178 



IRISH GARDENING. 



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Ai'i'i.K Ai.T.iNciTox Tirrix 



calculable value to crops. Indeed, without 

 manure at all an average soil if deeply worked 

 will produce good cro])s. Most soils contain 

 plant food, but it is inert for want of 

 air. ]3y de?ply working and aerating the soil 

 much of this becomes available, and if, in con- 

 junction with deep tillage, the plants are given 

 sufficient space between them for air and light to 

 play freely on them, then good crops will follow. 

 It cannot be too widely recognised that plants 

 obtain a good deal of their food from the air- 

 that is, carbon. Further, all the food material 

 absorbed by the plant, either by the roots or by 

 the leaves, is in a crude state, and is manu- 

 factured into food by the green colouring 

 matter in the leaves. This green colouring 

 matter can only act in light, hence the need 

 for giving the plants sufficient space. 



In our j\Iarch number, discussing INIanure for 

 Allotments, we wrote : — " There are other 

 factors, however, which have an enormous 

 effect on production — namely, sunlight, air, 

 and what is familiarly called ' elbow grease." 

 While by no means scorning the value of 

 manures, we think that far too much over- 

 crowding is practised in cropping, particularly 

 with Potatoes. . . . Experiments by prac- 

 tical men have shown that where the soil has 



been deeply tilled and wide planting has been 

 adopted and the surface soil subsequently kept 

 well tilled, better crops have been obtained 

 than where manure was applied in abundance 

 on shallow-tilled soil." Since then we have 

 seen many gardens and allotments, and always 

 the best crops were where there was the 

 greatest evidence of tillage. 



Air. .John Weathers, an Irishman who 'has 

 had n successful career as a grower, lecturer, 

 ami author in England, writes in his book, 

 "Commercial Gardening," ns follows: — "The 

 soil is talked about and written about, and 

 enormous sums of money are lavished upon it, 

 as if it, and it only, contained all the material 

 out of which the crop is to be made. Not a 

 word is said about' the air and light, and their 

 absolute necessity to the crop. Perhaps it is 

 l^ecause they cost nothing they receive such 

 scant courtesy. And yet the great bulk of the 

 crop — the great weight, after water has been 

 deducted — comes from the carbonic acid-gas 

 which is floating about in small quantities with 

 oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere. . . ." 

 In giving advice regarding the soil, he saj's : — 

 " Dig it deeply, if possible to a depth of 2 feet, 

 and bring the bottom spit to the top at least 

 every third year. In this way the subsoil will 

 become as fertile as the top spit by exposure 

 to the weather, the action of the roots, and the 

 decomposition of iceU-rotied manure. 

 This niay seem a dangerous and drastic 

 doctrine to teach, but it .will be less costly to 

 carry out than allowing t'he crops to languish 

 and die for want of moisture at the root in dry 

 summers, or to become crater-logged, sodden, 

 and diseased in wet ones." 



There is no doubt whatever of the value of 

 manvires, farmyard and artificial, used judi- 

 ciously, but it is folly to suppose that their use 

 in greater quantity can compensate for lack of 

 deep cidtivation. 



With regard to farmyard manure, it is doubt- 

 less true that it.^ manurial properties are richer 

 when it is fresh, and that it loses a considerable 

 amount when kept, but every gardener knows 

 the value of thoroughly rotted, well-decayed 

 manure as opposed to undecayed. The fact is 

 that in its decayed, and therefore milder, state 

 it is more suitable to plants, whose roots seize 

 on it with avidity, and absorb the food material 

 rearlily. How many gardeners know the dire 

 results of putting out plants on ground recently 

 dressed with fresh manure? Either the young 

 roots ai'e immediately burned or the plants, if 

 they absorb any of it, at once sicken, like a 

 yoving child who lias partaken of too heavy or 

 strong food. 



