104 THE FLORAL WOELD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



rather more than half decayed and mixed with other ingredients, the .smell is most insuf- 

 ferable. When to these disagreeables is added the trilling fact that the only access to 

 the garden is through the house, it will be easy to imagine, that rather than go through the 

 process, all idea of renovating the powers of the soil by manure is abandoned in despair. 



The more resolute among the suburban amateur gardeners, who find themselves thus 

 situated, but determined not to give up altogether the cultivation of their floral pets, make 

 small collections of manure, composed of decayed leaves, lawn mowings, weeds, &c., in 

 some obscure corner ; the knowing ones among them taking care to have added to the 

 stock, occasionally, the refuse of the house and kitchen, which otherwise finds its way into 

 the drain or the dust-hole, and this they reserve for the benefit of some few special fa- 

 vourites, or for a few feet of the sunniest border ; beyond this the garden receives no 

 manure at all, and its productive powers are soon almost exhausted, and it lies neglected, 

 useless, and, it is needless to add, far from ornamental. 



Much improvement has of late years been effected by artificial manures, especially 

 Peruvian guano, but with this last article, its unpleasant smell, and the fact that it de- 

 stroys the seed with which it comes in contact previous to its germination, and the amount 

 of care required in its application to growing plants, altogether render it unmanageable and 

 unsafe in the hands of the amateur, while its high price, not less than 15/. 15s. per ton, 

 and the difficulty of obtaining it retail, put it out of the reach of most people. There are 

 several other compositions in the market, the virtues of which are highly lauded by the 

 inventors aad vendors, some of them selling as high as one shilling per pound. Those who 

 use them will, perhaps, be startled on learning that they are paying about seven times the 

 price of Peruvian guano for a very inferior article — something about 112/. per ton is a long 

 price for manure — and of this, in point of practice, the sellers of these boasted compositions 

 seem to be aware, as they recommend purchasers to administer them in homeopathic doses ; 

 for instance, a teaspoonful once a month to a large flowerpot, or in a gallon of water ; — the 

 use of them in the natural ground does not seem to be, by any possibility, contemplated. 



The writer of this had his attention drawn last year to an entirely new article in the ma- 

 nure line, a small quantity of which, perhaps half a pound, was given to him as a specimen. 

 The inventor of it has given it the name of Cuero Guano, from a Spanish word denoting its 

 chief ingredient, the term guano being already adopted from that language to denote 

 manure. Its nomenclature, however, was a matter of indifference to the writer, who cared 

 only for its effects upon a few pet plants, which he then tended with some anxiety upon a 

 rather smoke-befouled lead flat, at the back of a London street. Owners of gardens will 

 smile at the catalogue of his plants, but here he applied it to a Ribes speciosa, or flowering 

 currant, a few fuchsias, mignionette, sweet peas, and last, but not least in his estimation, 

 about half a dozen seedling orange trees. There was also a decrepid moss-rose tree, whose 

 life he despaired of. The effect surpassed his utmost expectations; the fuchsias, which for 

 two years previous had scarcely produced any flowers at all, and those of very diminutive 

 size, now put out large fleshy flowers in abundance, with a strong dark healthy foliage ; 

 old mignionette seed grew as well as new, nay, even better than new seed sown without 

 the Cuero Guano; sweet peas grew and flourished luxuriantly ; the seedling orange trees, 

 only sown in February, became, in the course of the summer, little shrubs a foot high, and 

 the decrepid moss-rose tree sent up from the root a young shoot full a yard in length. It 

 ■was too late in the season for any effect as to blossom to be perceived on the ribes, but an 

 abundant foliage gave a promise of a fine show of flowers during this present spring. 



This new manure has been strongly recommended to the attention of farmers and agri- 

 culturists, and has received great praise from Professor Way, who has analysed it, but 

 with its merits in this respect the writer has little to do. His object is to invite a trial of 

 it by those who, like himself, are possessed of small gardens, and situated where stable 

 dung is either not very readily to be procured, or not easily applied when obtained ; to 

 persons so circumstanced, he conceives he will be doing a kindness by imparting to them 

 the knowledge, accidentally obtained by himself, of an article which contains so many good 

 qualities in so small a compass. Its low price, scarcely half that of Peruvian guano, its 

 entire freedom from any unpleasant smell, and the perfect safety in the method of its ap- 

 plication, added to the complete success which has hitherto accompanied it, will recom- 

 mend it for use among all amateur florists, especially in the greenhouse and conservatory, 

 where nothing unclean or offensive may intrude ; indeed, such is its nature in these respects, 

 that a lady may keep a bottle of it in her chiffonier or work-table drawer, and apply it to 

 her floral pets, at her drawing-room window, without soiling her fingers or offending her 

 sense of smell. 



The writer is not aware of any place where it can be obtained retail in quantities les3 

 than 1 cwt, or that any agents have as yet beea appointed for the sale of it ; a mistake, 



