FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



quire the addition of hot water to the same ex- 

 tent as in-door produce, but are, notwithstand- 

 ing, much benefitted by receiving it in a mode- 

 rately warm state. Wherever a steam engine 

 is employed. Sir Joseph Paxton's practice of 

 artificially warming the liquid manure, might 

 be easily adopted, by allowing some of the waste 

 steam to blow through the tank or pipe. Ex- 

 perience has, however, amply shown, that for 

 ordinary crops, sewerage in its usual state is the 

 most valuable manure that has yet been intro- 

 duced. 



" By attention chiefly to the proper adminis- 

 tration of liquid food, and other suitable appli- 

 ances, the Pine-apple, a plant formerly consi- 

 dered of so slow a growth as to require three 

 years before it could produce full sized fruit, 

 has, by Sir Joseph, been so hastened in its 

 growth, as to yield, within an average of fifteen 

 months, a fiir greater supply of finer fruit than 

 was formerly produced by three years' expense 

 and labor. From every day's experience, an 

 instance or two out of a multitude might be ci- 

 ted by way of illustrating that even a much 

 shorter period than fifteen months, is not unfre- 

 quently sufiicient to accomplish all that could 

 be desired. An ordinary sucker of a Provi- 

 dence Pine was detached from the old stock 

 during the month of March , and was planted 

 out in a prepared bed of soil in a pit, and in the 

 following August it produced a ripe, well-grown 

 fruit, weighing 8 lbs. Two suckers, also, of a 

 Cayenne Pine were sejiarated and planted out 

 in April, and in the following September one 

 of them produced a fruit weighing 7^ pounds, 

 and the other one 8 pounds. A large pit of 

 Cayenne suckers of various sizes, were planted 

 out in a pit last spring, and in the autumn, the 

 fruit, when ripened , gave an average of one 

 pound in weight, fur every month the plants had 

 grown. These were not isolated or oxtraordi- 

 nar}' instances of early production, but the com- 

 mon and natural result of this system of culture, 

 which stimulates to extraordinary growth, and 

 the most perfect development. The effects of 

 liquid manure, when applied to the roots of 

 vines in pots, and on rafters, and to cucumbers 

 and melons, are equally apparent ; the leaves 

 assume a rich deep color, become large and 

 spreading, the growth is rapid and healthy, and 

 the produce is invariably fine, plump, and be- 

 comes quickly matured." 



In all this statement there is nothing except 

 what every intelligent gardener can confirm ; 

 especially those parts printed in italics. The 

 whole art of liquid manuring, is, in fact, com- 

 prehended in the foregoing extract. 



Let the manure be extremely weak ; it is idle 

 to ask how weak ; liquid manure owes its value 

 to matters that may be applied with considera- 

 ble latitude; for they are not absolute poisons, 

 like arsenic and corrosive sublimate, but only 

 dangerous when in a state of concentration. 

 Gas water illustrates this suflHciently well; pom- 

 it over a plant in the caustic state in which it 

 comes from gas works, and it takes off every 



leaf, if nothing worse ensues. Mix it with half 

 water — still it burns ; double the quantity once 

 more — it may still burn, or discolor foliage 

 somewhat; and if it does not, much of what 

 falls upon a plant is necessarily lost. But add 

 a tumbler of gas-water to a bucket full of pure 

 water, no injury whatever ensues; add two tum- 

 bles full, and still the effect is salubrious, not 

 injurious. Hence it appears to be immaterial 

 whether the proportion is the hundredth or the 

 two hundredth of the fertilising material . Ma- 

 nuring is, in fact, a rude operation in which con- 

 siderable latitude is allowable. The danger of 

 error lies on the side of strength, not of weak- 

 ness. To use liquid manure very weak, and 

 A'Cry often, is, in fact, to imitate nature, than 

 whom we cannot take a safer guide. This is 

 shown by the carbonate of ammonia carried to 

 plants in rain, which is not understood to con- 

 tain, under ordinary circumstances, more than 

 one grain of ammonia in one pound of water ; 

 so that in order to form a liquid manure of the 

 strength of rain water, one pound of the carbo- 

 nate of ammonia would have to be diluted with 

 about 7,000 pounds weight of water, or mure 

 than three tons. Let us not be misunderstood. 

 We do not mean to say that any such dilution 

 as this is absolutely necessary ; we only point to 

 the very significant fact, that in the operations 

 of nature, dilution is enormously beyond what 

 cultivators usually dream of. 



Let such manure he applied only u-hen plants 

 are in a growing state. In addition to Sir Jo- 

 seph Paxton's evidence, and to the general no- 

 toriety of this rule, may be usefully added a 

 statement made by Mr. Mitchell, Lord Elles- 

 mere's gardener, and quoted by the Board of 

 Health. This experienced cultivator says — 



" That he has never seen any manure produce 

 so good a crop of strawberries as the liquid (i. 

 e. town or sewer manure.) has this year done 

 at the Worsley Hall gardens. Manure, he adds, 

 ' often causes a crop of strawberries to be lost, 

 by forcing the growth of leaves. Liquid may 

 be applied just when the plants are forming 

 their Jlower biids,AXii\ the strength of the manure 

 is spent in producing fruit, not leaves. When 

 the plants were bearing, it could be seen to a 

 plant how far the irrigation had extended." 



Indeed, it should be ovious. that since liquid 

 manure owes its value to itsbeing in the state in 

 which plants can immediately consume it, to 

 administer it when they are incapable of con- 

 suming it, that is to say, when they are not 

 growing, is most absurd. This is, however, a 

 point concerning which more requires to be said 

 than we can to day find room for. Lindley — 

 Gard. Chronicle. 



Chinese Plants. — At last the mystery of the 

 Yellow Camellia is solved, and we may final- 

 ly make up our minds that De Candolle's 

 theory of colors is valueless. It was an inge- 

 nious idea to divide all i)lants between one or 

 the other of two series; the xanthic, or yell 

 species, never jiassing into blues; and the 

 anic or blue species never passing into 



