August i, 1884.] 



TH E TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



121 



THE ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. 



"Where leaf mould is in demand for pot plants, the fallen 

 leaves of fruit trees may be raked together and put into 

 a hole to decay. In return for thus depriving the orchard 

 soil of a fertilising element, stable or other manure should 

 be applied, and this may be done before digging is com- 

 menced. Fowl droppings, broken bones, woollen rugs, turf 

 as from the roadside, wood ashes and weeds, whether com- 

 posted or separately, may each and all be dug in by way 

 of supporting the fertility of the soil, a point in fruit cult- 

 ure of the gravest importance. Owners of fruit gardens 

 should never allow a bone to leave their premises. There 

 should be a hole in some part of the ground in which all 

 such matters should be buried until the season for apply- 

 ing them returns. Vines are exceedingly partial to bones, 

 they enclose them in a perfect network of roots. They 

 are very gross feeders, and will turn to good use all animal 

 substances, including blood and offal from slaughterhouses. 

 These, however, are likely to be used only by large growers 

 for market, men who also contract for nightsoil, and have 

 all such substances properly mixed with earth, and thus 

 deodorised. For the use of amateurs the manurial sub- 

 stances first named are decidedly better adapted. In peach- 

 growing the periodical enrichments of the soil should be 

 systematically followed up. Not an autumn should pass with- 

 out an application of something more than mere vegetable 

 manure to the ground. Bones or bone-dust should be given; 

 the ashes of weeds or wood-ashes will also be specially useful. 

 Precisely the same kinds of fertilisers will be serviceable to 

 strawberries. Observant pomologists will have noted that 

 soil long used for growing this fruit ceases to yield satisfact- 

 ory crops, and that simple manuring with decayed veget- 

 able matter fails to recuperate its productive powers. Where 

 a healthy clay is obtainable a dressing of that will be found 

 useful with or without the bones and wood-ashes already 

 suggested. Clay may often be "found in the subsoil, but it 

 will usually require to be sweetened by exposure to the 

 air ; therefore when it is raised to the surface it should be 

 spread and not be dug in for a couple of months. The bet- 

 ter course to pursue when claying has been decided on, is 

 to raise the clay in the spring or summer, and allow it full 

 exposure to the sun and air until autumn, when it maybe 

 removed to the strawberry quarter and dug in. This system 

 of strengthening sandy soils is very beneficial in all depart- 

 ments of the garden ; it is uot only more lasting than ord- 

 inary manures, but it also vastly augments the effects of 

 those manures. — A uatralasian. 



LEEKS. 



The origin of the common Leek has not, we believe, 

 been absolutely proven, but there is a general agreement 

 among botanists that it is a peculiar form of Allium Arn- 

 peloprasum, a species wild in Southern Europe and the 

 Mediterranean region, and naturalised in various parts of 

 Britain. This was the view held by Linnaeus, Philip Miller, 

 Sims ( Bot. Jfaff., t. 1385), A. P. De Caudolle, Gay, Al- 

 phonse DeCandulle (T I antes iuttivees), and Regel (Alliorum 

 adhue coynitorum Monogr aphid). The Leek, as we grow it 

 in gardens, has nowhere been found wild, and though there 

 seems to have been a tradition that it originated in Swit- 

 zerland, we find no warrantry for the statement, which, 

 moreover, was discountenanced both by Haller and Alphonse 

 De Candolle, both very eminent Swiss botanists. Gerard, 

 in the first edition of the Herbal (1597), p. 138, says "It 

 is very common everywhere," but he gives no clue as to 

 when or whence it was introduced. 



Nyman, in his Conspectus (1878-1882), p. 735, speaks of 

 the Leek (A. Porrum) as cultivated for culinary purposes, 

 and as having originated from A. Ampeloprasum. In South- 

 ern Europe, however, he says it occurs here and there 

 subspontaneously (naturalised), and is recorded in the alps 

 of Bucovina. 



Vilmorin (Plantes Potayeres, p. 416) adopts the general 

 view, and considers it probable that the Leek and the 

 Allium Ampeloprasum an: one and the same species, differ- 

 ing only in the circumstance that in the one case the 

 cultivator's efforts have been directed to the formation of 

 bulbs, while in the other the object has been to secure 

 the development of long sheathing leaves. 



The Leek differs from the Onion not only in the small 

 size of the bulb, or rather in its elongate form, but also 

 lo- 



in its flat leaves, with long theaths, and which are arranged 

 in two rows instead of several. Moreover, while the Onion 

 bulbs produce numerous axillary bulblets, in the Leek these 

 are few or none. It would thus seem as if growth in 

 length were compensated for by diminished products «msh 

 of bulbils. Indeed, a diminished production of bubils is a 

 necessary consequence of the leaves beiug arranged in two 

 rows only, for in a given space there are, of course, fewer 

 leaves. We are reminded by this of what at first sight 

 might seem widely different — we mean the " monstrosa " 

 varieties of the common Spruce Fir, with its elongated, 

 snake-like branches, destitute, or nearly so, of lateral div- 

 isions. Inordinate growth in length, here, as in the Leek, 

 is accompanied by a partial suppression of the side-shoots. 

 We are induced to refer to the matter by the receipt 

 from a correspondent of specimens of Leeks, some with 

 globular bulbs, such, as Sir Joseph Hooker tells us, char- 

 acterise Allium Ampeloprasum and others with long bulbs 

 of the usual form, which we are informed are all growing 

 together in rows from seed sown in April, 1883. We do 

 not remember to have previously seen a similar instance 

 of reversion. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



FARM MEMORANDA. 



(From the Leader.) 



One of the best things in the world to give a horse 

 after he has been driven hard is a quart of oatmeal stirred 

 in a quart of water. It refreshes and strengthens him, 

 relieves his immediate thirst, and prepares his stomach 

 for more solid food. 



The spattering of milk while milking may be caused 

 either by the direction of the orifice i f the teat or by 

 some scales of skin around it by which the current is 

 diverted. In the one case the milker can easily direct the 

 milk into the pail by changing the inclination of the hand, 

 and in the other case by smoothing the end of the teat 

 with a piece of pumice stone. 



Over crowding of fowls is the cause of nearly all dis- 

 eases that occur among them. There is too much strife 

 and competition among them when kept in large numbers, 

 and the same is true of animals. The largest breeders of 

 fowls in the world, Hawkins, of Lancaster Massachusetts, 

 divided his large flock into many smaller ones. He keeps 

 over 2,000 hens on the same farm, and finds them profit- 

 able. In addition to this number of hens, thousands of 

 chicks are annually hatched and sent to large cities. 



Oil Cake fob Young Stock. — There is probably no bet- 

 ter food adapted to forcing a healthy rapid growth of 

 young stock than ground oil cake, ami in fact we might 

 .say there is no better food for all kinds of stock. Old, 

 broken down horses are made to look sleek aud fat by 

 feeding oil cake, while young stock can be forced in growth 

 to a wonderful extent. Corn and oats are hard to digest 

 by youug stock, and often cause disease both in the stom- 

 ach and mouth. We frequently hear complaints that 

 calves and colts are not doing well, although fed on 

 abundance of grain, and have invariably found in such cases 

 that they were troubled either w ith sore mouth or constip- 

 ation, or both. The first year's growth of a calf or colt 

 is worth more than the two folowiug, and should be crowd- 

 ed as fast as possible. Duriug the first year the found- 

 ation is laid, and if dwarfed or cramped from starvation or 

 neglect, the animal can only make a scrub at maturity. 

 The time to make large frames is during the first year, 

 and without large frames the prospect for draught or 

 beef is by no means encouraging. — Minnesota 'Iriba^e. 



In the course of a lecture on China, delivered in London 

 recently, Mr. O. \. Morgan thus described the main prin- 

 ciples of land tenure in that country: — All land is held 

 directly from the Crown — absolute ownerstrp, such as pre- 

 vails in Christian countries, not being acknowledged. But 

 this does not prevent estates being held in families. Fre- 

 quently farms pass from father to son. Daughters, how- 

 ever, never inherit land — the position of women in China 

 in regard to land being even more di^g aoefnl than m 

 ( ur own country. Lessees pay the Government a i<;x, ihe 

 highest per acre being about 7 shilling!-— pi ice being re- 

 gulated by the richness of the soh, and by pioxin.it^ to 

 a maiket. The average tax may be taken at one shilling an 

 acre. The total revenue fiom this souice, including ground 

 j rent from houses, reaches some £30,000,000 aunuam . Th 



