Jannary 11, 1872. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOKTICUXTURE AKD COTTAGE GARDENER. 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



JA>"CAEY 11—17, 1872. 



Th Hilary Law Term begins. 



F 



S I Cambridge Term begins. 



Son I 2 Sunday atter EpiPHAifT, 



M Oxford Lent Term begins. 



5af8 I 11 al4 



Sal 9 9a£ 5 



46 9 1 36 6 



18 10 I 2 8 



89 10 21 9 



67 10 41 10 



14 11 56 11 



81 11 ! mom. 



Clock I Day 

 before ' of 

 Son. I Year. 



9 33 

 9 54 

 10 15 



oear London dnring forty-three years, the average day temperature of the -week is 42.1= ;aiid its night temperature 29.6^. 

 1 the 12th, 1862 ; and the lowest cold 3', on the 13th, 1867. The greatest faU of _rain wm 0.86 mch. 



PEAT SOIL. 



t T is a generally received opinion that Heaths, 

 Azaleas, and other plants with delicate hair- 

 hke roots cannot be grown without peat soil. 

 Such a conclusion, however, is often a mis- 

 taken one, and leads not imfrequently to 

 failure ; for, acting on the impression that 

 peat soil is indispensable, soil bearing that 

 name is procured, and proves whoUy unsuit- 

 able for the plants for which it was intended. 

 Some, too, knowing that peat is required for 

 gi'owing a certaiu class of plants, trust the selection of 

 them to some as ignorant of the soil as they are of the 

 plants themselves. There is a great difference iu peats — 

 some being of great importance to the gardener, others 

 whoUy unsuitable, and, indeed, hurtful for most of the 

 pui-poses of floriculture. 



Whilst admitting turfy peat soil to be the best for hard- 

 wooded plants, such as Heaths, Azaleas, and others with 

 veiy delicate roots, my experience nevertheless leads me 

 to the conclusion that it is not, as is commonly supposed, 

 indispensable. Peat is a deposit of vegetable fibre, the 

 consequence of a long-continued gi'owth on the same spot, 

 and the dark colour of the soil we term peat is given 

 by the plants. Proof of this may be found in the fact 

 than an Azalea or Rhododendron, planted in a hght- 

 coloured sandy loam fuU of fibre, will within a quarter of 

 a century change the soU to a dark brown peat, and the 

 sand that was formerly the colour of the loam, is then as 

 white as the finest silver sand. Heath on our moors 

 foiins the same deposit of dark-coloured soU, and if 

 evidence were needed that the soil was not originally what 

 ■we call peat, we could produce abundant proof of it. 

 Here on the Ught-coloured loam springs up the Heath 

 amongst the turf overlying sand or stone, and so close 

 does its growth become that the grasses give way, and the 

 Heath spreading out forms first a clump, and eventuaUy 

 a peat moor, which was once a hght-coloured loam inter- 

 woven with a tough tbick-gi'owing turf. It is the property 

 of plants to effect an alteration in the colour of sods, and 

 even to enrich them -n-ith their own decayed parts, which 

 enable the subject to exist on the same spot — for every 

 plant in a state of nature supphes itself with the elements 

 of existence — and fit the soil for a higher or grosser- 

 feeding tj'pe of vegetation. The moss on the rock forms 

 a rooting-ground for the Fern, just as the Uchen on trees 

 forms a lodgement for the epiphytes. So whilst culti- 

 vated plants take from the fertility of the soO, those in a 

 wild state enrich it and add to its depth by their decaying 

 parts, being generally succeeded, and often accompanied, 

 by a higher and deeper-growing class of vegetation. 



Peat, then, is a deposit of vegetable matter, consisting 

 of a " sharp sandy soil mixed with the dead fibrous roots 

 of Heath, and is usually of a dark grey colour." There 

 are, however, brown and black peats, due, I consider, to 

 the colour of the loam prior to the growth of the plants. 

 I think the term peat is an inappropriate one for the soil 

 of such value to the gardener, as we give the same name to 



No. 663.- Vol. XXTT., New Series. 



every kind of dark spongy soU, whether it be that over- 

 lying rock or diy elevated gi-ound in a thin strata ; or that 

 on a wet clayey subsoU of considerably less elevation, 

 thinness, and lightness ; or that fi-om ground moderately 

 dry, but moist "enough to produce sphagnum— in which 

 case the peat is brown in colour, verj- spongy, and not 

 of more than a few inches thickness— or that from low 

 ground, where, fi'om the decay of sphagnum or plants 

 aUied to it, a deep layer, generally wet to the roots, is 

 foi-med ; aU these, with many others that I could name, 

 are included in the designation of peat. Heath mould 

 would be a better name for the soil that is used for what 

 I consider to be the finest plants of the garden. 



The heath mould or peat, generally used for deUcate 

 hair-like rooted plants, is the soil which occm-s in elevated 

 well-drained moors, exposed to the witheiing blasts of 

 ■winter and scorching heat of su mm er. The sod, usually 

 less than a foot, and often only a few inches in thickness, 

 lies on a layer of sandstone, Umestone, freestone, or grit, 

 being so thin, and the subsoil so sterile, as to forbid pro- 

 fitable tillage, but yielding a thickly-woven tough turf of 

 vei-y fine grass and good close-gro-wing Heath. The top 

 sod taken off 3 or 4 inches, or as far as the deposit of 

 vegetable matter extends, is highly fiiable and dark- 

 coloured, containing a considerable proportion of fine 

 grains of white sand, and if laid up in a stack for a few 

 months, it vsdll ultimately foi-m the peat so valuable for 

 cultural purposes. It cannot be too fibrous, provided it 

 be full of white sand, in fact the tougher the better. 

 Never take it off so deeply as to biing away any that is 

 close and devoid of fibre,* and avoid that which is of a 

 soft spongy texture. It may be black, brown, or dark 

 grey, but the main consideration is texture, though colour 

 shows the advanced state of the decay of the vegetable 

 matter and the thickness of the deposit. The sooner a 

 deposit is formed the less time is there for decay, and the 

 Ughter is its colour; whilst the slower the deposit the 

 more complete is the decay, and the greater the blackness 

 of the soU. 



Now let us compare this heath mould ■with a fight 

 loamy soil covered ■nath a thickly-woven turf, and what 

 is the difference ? Is it not in the decomposing vegetable 

 matter and the smaller quantity of clay in the peat to 

 what there is in the loam ? Mr. Johnson, in the " Science 

 and Practice of Gardening," page 96, tells us that " Peat 

 of the best description is constituted in 400 parts." 



PEAT. 



Fine siliceous sand 156 



Unaltered vegetable fibre . 2 

 Decomposing vegetable 



matter 110 



Silica (flint) 102 



Alumina (clay) 16 



Oxide of iron 4 



Soluble, vegetable, and sa- 

 line matter 4 



Muriate of lime 4 



Loss 2 



LOAM. 



Fine sand 120 



Decomposing vegetable 



matter 100 



Silica 130 



Alumina 1& 



Oxide of iron 10 



Carbonate of Ume 12 



Sulphate of Ume 1 



Soluble, vegetable, and sa- 

 line matter 5 



Loss * 



400 400 



Now let us compare this ■with an analysis of loam of a 



No. 1215.— Vol. Xl.'vn., Old Sebisb. 



