  of  these  roots, 
10,000  men  in  England  and  Wales,  wdio  know  not  how  to  live 
or  wdiat  to  do  to  get  a  maintenance  for  their  families,  may, 
of  one  acre  of  ground,  make  £30  per  annum.  Invented  and 
published,  for  the  good  of  the  poorer  sorts,  by  John  Fonster, 
Gent.,  of  Harslop,  in  Buckinghamshire.”  He  says  that  the 
Potatoes  he  recommends  for  general  cultivation  “  are  the  Irish 
Potatoes,  little  differing  from  those  of  Virginia,  .save  only  in 
the  colour  of  their  wdiite  flowers.  The.se  roots,  although  they 
came  at  first  from  the  Indies,  yet  prosper  well  in  Ireland, 
where  there  are  wdiole  fields  of  them,  from  wdience  they  have 
been  brought  into  Wales  and  the  north  parts  of  England,  where 
they  likewdse  prosiier  and  increa.se  exceedingly.”  He  recom¬ 
mends  a  dry,  well-drained  soil  for  them,  to  be  enriched  with 
dung  if  necessary.  Planting  in  March,  with  tubers  cut  into 
quarters  or  halves,  to  be  buried  6in  deep  and  Sin  asunder. 
The  roots,  he  says,  hiay  be  begun  to  bo  taken  up  in  September, 
and  as  wanted  until  IMarch  ;  so  that  even  then  it  w'as  known 
to  the  cultivator  that  the  colds  of  winter  would  not  destroy 
the  tubers;  and  Mr.  Forster  further  adds,  that  the  very  , small 
roots  must  be  left  in  the  ground  to  produce  a  crop  the  next 
year.  In  conclusion,  he  gives  directions  for  making  Potato 
bread.  Potato  biscuits.  Potato  pudding.  Potato  custards,  and 
♦  It  has  been  stated,  hue  upon  no  good  authority,  that  Potatoes  were  cul¬ 
tivated  in  Ireland  long  before  the  time  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh;  and  Sir  .John 
Hawkins  in  1565,  and  Sir  F.  Drake  a  few  years  later,  have  leen  named  as  th  • 
probable  first  in:  porter.«.  If  they  introduced  any  such  tubers  they  were  probalily 
those  of  the  .Sweet  Potato,  Ipomcei  Battata  ;  but  .is  the  author  who  makes  the 
suggestion  intimates  that  a  jtassage  in  Bede’s  writings  can  only  apply  to  th- 
Potato,  we  may  very  justly  conclude  that  both  surmises  are  equally  worthy  of 
attention.— “  Holt  s  Kings  of  K  g.  iii.” 
