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JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AKD COTTAGE GAEDENEE. f December S2, 186S. 



necessity, when more than ordinary productiveness is wanted, 

 of resorting to some means in addition to those which nature 

 has provided; and this assistance is more necessary in a 

 climate less favom-able to vegetation than those of the 

 tropics. However, enterprising cultivators have not been 

 wanting, and in this country the results of numerous and 

 carefully-performed experiments in husbandry and garden- 

 ing have from time to time been placed before us. Dis- 

 cussions have also verified what is safe and right to follow, 

 and certain substances have been so generally acknowledged 

 to be favourable to the growth of particular plants as to be 

 almost household words. Some manures, too, which have 

 been put forward with high-sounding names have failed to 

 produce such good results as were expected of them, and 

 have consequently faUen into disuse. whOe they in turn have 

 been succeeded by others sharing a similar fate, but not 

 without having an occasional supporter who would state his 

 conviction of their utility. My object, however, is not to 

 go through the list of manurial substances that have at 

 various times been urged on the attention of the farmer and 

 gardener, but merely to point out some of those within the 

 roach of the latter, which are not so extensively used as they 

 ought to be. I may also make a few stray notes on those 

 so strongly recommended of late years, and which have 

 either not realised the expectations formed of them, or could 

 not be had in suiiicient abundance. 



Charcoal. — Some twenty or more years ago no little stir 

 was made in the gardening world, by the marvellous effects 

 which this substance was said to have on vegetation. Char- 

 coal in lumps or charcoal dust was reported to possess some 

 peculiar vji-tue of great importance to vegetation, and a 

 number of cases were recorded in which it was said to 

 have been used with such success that it promised to equal 

 in importance gas, steam, and the other improvements of 

 the age. That its utility as a fertiliser in conjunction 

 with other substances is very great there cannot be a ques- 

 tion ; but it gradually sunk in estimation, and eventually 

 took its place with other things of like merit. Neverthe- 

 less, it must be admitted, that while it was at the height 

 of its popularity, many persons seemed to look down with 

 contemptuous disdain on the plodding dung-cai-t. Charcoal 

 was said to be capable of imparting an almost marvellous 

 vigour to many plants on which it was tried — Cucumbers, 

 Pines, flowering plants of various kinds, and even out-door 

 crops. Nay, so far was the ehai'Ooal mania carried, that a 

 gentleman who had extensive plantations in the West 

 Indies, prepared a large quantity on his estates in England, 

 and sent it over to Demerara to dress his sugar plantations 

 with. Of the result of this latter exjjeriment I never heard, 

 but the gradual decline of this article to its place with other 

 manures, and the subsequent depreciation of West Indian 

 property from political causes, naturaUy led to the abandon- 

 ment of aU previously concerted plans for exporting charcoal. 

 Nevertheless, it continued to be popular with some, and its 

 merits are acknowledged at the present day. 



In potting plants of various kinds, its use in a rough state 

 as drainage has been at all times a favourite practice and 

 still continues to be so, and in this way few plants object 

 to it, while a large number seem to enjoy it much. Small 

 pieces of charcoal mixed with the soil, when plants require 

 it to be very open, are also beneficial, and many Orchids 

 and other plants of delicate habits seem to enioy the open 

 texture which a quantity of charcoal or its dust gives to the 

 mixture they are grown in. Chai-coal dust or ashes have 

 been from time immemorial recommended for Onions ; and 

 mixed with the soil in which young Cabbage and other 

 plants of a similar nature are sown, it is said to prevent the 

 clubbing which would otherwise happen. Some other qua- 

 lities it also has, but they must not be gone into here; 

 suffice it to say that charcoal, unlike ordinary decaying 

 manures, which impart richness to the mould they are in 

 contact with, appeai-s to act by absorbing liquids at such 

 times as they are supplied, and parting with them to the 

 roots of plants as they are wanted. Charcoal, though cer- 

 tainly not a ban-en substance, is nevertheless far from being 

 agreeable to vegetation when alone, but when mixed with 

 other_ ingredients, as good soil &c., its presence adds ma- 

 terially to the value of the compound. Decaying but slowly, 

 and at the same time beiug a good absorbent, it takes up 

 moisture fi-om the adjoining soii, and parts with this to 



the roots of the plant, which cling round it for the pui-pose 

 of taking it up. Its limited supply will always prevent 

 its being used to any great extent for out-door or field 

 work ; but for special purposes, where it has been tried, 

 it appeal's to have given every satisfaction, not as a stimu- 

 lant, like many manures, but as an enduring item in the 

 compound, to which it might not be improper to apply the 

 term "storekeeper," as its duties seem to be to look out for 

 liquids, and lay in a supply, which it deals out to its cus- 

 tomers as wanted. 



BuKNT Clay obBrickdust. — This substance fell far short 

 of the popularity of the last-named, although it was brought 

 forward soon afterwards as a sort of rival, as reports cir- 

 culated in its favour made it appear quite as valuable. 

 Subsequent experience, however, has proved this not to be 

 the case ; although as an ingredient in a mixture it is not 

 without its merits. It must, however, be regarded as having 

 failed in one of the principal objects for which it was spe- 

 cially put forth — namely, as a substance in which cuttings 

 of delicate plants or those difficult to propagate were likely 

 to root well. On the contrary, it is inferior in this respect 

 to both sand and charcoal-dust. Burnt clay, however, has 

 the advantage of often being procurable in larger quantities 

 than burnt wood, and on that account it is used more exten- 

 sively for out-door crops. The refuse of a brickyard or the 

 charred red ashes of clay that have been burnt for the pur- 

 pose are both excellent substances to work into stiff clayey 

 lands to diminish their adhesiveness, and for this purpose 

 they may be used freely. The mode of burning clay having 

 been explained several times in this Journal it need not be 

 repeated here. As an ingredient in mixtures for potted 

 plants it merely acts as drainage when in a rough state, 

 and in this capacity it is inferior to charcoal. 



Peat. — The acknowledged utility of this requires no com- 

 ment further than to say, that useful as it is now considered 

 to be, it has in some degree fallen into disrepute during the 

 last eighteen years, or rather that it has not attained that esti- 

 mation which it was previously expected to do. The remai'k- 

 able instance of good Pine-growing in Prance, which was said 

 CO be entirely owing to peat being used, created no little 

 stir amongst those who regarded their own especial mixtures 

 as the very best that could be had. From Pines it was easy 

 and natural to try it on other things, and Cucumbers were 

 next successfully experimented on. Grapes, I believe, were 

 tried, but I am not awai-e of anything particular worthy of 

 note r^ suiting from the trial, and I think the experiments 

 were not repeated. Its applicability to Pines and Cucumbers 

 was held to be established, and it was used by some growers 

 for a few years in their Cucumber-frames. However, I believe 

 it is now only very sparingly employed in that way ; while, 

 on the contrai-y, it is more extensively used than ever on the 

 potting-bench, the number of plants grown almost entirely 

 in it being very great, and for a considerable number it also 

 constitutes a component part of the soil along with leaf 

 mould, maiden earth, &c. In fact, the utility of peat requires 

 no encomium here. What, hov^ever, is n)uch wanted is some 

 easily available test by which its properties may be known, 

 without ranning that risk of doing harm which is sometimes 

 the case when peat of a deleterious nature is used, and there 

 are some kinds which deserve that name by their action on 

 plants. The peat found in places where it has been formed 

 at some early period by the action of water on the substances 

 composing it, difl'ers very wiiely indeed in its properties as 

 regards plants. Some of the peat so obtained is suited to 

 the wants of only a very limited number of plants, and is 

 poison or little better to the majority of the plants that ai-e 

 more especially the ornaments of the plant-house, the shrub- 

 bery, and the flower-border. 



I have more than opce known fine large Ehododendrons 

 very severely injured by a pernicious kind of boggy peat 

 having been applied to the roots. Not long ago my attention 

 was caUed to the state of some young plants that had been 

 planted in a soil not by any means suited to the Rhododen- 

 dron ; but to assist it and give the plants a stai-t, about a 

 baiTowload of a mixture consisting of bog peat, leaf mould, 

 sand, old sawdust, and woody refuse was added, a:-;d it was 

 expected that this compound would start the young Rhodo- 

 dendrons, and that by degrees they would, perhaps, take to 

 the ordinary soil of the ))nd. Many of the plants, however, 

 never made a root in the mixture, but dwindled away after 



