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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Atigtist I, 1883. 



Last year he built a nice, comfortable home and moved into 

 it. This past year the exhibit from his place of 2i acres, 

 shows as follows: — 



EECEIPTS. 



440 seedling orange trees sold from musery 5 330 00 



150 budded orauge trees 150 00 



:;0.200 .Sultana grape cuttings .306 00 



17,«'0 Mascat cuttings 44 50 



■100 other cuttings S 00 



lJj6 boxes of raisins — net 300 00 



Total receipts $1,138 50 



EXPENSES. 



Oultivating S 29 00 



Water ' 10 50 



Irrigating 14 00 



Pruning 30 00 



Hoeiug 4 00 



Picking and handling grapes 25 00 



Total expenses $ 112 50 



This gives a net income for the year of §1,026. — Fress 

 <i,vl Horticulturist, liiier^ide. 



♦ 



FEKNS IN BOTTLES. 



A most remarkable example of Fern growth was recently 

 brought under our notice, and the cu-cumstauces are so 

 unusual that they are well worth attention. In the garden 

 of .Ml". Kaynstora at Xingston-ou-Thames for the past twenty 

 yeais partly damaged sovla-water bottles have been employed 

 to edge the paths. The point 01 the uecks had been broken, 

 and tliis portion was plunged into the soil to the depth 

 of about b inches, thus leaving 3 or 1 inches of the base of 

 the bottles above the surlaee. Some of these bottles have 

 been in this position for the whole of the time mentioned 

 above, and others have been placed in at intervals to witliin 

 the past year. 



There is nothing extraordinary in all this. In hundreds 

 of other gai-dens bottles have been similarly employed, but 

 in this case the results now to be noticed are very unusual. 

 In the majority of the bottles young Ferns appeared soon 

 after they were placed in the gromid, and these have con- 

 tinued growing until in some cases they have formed a 

 dense congested mass of vegetation completely filling the 

 bottles. Tne fronds remain green during the greater portion 

 of tbe year and then die, giving place to young ones in the 

 succeeamg ajjrmg; and as previously stated, some have con- 

 tinued tuns growiug for many years past practically without 

 any exposui'e to air, as the amount that could pass through 

 the soil up the neck of the bottle would be extremely small. 

 Stveral diiierent varieties of Ferns are observable, chiefly 

 forms of Atliyrium Filix-fcemiua, with the Oak Fern and a 

 few others; and it is strange that the only Fern in the garden 

 is Scolopendrium vulgare, of which there are no examples 

 in the bottles. The soil, too, has not been leuewed smce 

 the garden was first formed. tUerefore the only way in which 

 the spores can have been c:onveyed to tiie g.irden is by the 

 wind. 



The bottle represented in the woodcut is one of those 

 placed in the soil within the last year or two, atui 

 was selected because the yoimg Fern can be more clearly 

 .shown. It shoulil be added that of the four or five 

 hunmed bottles employe,! nearly two-thirds contain Ferns, 

 the other being chieiiy tilled with Grasses and various weeds. 

 In all cases tbe fresh healtliy appearance of the plants in- 

 dicates that they can weU despense with venti'ation. 



It a tew Ferns could Le induced to grow in bottles like 

 the above, they would form rather interesting littie ferneries, 

 especially for windows, as they could be invei teil in pots or 

 boxes, and would at least po.'-se.ss the advantage of lequiring 

 little attention or tiouble. — Juiirnal of Horticulture. 



SUEFACE DKAINAGF. 



Alauy people look upon drainibg as a mere iiicchaLJcal !a- 

 boui. ''ilie laimei lines otf his dia:nsetiuidi^tantapart,(.j)ens 

 ihini to acertam depth from llie surtace. lays into the hot- 

 luiii atones or pipes, n-turiis the clay, aiul cousitlcrs has field 

 drained. Altera tew years he finds the field is sliil clammy 

 anu wet, but corsoli-^ himself by vouching to his neighbour 

 he ibformatic:. that he has .'^peut no eiui of money trying 



to render the field dry. Knowing that there is nothing enig- 

 matical in the art of drainining, he tries to remedy the evil, 

 spends more money, but only to find the result of his labour 

 most unsatisfactory. Why ? Because he did not at the first 

 set out and inquire accurately into the cause of the wetness. 

 If, for instance, the soil was a heavy clay or loam resting on 

 a hard "pan" or an adhesive stratum of clay, which after 

 a couple of years or so became quite impervious to water, 

 the subsoiliug plough ought to have been put into force and 

 the injurious " pan" broken up. A field may be wet owing 

 to its location, being situated near a treacherous subsoil 

 from which water is continually oozing out and stagnating in 

 the soil. Hue-head or catch-water drains are necessary to 

 intercept the moisture before it spreads over the field. Some- 

 times the redundancy of water is occasioned by bottom 

 springs, and these should all be tapped at the fountain. Ob- 

 viously if the drainer before commencing operations search 

 for a cause, very probably he will render his work effective 

 at one-half the outlay wliich it will otherwise cost by going 

 blindly to work. Draining is very costly, and great prudence 

 ought be exercised in laying out the money, aud it this is 

 done, no undertaking is more productive of good results. 

 The benefits of good drainage are numerous. The land is 

 more easily worked, and in spring may be ploughed weeks 

 before undrained land. This in itself is not only a saving of 

 time but also a saving of money. Every farmer is aware of 

 the advantage of having his seed committed to the soil in 

 proper season. Then again, when seasous are awkward .such 

 as the past two or three summers, the quick passage of 

 water through the soil does not injm-e the crops. After 

 heavy rain the surplus water speedily sinks away d wn 

 through the soil, taking with it and lea\7ng just where they 

 will do most good, am munia. carbonic acid, aud all the other 

 ingredients which tt-nd to enrich the earth aud make it fruit- 

 ful. Obnoxious jilants disappear, and the ground becomes 

 free from germs of fatal pesi among live stock. Fo>.t rot, 

 liver rot, and ail the various diseases known by the name of 

 " rot" among sheep and cattle are often the direct result of 

 inattention to a proper .system of thorough drainage. — D. 

 SvM Scott. — Journal of Forestry. 



UTILIZING WEEDS. 



First a word of explanation, to say that I do not mean 

 annual weeds, such as mere exjjosure to the sun will kill, 

 but those with creeping stems or roots, like Sqm'tch- 

 grass, that are unfortunately quite impartial in their dis- 

 tribution and a. serious source of annoyance and expense 

 both to farmers as well as to many gardeners. In most 

 transactions, when you have caught your hare the cooking 

 is a secondary consideration ; not so with Squitch-grass. 

 Burniug is generally set down as the most effectual meaus 

 of extu'pation, but I am not prepared to admit that. In 

 numberless cases that have come under my notice in 

 England aud Ireland, the custom is to make a fire and 

 then heap the weeds on iu the fields, or in a comer of 

 the garden. A sort of smouldering takes place, near a 

 clear bright fire, and too frequently the joints escape, and 

 as .soon as scattered over the ground as charred ashes, 

 coninieace a more vigorous growth than before. This 

 would be propagating, not utilizing them, after the organic 

 or best part had been driven away into tiie atmo.sphere. 

 I have for mouths past been using a compost foui'-fifths 

 of which has been obtained from Squitch (Triticiimrepens) 

 of the worst tj-pe, collected last ye.ir. A gardening friend 

 of mine- — no mean judge either — said he wished he never 

 had woise "potting stutf." I propose telling you how 

 this has been obtained. I collected about .300 loads, 

 chiefly of this noxious weed, from both the green crop 

 fields and the land iu which grass seeds and oats had 

 been sowed. A fractional part consisted of that equally 

 mischievous weed Oolt'.s-foot, with some Docks, Thistle 

 roots. Crow-foot, &c., in a less proportion. Those 500 loads 

 were r.auged in an oblong heap about this time last year, 

 just as the Turnip ero]i hail been sown, and the question 

 aro.se. How we e they to be killed, and killed immediately, 

 .so as to betoma available as soon as po.ssible ? I wanted 

 the comi^ost to soak up theooidngs from the manure-heap. 

 Had I burned them, ami done it effectually, my 500 loads 

 might havt^ left a residue of ten loatls of a.sh. I resolved 

 to cover the heap with lime direct from the kiln, and spread 

 it at once, so that in slaking it should form an impeuc- 



