298 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
April  7,  1904 
Preoccity  ol  Tuberation  in  Northern  Star  Potato. 
I  am  sencliup;  you  two  plants  and  one  cutting  of  Northern 
Star  Potato.  Ihe  longest  one  was  taken  as  a  cutting  about 
a  month  ago.  You  will  see  now  that,  it  has  a  faiixsized  tuber 
on  one  of  the  roots.  The  other  two  were  taken  three  n  eeks  ago ; 
one  is  well  rooted  and  has  two  tubers  on  it,  the  other  is  not 
rooted,  but  has  a  small  tuber  forming  at  each  joint  up  the  stem 
where  the  leaves  wei'e  cut  off.  I  have  never  seen  Potatoes  crop 
in  this  way  before,  and  T  think  it  quite  justifies  the  reputation 
Mr.  Findlay  gives  of  the  productivity  of  this  Potato.  I  am 
sending  you  these  thinking  pei'haps  you  would  like  to  take  a 
photo  to  insert  in  the  next  issue  of  “  our  Journal F — D.  Paxton, 
The  Gardens,  Hitcliam  Grange,  Taplo\y,  Pucks. 
[ITifortunately,  Owing  to  their  being  packed  in  dry  cotton 
wool,  and  having  been  delayed  owing  to  the  holidays,  a  photo¬ 
graph  of  the  cuttings  would  not  have  been  successfid  ;  but  we 
thank  our  contributor  for  his  letter, — Ed.] 
The  National  Gardeners’  Association. 
As  a  constant  reader  of  your  paper  I  have  watched  with 
interest  for  all  news  annertaining  to  the  proposed  Gardeners’ 
Association.  As  a  young  gardener  I  believe  that  such  an  asso¬ 
ciation  would  be  of  immen.se  benefit  to  our  profession,  and 
among  my  gardening  acquaintances  the  iD-oposal  seems  to  meet 
with  considerable  favour.  The  questions  of  wages  and  working 
houi'S,  together  with  the  qualifications  necessarv  for  registra¬ 
tion,  are  such  as  will  require  the  careful  consideration  of  any 
committee,  but  first  we  must  support  the  Provisional  Com¬ 
mittee  in  their  endeavouis  to  bring  about  a  successful  meeting 
on  the  .second  day  of  the  Temple  Shoy.  As  the  young  gar¬ 
deners  of  the  jne.sent  dav  are  the  ones  most  likely  to  benefit 
first  by  the  formation  of  an  association,  I  think  we  ought  to 
make  the  matter  as  v  idely  known  among  our  professional  friends 
as  possible.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  many  donations  will  find 
their  way  to  the  secretary  (Provisional  Committee)  to  help 
defray  the  cost  of  distributing  the  pamphlets  now  eagerly 
awaited  for.  — Gowrte.  [The  secretary’s  address  is  Descanso 
House,  Ivew  Hoad,  Kew. — Ed.J 
Horticultural  Instruction  in  Scotland. 
Ill  reply  to  a  communication  from  ns,  Mr.  AYilliam  AYilliam- 
son,  liOgie  Green  Nursery,  Edinburgh;  and  late  horticultural 
in.structor  under  the  East  of  Scotland  Agricultural  College, 
says:  —  “  I  should  hav'e  been  pleased  to  furnish  you  with  a  report 
of  mj'  work  in  connection  with  the  East  of  Scotland  College  of 
Agriculture  had  it  proved  a  success.  'In  the  first  place  the 
appointment  was  not  a  permanent  one,  although  the  report  that 
got  into  the  papers  inferred  as  much.  I  w'as  engaged  to  lecture 
only  during  the  winter  and  spring  montlrS  at  a  certain  sum  per 
lecture,  as  the  funds  were  too  low  to  pay  a  permanent  man, 
although  the  directors  are  now  moving  in  that  direction,  I 
understand.  Aly  lecturing  was  chiefly  confined  to  the  coal¬ 
mining  village's  with  a  view  to  interest  the  migratory  miner  in 
the  cultivation  of  hi.s- garden,  and  induce  him  to  remain  in  the 
village  instead  of  roaming  about  from  one  district  to  another. 
“The  lectures  were  arranged  specially  for  cottagers  in 
series  of  four  at  each  village,  but,  in  general,  were  poorly 
attended.  In  a  village  of  two  to  three  hundred  about  a  score 
would  cultivate  their  gardens,  and  the  excuse  given  for  neglect 
wa.s  they  had  no  tenure  of  their  houses,  two  weeks  being  the 
notice  to  quit,  and  if  they  cropped  the  ground  others  frequently 
reaped  the  benefit.  The  only  well-attended  meetings  I  had 
were  among  the  glens  in  Perthshire,  where  the  farm  servants 
and  others  seemed  particularly  anxious  to  gain  information 
about  the  cultivation  and  cropping  of  their  gardens,  and  it  is 
wonderful  wdiat  they  could  accompltsh  at  an  elevation  of  1,200ft 
above  .sea  level.  Ihey  were  very  anxious  to  be  able  to  grow* 
fruit,  e.specially  Apples,  certain  varieties  of  wdiich  I  recom- 
niended  on  the  Paradise  stock  to  succeed  in  an  average  season. 
.Small  fruit,  vegetables,  and  certain  flowers  do  exceedingly  well 
along  the  base  of  the  hills  facing  the  western  sun,  the  Rose  in 
pai’ticular  producing  its  finest  colour,  while  the  damping-off  of 
blooms  is  seldom  experienced.  It  was  my  intention — had  I 
not  been  confined  to  a  syllabus — to  advocate  fruit  culture  in  me 
fertile  district.s  as  a  profitable  industry  even  in  Scotland. 
“  I  am  to  give  a  paper  on  rural  economy  at  the  monthly  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  Scottish  Horticultural  Association  on  April  5,  and 
shall  be  pleased^  to  send  you  an  extract  from  it  for  insertion  in 
the  Journal.  ’I’here  is  a  general  outcry  to  get  the  people  again 
to  f hp  land,  but  as  far  as  I  have  read  or  heard  there  has  been  no 
feasible  scheme  proposed.  The  people  will. not  go  to  agriculture 
imre  and  simple,  and  then,  fiuiit  culture  alone  gives  no  per¬ 
manent  employment,  hence  the  object  of  the  paper  is  osten.sibly 
to  demonstrate  how  the  inoper  value  of  the  soil  may  be  utilised, 
and  the  people  employed  in  it.s  realisation.  I  am  sorry  I  have 
nothing  of  interest  to  communicate  in  connection  with  mv  short 
term  ot  fectunug,  which  I  cannot  now  take  up  again.”  ' 
The  New  Soil  Science  and  Its  Resnlts.* 
I  think  I  am  perfectly  safe  in  claiming  that  the  New  Soil 
Science  w  as  created  by  Professor  A.  N.  Macalpine  and  myself. 
And  let  me  be  perfectly  frank  with  you.  AYe  were  comiH'Ued  to 
depart  from  the  old  and  corrupt  views  recorded  so  unerringly  in 
every  book  published  at  that  time  on  soil  science,  views  which, 
unfortunately,  obtain  in  too  many  quaiteis  even  nowu  I  say  we 
were  compelled  to  seek  after  truth,  because  we  had  demon¬ 
strated  to  ourselves  that  the  .science,  as  taught,  was  wrong. 
Now,  what  was  this  new  science  H  I  may  de.scribe  it  laconic¬ 
ally  by  saying  that  a  sterile  .soil  must  be  an  infertile  soil,  because 
without  germ  occupation — w'ithout  the  presence  of  all  those 
groups  of  micro-organisms  which  I  have  classified  as  advan¬ 
tageous — no  soil  can  be  fertile. 
Farmers  have  been  likened  unto  brewers  or  distillers,  and 
the  illustration  is  to  me  a  happy  one,  as  we  shall  see.  The 
brewer  uses  as  his  raw  material  sugar  and  other  organic  extrac¬ 
tive  matter,  hard  water,  and  mineral  matter  from  barley,  &c., 
yeast;  and  what  are  the  products?  Beer.  The  farmer  u.ses  as 
ins  raw  material  muck,  soil  constituents  and  artificial  manures, 
and  advantageous  soil  organisms.  The  re.sults  are  his  crops. 
The  brewer  has  to  beat  his  fermenting  tuns  to  get  rid  of  carbonic 
acid  ;  the  farmer  has  to  drain  his  land  for  the  same  purpose. 
Nowq  here  is  one  of  the  smaller  points  in  our  ne^v  subject, 
viz.,  the  function  of  a  field  drain.  A"ou  hear  it  almo.st  in¬ 
variably  .stated  that  the.  function  ,  is  simply  and  solely  to 
carry  off  water  ;  but  I  have  just  told  you  that  tho.se  living  bodies 
in  soils  manufacture  enormous  quantities  of  carbonic  acid,  which 
is  a  heavy  gas,  and  must  escape  doiniirards,  so  that,  unle.ss  yon 
have  good  drainage  to  carry  off  this  product,  fertility  wmuld  be 
impossible.  That  is  to  say,  that, supposing  you  had  a  good  .soil, 
with  no  more  water  in  it  than  was  required  for  your  crop, 
and  therefore  had  no  necessity  for  a  water  conduit,  unless  you 
had  a  drain  to  carry  off  the  poisonous  gas  manufactured  by  your 
soil  organisms,  your  organisms,  and  your  crops,  and  every  other 
living  thing  would  perish. 
This  leads  us  to  compare  again  the  old  and  the  new  science. 
It  is  everyw  here  .stated  that  carbonic  acid  brought  down  by  rains 
is  the  great  soil  and  rock  .solv'ent !  Is  it?  The  atmosphere  in 
rural  districts  contains  only  0.02  per  cent,  of  carbonic  acid,  and 
if  you  could  by  any  pos.sibility  bring  it  all  down,  in  the  .state 
of  dilution  in  which  it  must  exist,  its  action  must  be  practically 
nil.  Now,  you  will  naturally  ask,  AATiat  evidence  have  we  in 
support  of  that  view?  Gentlemen,  I  have  ju.st  been  telling  you 
that  enormous  quantities  of  that  so-called  soil  solvent  are  being 
constantly  manufactured  in  the  .soil  ;  in  fact,  the  soil  ahi^osphere 
contains  as  much  as  from  30  to  60  per  cent,  of  it,  so  that  if 
0.02  per  cent,  -could  by  any  possibility  do  what  it  is  credited 
with  in  books,  we  should  be  istanding  on  igneous  peaks  within 
thirteen  months,  three  hours,  one  minute,  and  twenty-three 
seconds. 
Now,  as  we  are  considering  soils  and  drains,  our  attention 
is  naturally  directed  to  another  feature  which  is  depicted  in 
books  with  extraordinary  detail.  I  refer  to  capillarity,  and  on 
this  subject  the  new  science  and  the  old  statements  are  in  sharp 
conflict..  It  is,  a  good  many  years  ago  since  I  di.scu.ssed  the 
subject  with  Professor  AA’allace,  of  Edinburgh,  who  endeavoured 
to  prove  to  you  that  the  panacea  for  all  the  ills  to  wdiich  agri¬ 
culturists  were'  heir  was  the  imposition  of  one  shilling  per 
bushel  on  imported  wheat.  Gentlemen,  within  a  few  months 
thereafter  wheat  rose  10s.  per  quarter  if  I  mistake  not,  and  I 
fail  to  perceive  even  yet  w  hat  effect  that  has  had  upon  agricul¬ 
tural  depression.  Howyever,  that  is  by  the  way.  Professor 
AA'allace  and  the  Board  of  Agriculture  Inspector  of  Agricultural 
Schools  discussed  this  subject  of  capillarity  icith  me,  but  not  wdth 
any  credit  to  me.  Those  awdul  books  to  which,  unfortunately, 
I  must  refer,  picture  with  painful  precision  those  capillary  pipes, 
wdiich  draw  up  water  from  the  subsoil  by  capillarity,  and  bring 
w  ith  it — from  the  subsoil — nourishing  salts,  and  goodness  knows 
what  else.  In  a  few  w'ords  I  will  show  you  how  absolutely 
erroneous  those  views  are.  Even  if  I  grant  that  a  soil  does  con¬ 
sist  of  a  mass  of  something  of  the  nature  of  pipes,  tho.se  pipes 
have  attached  them  at  their  lower  end  a  drain  wdiich  runs  off 
wdiatever  water  (and  carbonic  acid)  there  is  to  run  ;  that  drain 
niust  and  does  act  as  an  exhau.st  pump  would;  and  I  a.sk  you,  is 
it  sensible,  is  it  science,  to  say  that  water  will  ri.se,  or  can  rise, 
under  any  such  conditions? 
Take  another  view  of  it.  All  the  books  further  say  that 
subsoils  in  general  contain  ferrous  salts,  wdiich  are  poisonous. 
Gentlemen,  tho.se  great  savants  overlooked  the  great  factor, 
the  diffusibility  of  salts,  and  they  forgot  that  this  diffu.sible 
poison  could  not  be  kept  out  of  the  capillary  water  or  the  pipes, 
and  so  they  forgot  that  if  there  was  a  ve.stige  of  truth  in  their 
well-aired  science,  every  crop  would  be  poisoned. 
AATiile  it  must,  of  course,  be  admitted  that  there  is  an 
amount  of  surface  attraction,  or  tension,  among  .soil  particles, 
there  can  be  no  shadow'  of  truth  in  the  doctrine  of  the  pipes; 
*  Paper  read  before  tlie  Renfrewshire  Agricultur.il  Society  at  Paislev  bv 
Mr.  .fohu  Hunter,  F.’^.C.,  F.C.^.,  Edinburgh. 
