THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 115 



day on Mondays, for sixpence. Let fashion and wealth have their days of 

 seclusion, but despise not the small sums that in the aggregate will make 

 a noble figure in the annual balance sheet. 



Steecus, incidentally referred to in our last issue, is the waste produced in 

 the manufacture of wool. Having had many inquiries respecting it, we 

 take this opportunity of affording our readers such information as we possess 

 respecting its use and value. The sample we have been using to test its 

 merits is of a dry, powdery, peaty nature, fine as dust when shaken 

 asunder, and emitting an agreeable and decidedly ammoniacal odour. We 

 have used it in mixing composts for geraniums, calceolarias, petunias, 

 pansies, fuchsias, and others of the ordinary run of summer-flowering 

 plants, and their vigour sufficiently attests to its suitability, both in a 

 mechanical and chemical sense, to promote a free and healthy growth. For 

 this purpose, we did not first allow the stercus to rot, preferring rather to 

 see what could be done with it in its native state, and the only sign of the 

 necessity of having it rotted for such purposes, was a little mildew on the 

 surface of the soil in the pots during the first few days, while the early- 

 potted plants were kept close, which disappeared entirely when air and sun- 

 shine were admitted amongst them, the plants being wholly unaffected. 

 Another trial of it was made in planting roses that had been wintered in pots. 

 A spadeful of stercus was chopped over with the loam in every hole, and a 

 little pressed round the ball when in its place previous to filling in. The 

 roses so planted are now remarkably fresh in their foliage, and are coming 

 into bloom with every sign that they are doing well. On opening the soil 

 near them, and examining the stercus, the new white root fibres from the 

 roses are perceptible throughout its substance, just as similar roots will be 

 generally found in a tuft of moss buried near the collar of a plant. It is, 

 perhaps, the fibrous or felty character of the stercus that induces this rapid 

 rooting, as we all know that the mechanical nature of a soil has as much to 

 do with the free growth of roots as its chemical constituents. Another 

 important use of this stercus is for mulching. We have already remarked 

 that it will be an excellent top-dressing for strawberries, to preserve 

 moisture about their roots in the hottest weather, and also to keep the 

 fruit clean, the material being altogether different to clung, or other moist 

 mulching materials, and, when dry, may be handled without soiling the 

 fingers. The top surface of a mulch of stercus is like a clean felt, soft as 

 velvet, and of a tawny brown colour, in no way offensive to any of the 

 senses. We have also used it in top-dressing for vines, in the rows of 

 newly-struck pompones, turned out for lifting hereafter, which will allow of 

 their removal in complete balls, by the thorough hold of the stercus which 

 their roots will make. Prom other quarters we have heard that the same 

 material has been found of great service in the culture of hops, turnips, 

 peas, beans, celery, and most other vegetable crops. To prepare it for mixing 

 in composts for delicate subjects, we should advise its use in bulk to ridge 

 cucumbers, and free-growing plants in frames, which require a large mass of 

 moist nourishing materials about their roots. .This would rot it sufficiently 

 in one season to render it admirably adapted for pot-culture of greenhouse 

 plants, and it would still possess sufficient nutriment for most purposes. 

 Professor Henslow has reported most favourably of the results produced by 

 its use on grass land, and, like well rotted dung, it may truthfully be de- 



