July 34, 1873. ] 



JOUENAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



6S 



which the plants are known in Peru. There are several species 

 besides T. manicata, those best known being moUissima, pin- 

 natistipula, princeps, and grandis. 



Vk'e must not omit to observe that the shoots of the Tao- 

 sonias do not require shortening, but if they are too crowded 

 they may be thiuned-out while young. When the growth is 

 too rampant and sterile of blossoms, a flowering habit may 

 often be induced by training the shoots horizontally, or nearly 

 so. — W. Thompson, Ipstcie}t.—{Enr/lish FlowerOaniin,I\evisi'd.} 



SOILS, THEIR VARIETY AND USES IN 

 VEGETATION. 



Thefe is. perhaps, no term that conveys to the minds of 

 readers the idea of a greater diversity of substances than the 

 word "soil." I will not enter into these, bat at the outset 

 state my intention to confine the remarks made to that outer 

 covering of the earth which supports vegetation , and plays so 

 important a part in the welfai'e alike of the animal as of the 

 vegetable world. It is the part it plays in supporting vege- 

 tation, and the diversities it presents in the different localities 

 in which it is found, to which I shall direct attention in the 

 following remarks. 



Praiseworthy as undoubtedly is the industry of individuals 

 or of communities who have by diligent and well-du'ected cul- 

 tivation rendered a piece or tract of land highly fertile that 

 was previously almost sterile, there can be no question but 

 there are tracts where Nature in a long course of years has 

 accumulated an amount of vegetable wealth which it is not 

 easy by artificial means to store-up. A course of yearly ma- 

 nnrings will render a piece of indiffei'ent land fruitful, but it 

 is made so by the addition it yearly receives, and if left to 

 itself there is reason to believe it would relapse, certainly not 

 into exactly the condition in which it was originally, but into one 

 somewhat approaching it, if left unaided for a sufficient length 

 of time. Most likely the additions it received whQe in culti- 

 vation would have their influence for a number of years ; and 

 if the superfluous water had been drained away in something 

 like a permanent manner, there is little doubt that the surface 

 soil would have undergone a change, both chemically and 

 mechanically, so that it would not easUy revert into the old 

 condition ; whOe if cultivation were continued instead of left 

 off, the piece of poor unfertile land might in time become the 

 reverse of what it once was by the aid of liberal dressings of 

 substances foreign to its original composition. In this, in a 

 great measure, lies the art of good cultivation, and we have 

 not to go far in most neighbourhoods to see examples of it. 

 At the same time it must be confessed that now and then cases 

 are met with where labour and material also may be said 

 to be thrown away; and even in gardening I do not think 

 we are always in the right in what we do or advise in the 

 matter of soils and their treatment. But before embarking in 

 a condemnation of a system that is recommended by so many 

 in almost every number of "our Journal," and often more 

 than once in the same paper, it will be as well to make 

 some farther remarks on the character of the various soUs the 

 gardener has to deal with, and also of those auxiUaries to 

 them that he may have at command, but of course in a smaller 

 way. 



Taking, therefore, the character of the soil of a given dis- 

 trict into consideration, wo shall find on examining it that 

 there is often, but not always, considerable diversity in samples 

 that may be taken from spots not far apart, more especially 

 in hilly districts. The erown of the hill may have only a thin 

 ^kin or covering of soil bound together by a hard wiry kind 

 of grass or other herbage, while at the base of that hill, perhaps 

 not a stone's throw off, may be a morass with several feet 

 deepi of black vegetable matter that has been accumulating for 

 countless ages, and is still increasing, unless disturbed by cul- 

 tivation. Acting as a sponge, it sucks up a great part of the 

 water the hill is charged with, and remains a bog that would 

 not be passable by either man or animals in all places were it 

 not for the thickly-woven carpet of turf or other herbage which 

 forms its outer covering. Such places are becoming fewer as 

 cultivation extends ; for by draining off the water from the 

 level alluded to, and subjecting the surface to cultivation, by 

 degrees it is made to support plants widely different from those 

 natural to such soils. It is some time before the change 

 finally does take place, but by skilful treatment and adapting [ 

 the ground first to the growth of such plants as it is most suit- i 

 able to, it is by degrees brought not only to support vege- • 

 tation of another kind, bat to enable that vegetation to flourish ' 



in more or less luxui-iance. The accumulated substances in 

 which it is so rich are not so easily exhausted as a soil not 

 previously so well fed, and hence its staying powers. At the 

 same time let it be fuUy understood that such a soU is one 

 not usually converted to garden purposes, although I have 

 more than once seen orchards of several acres in extent do 

 pretty well on such a soil, kept moderately dry by deep open 

 ditches from 12 to 20 feet apart. One was a peaty swamp to 

 which salt water must have had access, and probably left a 

 seasoning behind it more favourable to the growth of Planes, 

 etc., than such soOs usually are where the morass is not so 

 formed. 



Taking another class of soil, and one occupying a position 

 in a valley like the last, but not usually so level, we find the 

 material to which the term soD is usually applied a combination 

 of matters in which stones, from the size of a cricket-ball to 

 that of a bean, form three-fourths of the whole, and these 

 stones are all rounded like the pebbles on the seashore. An 

 intermixture of a little fine matter gives such ground a certain 

 degree of fertility, but the inert character of the stones deprives 

 it of the right to be accounted a good soil, and a hungi-y gravel 

 is the name often given it, and with good reason too, as it is 

 often an ungrateful soil to the husbandman, and one which 

 he dislikes more or less according to the proportion of stones 

 which compose it. But a moderate quantity is not only harm- 

 less but really useful, permitting the atmosphere to penetrate 

 the earth by their always remaining the same size ; whereas the 

 swelling and contracting of the material furrounding them 

 enables the air to penetrate in the latter condition. A certain 

 amount of gravel is beneficial to most soils ; for although it can 

 scarcely be said that a hard piece of flint in the form of an egg 

 can impai-t nourishment to a plant, it nevertheless forms a 

 sort of nucleus around which the roots of plants may cling and 

 obtain the food supplied them by the soil which surrounds 

 them ; and stones on the surface help materially to keep in 

 moisture during hot summers, and consequently induce tha 

 formation of roots near the surface, where they would not be 

 without some such covering. Thus we must not altogether 

 despise the gravelly or stony soils we often meet with, imless 

 it happen that these gravels ai'e too hot, and, maybe, rest on 

 a sort of pernicious subsoil, alike obstructive to vegetation and 

 to the tools of the cultivator. But extreme cases of this kind 

 are not common, while ordinary gravelly soils are met with in 

 many places. 



We now come to the soU overlying the chalk or found at 

 its base, a soil much more productive than to the ordinary 

 observer it appears to be. Containing, as it does, so much 

 calcareous matter, it at once points out the class of plants it is 

 adapted for and the contrarj' kind. Strange to say, although 

 chalk in itself is destitute of water, or nearly so, the soil or 

 coating by which it is often so thinly concealed from the open 

 air is far from being hght, open, and porous ; and we not 

 unusually meet with a stiff clay or stiff' loam at the base of 

 chalk hills, where the chalk itself does not embody sufficient 

 flinty matter to render it otherwise. Chalk is usually met 

 viith in hills and often to a great depth ; but in some neigh - 

 bourhoods, as in Hertfordshire, it often descends into the 

 valleys, the soU that overlies it producing good crops of cereals 

 and other things ; and there are some good gardens met 

 with on such soils, the whole of the Cabbage tribe appearing to 

 flourish well on a soil of this description. In colour it is often 

 a palish yellow tinge, never red nor brown, and when of good 

 depth it forms an excellent soU for most cultural purposes. 

 But there has been much diversity of opinion of late as to its 

 suitabUity for Grape culture. On this head, however, some- 

 thing may be said hereafter, and I shall for the present pass 

 on to another kind of soil, expecting to have occasion to refer 

 to this again. 



Another description of soil, and that very widely distributed, 

 is one that overlies the sandstone and has been more or less 

 incorporated with it. Water is usually found at an easy depth 

 in a soil of this land, but it is not necessarily a wet one, while 

 it is certainly one of the most fertile we have, supporting 

 in a flourishing state a greater number of plants that conduce 

 to our welfare than any other previously mentioned. Large 

 portions of the centre of Euglaud consist of soil having an 

 origin of this kind, and it is met with elsewhere as well. In 

 some cases the rock from which it is supposed to have origin- 

 ally come is all, or nearly all, gone; in others the harder 

 parts only exist, and these waste more or less slowly as 

 years pass on. Many of the soils having this as a base are 

 exceedingly productive and adapted to most kinds of crops, 



