October 81, 1867. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUaE AND COTTAGE OAaDENEB. 



337 



and prevented tliem so easily careering over the neigbbourliood. 

 Those who, like ourselves, have felt the want of a good stock 

 of tree leaves, will excuse reference to such a eimple matter. 

 For reasons implied, we have collected a good quantity, though 

 we would have rather delayed the operation ; but leaves, short 

 grass, and litter will be useful for many purposes. 



Vie may here, in passing, ad\ert to two questions sent to us 

 by " Constant Bkadkrs." First, "Whether would you rake off 

 or dig in the fallen leaves that collect in shrubberies ? " and 

 again : " Will not the constant sweeping and taking awny of 

 tiio leaves that fall from fine trees, even in a j>lea3ure ground, 

 tend in timo to starve these trees, and thus arrest their free 

 and continuous growth ? " And to this latter query we reply in 

 the atlimiative, and say that the ground is deprived of the 

 manuring which Nature intended to give it ; and so convinced 

 of this are some admirers of trees that, though the leaves must 

 be collected on the score of neatness, the gardener has to 

 return an equivalent in the shape of rich top-dressings. Many 

 a poor piece of land that would not pay for ploughing and sow- 

 ing, will pay for both well after standing in wood for from thirty 

 to fifty years, and that chielly owing to the enriching influence 

 of the yearly dropping of leaves and decomposition of the grass 

 which grew iu the open spaces. This just reminds us of three, 

 or at least two, hue Elm trees iu a pleasure ground. More 

 than twenty years ago they were becoming bonnet-headed, and 

 the leaves and shoots were smaller every summer. In the 

 process of alterations a rich top-dressing was given to the 

 ground, extending at least some 50 feet from the boles of the 

 trees, and the result for many years was almost magical. We 

 can see the old signs of starving leturning. Why '? The trees 

 have had nothing given to them, and have been regularly robbed 

 every season of what Nature would have restored to them. 

 Several loads of leaves have been taken from beneath them 

 already, as much more, if not Llowu away, will be removed on 

 Monday, and as yet more than hall of the leaves on the trees 

 are gretnish, and look as if they required a brisk frost to 

 bring them all down. Just think of the depth of the finest 

 manure that would have accumulated under such trees in 

 twenty, thirty, or forty years, and coming in such gentle addi- 

 tions every year, and all swept away from the trees without any 

 return being made. We have been able to do little in thus 

 assisting even lino specimen trees ; but if these noble-headed 

 trees were ours we should like to fork the ground nearly as far 

 as the branches extend, give them from a dozen to a score cart- 

 loads of the best rotten manure, let it lio all the winter, cover 

 with a little soil and turf in the spring, after watering if the 

 weather was dry, and then we should expect for a time good 

 yearly growths and well-sized foliage, indicating luxuriant pro- 

 gression, instead of decrepitude and decay. 



The answer as to the shrubbeiies may now be presumed, and 

 the practice should be varied according to circumstances. If 

 the shrubbery is young, and it is desirable to render it a dense 

 thicket for boundary protection as soon as possible, then the 

 more leaves that can be collected on it, or from the neighbour- 

 hood, the better for the shrubs, and these we would point in 

 shallow with a fork, and keep the ground with a hoe free of 

 weeds in summer. When the shrubbery was established, no 

 digging whatever would be required, and all leaves that would 

 not find their way out to disfigure the lawn, should remain, 

 and decompose where they were. In such cases, even iu tho 

 openest parts, a few barrowloads of soil thrown thinly over the 

 leaves, will be less trouble than taking these out. When a 

 shrubbery is partly opened up, so that specimens stand pro- 

 minent and alone, it will be best to dispense with digging, 

 and either turf up, or let moss form all round them, and iu 

 either of these cases, these open spaces must be cleared of 

 leaves like the rest of the lawn ; and then to give the specimens 

 full justice, they ought to have a little assistance, when all the 

 natural manuring is thus taken away. With our constant re- 

 moving of all that falls from a tree on a lawn, or shrubbery, 

 and yielding nothing in return, we do not give the tree the 

 chances of help it would have, if it stood in the open park, 

 where part of its foliage would be retained in tlie long grass, or 

 if that grass was mowed or grazed, tbeie would be the drop- 

 pings of the animals, and at times the rich top-dressings spread 

 over the grass which would help the trees, as well as secure 

 good crops of hay. Sec. 



If such necessary neatness in removing every fallen leaf from 

 the pleasure grounds involves a lessening of the resources of 

 growth, why do not gardeners more generally allude to or insist 

 on the fact ? Why, because though they know it all well 

 enough ; they have found oat, that whilst neatness mast be 



insisted on, it is for the proprietor, and not the servant, to find 

 the means of returning an equivalent, because whilst more and 

 more is required in forwarding crops, the gardener finds the 

 heat from decomposing leaves is nearly all that he can de- 

 pend upon, without increasing the fuel bill, which must not 

 be at all contemplated ; and because while he wants all that he 

 thus collects for manuring purposes in the garden, when too 

 ilecoraposed to yield any more heat, he knows that for all such 

 garden manuring, and repaying back wl at has been taken from 

 the trees, he may look in vain to the huge moirnds of dung in 

 the farmyard. 



Leaifi and >:liiirt grasn ai means for affonUvt] hottom-lieat. — 

 We will now offer a few remarks chiefly to meet an objection, 

 most kindly stated, as to the danger that may easily result from 

 using such leaves, litter from the stable, and short grass, for 

 obtaining bottom heat almost at once, with little or no previous 

 Iireparation, as alluded to lately. Leaves intended to be kept 

 for a while cannot be collected too dry. Even then they will 

 sweat and heat a little. When collected now for next to pre- 

 sent use, it is as well if they are a little damp. If they lie in a 

 heap a couple of days or so, they will heat almost enough, in 

 such mild weather, either to kill or drive away all the sUmy 

 tribe, 60 apt to be swept up with them, except on the outside 

 of the heap, and, therefore, it is as well to lay that aside when 

 forming a particular bed. Now, such leaves will at once suit 

 any growing ])lant that requires a mild heat, and the gases and 

 steams given off will never hurt the most tender plant — that is, 

 if other things are attended to as they ought to be, and a 

 greater preparation of leaves before using them is a mere waste 

 of tho material. 



Now, genial as the heat from leaves alone is, we can have it 

 much stronger if we mix short grass along with them, and it 

 will also be rendered less violent if some littery dung be also 

 mixed with it, and the litter will make the heat more enduring. 

 We have thrown up such a mixed heap on the Saturday, and 

 then trampled it, and by Monday the heap was as hot as well 

 I could be, but not half the size it was on Saturday, and we 

 j used it at once to give us some bottom heat where we wanted it 

 in a hurry. We thus secured bulk, which we would have lost 

 i with more perfect preparation. We have never concealed 

 the fact that the fumes from such a mixture in a close frame 

 or pit, if they escape into its atmosphere, would kill nearly 

 j every growing plant ; but we have always stated in addition, 

 that when we used such crude very unsweetened material, we 

 invariably covered it over to the depth of from 6 to 9 or more 

 inches with sweet half-rotten dung, or half-rotten leaves, and 

 then no fumes ever came through it, and yet the heat was all 

 that could be desired. Very little moisture ever rises — in fact, 

 the mixture burns itself dry long before it gives over yielding 

 heat, and it takes a very long time to burn itself out or be 

 thoroughly decomposed. 



We mentioned placing some dry ashes en the bed before 

 setting in the cuttings that required a Utile help and yet not to 

 be troubled with damp ; and day after day the ashes remained 

 perfectly dry, until a clever young man, seeing that a few c£ 

 the pots were a little dry, watered them all overhead with a 

 large rose on a pot, as if he had been watering a seed-bed out 

 of doors in the beginning of July. That thoughtless watering 

 put more injurious dampness in that bed than would have 

 come up, or m, during a month of dull foggy weather. 



Of course we wish all who are timid to keep on in the good 

 old way and use no dung until it is so sweet that the vapour 

 that exhales from it is as clear and pellucid, when condensed, as 

 a dewdrop. We resorted to the rough-and-ready mode, because 

 with little to go to we thus had fully three times at least the 

 bulk we otherwise would have had, and because for all, and 

 especially temporary purposes, many an amateur might thus 

 take advantage of the heat that otherwise would warm the 

 general atmosphere during the preparatory process. The only 

 safeguard is to keep all the fumes from such rank material 

 from escaping into the atmosphere of the place. 



For instance, the other week we were glad to fill a pit with 

 such material to bring some plants that needed a little heat 

 nearer to the glass ; but there was a hot-water pipe near the 

 bottom in front, and to take advantage of that in dull or cold 

 weather we had to leave an opening 2 or 3 inches wide between 

 the front wall and the bed, the opening being secured by an 

 old piece of upright paling. Now, if we had made all our bed 

 of such materials, the fumes would have found their way 

 through the openings in the wood into this opening for letting 

 the heat up from the pipe, and soon made wrecks of the most 

 tender subjects in the bed. All this, however, was avoided by 



