5*8 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



[January i, 1885. 



LIQUID MANURE. 



The time for applying liquid manure to plants in pots 

 requires some consideration. The time not to apply it is 

 when a plant is newly potted and has no roots in the fresh 

 compost, and when it is in a dormant state or resting. The 

 time to apply liquid manure is when a plant has active roots, 

 when the flower buds are forming, and when they are ex- 

 panding. Liquid manure can never he given wrongly at 

 those times. When a plant is growing strongly in plenty 

 of light and air, and flower buds are showing, the roots will 

 take almost any amount of nutrition, which in the case of 

 sof twooded plants will need to be continued until the flower- 

 ing is over. In the case of plants that make growth and 

 set the buds and then rest awhile, the liquid will only be 

 required until the growth is made, as, for instance, Camellias, 

 Azaleas, &c, and through this stage liquid may be given, 

 but at the resting time liquid manure is not necessary, or 

 only in the case of weakly plants with a heavy nop of bud*, 

 and then in moderate quantity. When the buds take the 

 next swelling or for flowering, the roots, if the plants are 

 healthy, push active feeders, and these feed the swelling 

 buds and expanding flowers, new growths issuing soon 

 after flowering or in vigorous examples with them. If the 

 manure is to be of any use it must be when the plant has 

 an active root-action. Applied when the root-action is 

 dormant, liquid manure will not do much good beyond enrich 

 poor soil ; but it may do great injury by gorging the soil 

 with aliment which stagnates and destroys the roots. This 

 is a common case with Camellias from an excess of water 

 alone ; the roots are lost during the resting season, and the 

 buds fall when they should be expanding. There are cases 

 when liquid manure may be given at almost any stage of a 

 plant's growth, provided the foliage be fully exposed to light. 

 I allude to plants kept in continuous growth and flowering, 

 such as Gardenias, Tree Carnations, Eucharis, and Stephan- 

 otis. 



Liquid manure must given to plauts in accordance with 

 their health. Weakly plants will not take such strong sup- 

 plies as those which are vigorous, and it must be given less 

 frequently. It is not considered desirable to give liquid 

 manure to weakly plants, but these must have assistance if 

 they ever are to become healthy. Povertv of plant is-from 

 poverty of soil. Starved roots can never support a vigorous 

 plant, and if any plant, need liquid manure it is the weakly 

 and ill-conditioned. It is no use giving liquid manure to 

 a plant that has bad foliage from lack of roots, but it is 

 another thing to give it to a plant starved in a small pot 

 full of hungry roots. Further, liquid manure should be 

 given weak; when too powerful it destroys the roots, and it 

 should not be supplied too frequently. A plant in the early 

 stages of growth after potting will not only require the 

 liquid weak, but less frequently than when the roots are 

 more abundaut and the plant much advanced. As a rule 

 once or twice a week is a safe practice until the plants 

 are in free growth, and afterwards it may be given at 

 each alternate, or. if more vigour is needed, at every water- 

 ing. Whenever it is given it should be thorough — as full 

 and complete as a supply of water, sufficient to fill the soil. 



Liquid manure should always be employed of a known 

 strength. No haphazard system must be followed, and al- 

 though manures vary in strength and may be different in 

 chemical constituents, those of the same kind are not so 

 variable as to be unsuitab'e for practical purposes. I allude 

 to solid manures, which when mixed with water are most 

 suitable for pot plants. The drainings of stables, cow sheds, 

 &c, are good, yet vary bo much in strength from the water 

 that finds .ts way into the cesspool, either from rain in the 

 case of open tanks in yards or washing out of the trenches 

 in stables, as to lie very variable, and require great judgment 

 in their employment. As a rule this form of liquid manure 

 will mostly need to lie diluted with six times the bulk of 

 water, and in using the drainings of the stalls one part to 

 twelve of water is quite strong enough, but the liquid manure 

 tank is best left alone as regards watering choice plants with 

 it, reserving it for the coarser or grosser-feeding plants or 

 crops. Liquid manure should always be applied at a temp- 

 erature equal to the mean of the house in which the plants 

 are growing, or a few degrees warmer. 



Soot is undeniably I be best manure for plants in pots. It 

 should be kept dry, as damp spoils it, and putting it in a 

 tub with water and allowing it to stand until wanted is not 

 much better. If a large quantity be wanted put a peck in 



a tub, and enough water to form it into a paste, then add 

 thirty gallons of water, and apply at once, stirring well be- 

 fore each dipping of the watering pot. Another plan is to 

 put as much scot as is considered will be wanted in a water- 

 ing pot and fprm it into a paste with water by stirring with 

 a stick. Pour about a wineglassful into a gallon of water 

 or more, according to the size of the can, and apply to the 

 plants. For giving colour to foliage there is nothing to 

 equal soot, giving the leaves a deep green gloss not to be 

 obtained from any other manure that I know. 



Guano, when good, is first-rate. Peruvian being the (jest. 

 Place 1 lb. in a tiffany bag. ami immerse it in a tub contain- 

 ing twenty gallons of water, then move it about until nothing 

 is left in the bag but the. insoluble matter, and apply at 

 once. If only small quantities are required put us many 

 ounces in a tiffany or muslin bag as the watering pot contains 

 gallons, and move it in the water until it ceases to give out 

 more colour than that of the liquid outside the bag in the 

 can. It is then fit for use. 



Sulphate of ammonia may be used at the rate of half an 

 ounce to the gallon of rain water to plants that have plenty 

 of roots, and should not be given more frequently than 

 twice a week; but it is safer to use it at half the strength 

 —viz.. quarter ounce to each gallon, and apply more fre- 

 quently. This is p> rhaps one of the best manures fur plaids 

 grown for their leaves, and is more especially useful for 

 j Chrysanthemums, and Fuchsias. The ammouiacal liquor 

 from the gasworks is also serviceable, employing a pint to 

 three gallons of water, and superphosphate of lime at the 

 ; rate of 1 lb. to twelve gallons of water may be used similarly. 

 | The nitrates of potash and soda are good where vigour or 

 leaf-growth is wanted, as tbey promote luxuriance in a 

 marked degree; but all such manures should only be given 

 to plants that, are strong-rooting, and not to delicate- 

 rooted ones. 



In using liquid manures the best results are obtained by 

 varying the applications— not employing one kind through- 

 out, but alternating, as for instance soot for a time, then 

 animal manure, and then superphosphate of lime. &c, and 

 this course seems to act most beneficially on soft-wooded 

 plants. — G. Abbkv.— Jour* id of Horticulture. 



THE WORLD'S OIL-SUPPLY IN THE NINETEENTH 

 CENTURY. 



The possibility of utilizing coal gas as an artificial light 

 had, indeed, been proved in 17H2, when Mr. Murdoch devised 

 an apparatus for thus lighting his own house wall, and 

 subsequently he had applied to the manufactories at Soho 

 and Salford. But the notion of thus illuminating cities 

 was not mooted till 18rrJ, when M. le Bon suggested its 

 use in Paris, and in the fubowing year Mr. Winsor lectured 

 on the subject in London. Of course many more years 

 elapsed ere this new discovery was generally adopted in 

 minor towns: and the inhabitants of rural districts con- 

 tinued, as heretofore, chiefly dependent on tallow or train-oil. 



For a moment let us glance at the principal sources of 

 animal and vegetable oil-supply, ere the fountains of miner- 

 al oil were revealed for the use and comfort of the h man 

 family. 



First and foremost, of course, ranked the fish-oils— the 

 well-known train (or drain) oil, which drained from the 

 blubber of the ireat Greenland whale (a large wha'e some- 

 times yielding full thirty tons of blubber — each ton repre- 

 senting nearly two hundred gallons of oil;. Though the 

 cachalot, or sperm whale, could never rival the Greenland 

 whale in the quantity of its contribution it had, at least 

 tin' advantage of quality and variety, since, besides ordinary 

 blubber.it yields a large amount of sperm-oil, and also of 

 spermaceti. Of the latter valuable product, the head alone 

 ofti n yields ten barrels. 



Next among oil-yielding fish come the grampus, or dol- 

 phin, the porpoise, the shark, the seal, the co 1. the her- 

 ring, and others. 



Of animal-fats are butter, tallow, lard, goose-grease, 

 neat's-foot oil (prepared from the feet of oxen, a id used 

 by curriers in dressing leather), and mare's -reus' (im- 

 ported from Buenos A.vrcs and Jlonte Viedo, where a 

 multitude of horses are annually slaughtered for the sake 

 of the bides, tallow, and bones!) in Russia, especially at 

 Moscow, yolk-of-egg oil is in great repute for making soap 

 and pomatum. 



