Octolicr 14, 1869. ] 



JOURNAL OP HOBTICTJLTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



309 



tweWemonth, the oldest to be used firBt when all the bulky 

 material ia sufficiently decomposed. To give •fEcaoy to such 

 heaps of refuse, nothing is better than short grass, as its heat- 

 ing sots the whole mass fermentinK, and the largest Cabbage 

 stamps, Hollyhock stems, &c., thus soon become decomposed. 

 The grass acta best when mixed with Cabbage st»ms, small 

 prunings and clippings, &o., and when kept pretty well down, 

 so that the heat f.-om it will rise ; and the surface should bo 

 coTered with refuse soil, so as to prevent the fertilising gases 

 from escaping, the strongest and most unpleasant to the sense 

 of smell being most valuable when diffused and fixed in the 

 mass. We have known such accumulations of short grass, left 

 to themselves, become a perfect nuisance — nay, dangerous to 

 the health of the workmen near them, whilst more spread-out 

 and covered, they became valuable, and caused little or no 

 offence to the passers-by. Even in a small garden, and espe- 

 cially where there is a lawn, and sides of walks to clip and 

 clean, the quantity of rich excellent material that may thus be 

 collected in a year is very great. 



One great advantage of the short grass, and even a litlle 

 stable manure, forming part of the rubbish heap, is that the 

 heat not only decomposes what has rather too much woody 

 fibre, as huge Broccoli stumps, but it also destroys many seeds, 

 and drives away many insect enemies that otherwise would 

 find a congenial home. We know in many cases it would save 

 time to trench down vegetable refuse at once, and let it de- 

 compose slowly in the soil, and thus we have dono with ex- 

 hausted quarters of Broccoli, Borecole, and Cabbage ; but such 

 digging down did not improve the succeeding crop like a 

 dressing from the rubbish heap, dug down or incorporated with 

 the soil in the usual way. Besides, we have reason to believe 

 that insect depredators often insert their eggs in the stems of 

 Tegetables, and if these are not well buried, the young larvse 

 could scarcely at first have better feeding ground ; but when 

 these are well sunk and well heated in a rubbish heap, there ii 

 more likelihood that eggs and larvaB will be destroyed. 



A little salt or lime sprinkled on rubbish heaps will hasten 

 tha decomposition of organic matter, and make the heap more 

 valuable ; but much of the natural virtues of the heap will be 

 retained by a surface-covering of soil, and a few barrowloado 

 from tbe potting-beuch, etc., may be left for the purpoie, to be 

 applied after depositing fresh vegetable matter. It i» advis- 

 able, however, to have two or three heaps instead of one, 

 and then they can be better attended to, and the one will «u»- 

 ceed the other in fitness, to be applied as wanted. When 

 woody refuse is charred, or strong weeds with some soil ad- 

 hering to them, as couch and other grasses, are burned, the 

 burnt earth, clay, &c., left, form one of the best matorials fur 

 throwing over all rubbish heaps when in a Btate of fermenta- 

 tion. 



We lately saw a very large oblong heap of the best dung 

 deeomposing just enough in a field, placed there to save carting 

 a long distance when it was to be applied. This was turned 

 over once or twice, and well mixed and heated ; a good portion 

 of its best properties would have escaped into the general 

 atmosphere, but as a huge heap of twitch had been burned, 

 the ashes and earth from it thrown over the h«»p and along 

 lit sides prevented tbe escape of the rich gases. All ferment- 

 ing masses of dung will lose much of their nntritiv* properties 

 nnless some similar method be resorted to. But for living so 

 much in the open air, many farmers would suffer in health 

 from the huge masses of manure thrown up in thsir yards 

 close to the dwelling house, and with nothing done to prevent 

 tha escape of some of tbe best propertiaa of the manure. 

 With the rains washing some of the best properties of the 

 manure in open yards into the nearest ditches and rivnlets, 

 and the escape of the gases from heaps of such manure when 

 thrown together, it is no wonder that artificial manur«s at a 

 high price have to be added to make the old dung heap at all 

 eSeetive ; these artificial manures, in many cases, doing little 

 more than restoring what has been lost by our own carelessness. 



Charring Tf'oody Ecfusr. — We have such a quantity of woody 

 rnbbisb, that we are anxious to char a lot of it, but cannot 

 well begin in such fine, mild weather, as there is sure at first 

 to be a great and disagreeable smoke from the loppings, prun- 

 ings, &o. We say nothing now of charring large wood ; that is 

 done by having tbe fire well lighted and then excluding air, only 

 admitting a little so as to secure slow combustion, but not so 

 mnch as to allow the wood to flare, for then it would burn to ashes 

 instead of merely being charred through. In general charring, 

 the best covering is turf, and then earth over it. In charring 

 a lot of small wood, pruaings, branches. Hollyhock stems, &;;., 



it would be too much trouble and eipen.se to use turf for snoh 

 a purpose, as a large heap soon becomes small when the fire 

 has t-iiken hold and the charring commences ; and treat as you 

 will, unless you faggot previously, which, again, is too much 

 trouble for the result obtaiueii, the heap will be apt to sink un- 

 equally, and thus air will find its way in and cause the heap to 

 flare unless watched. For charring all such wood rubbish, 

 nothing is better than a slight covering of mowings and sweep- 

 ings of grass and tree leaves, with a little earth over them, 

 until the heap subsides, after being well healed, when a little 

 more earth may be added. The charring heap and the rubbish 

 heap will thus mutually assist each other. 



There is one more matter to be considered about the charring 

 heap, and that is, before burning it up, or rather making it 

 small by charring, wherever wood is scarce a lot of the best 

 pruningB should be made up into bundles for lighting the hot- 

 house and other fires. A man with a bill and an elevated 

 block will soon make up a number of these little bundles from 

 pruninga, and if the heap is near a shed the work may be done 

 in a wet day. The little bundles may be from 12 to 15 inches 

 long, and from 5 to G or more inches in diameter, have a small 

 handful of straw in each, be tied with a small band of straw, 

 and be piled in a shed ; they will always be dry and easily 

 kindled when wanted. 



All these are operations that may receive attention now, 

 when a little breathing time can often be had after the svimmer. 

 Wo shall shortly mow a part of the pleasure grounds in which 

 the graes is too long and rough for our machines, and we 

 should like to make a base of tbe grass and some stable litter, 

 turn over part of our more recent rubbish heap upon it, and 

 place more grass in alternate layers. Such a heap, we know 

 from experience, would turn out well after the New Year. 



Since writing the above, a favourable change in tbe wind 

 carrying the smoke from the direction in which it would have 

 been unpleasant, we were tempted to try and lessen the bulk 

 of a lot of spray wood, prunings, twigs, &c., and we managed 

 to char a quantity. For all small twigs it does not answer to 

 continue the charring process long ; from twelve to eighteen 

 hours, or even much less, are generally sufficient, because take 

 what care you will, with such small brushwood to deal with, the 

 air is apt to find its way in ; and even bank up as you will, there 

 is so little substance to fall baek upon, that you are apt to ob- 

 tain ashes instead of charred material. Of course, what we 

 have is rather rough, and had to be watered as soon as taken 

 out ; but when cooled and passed through a fine sieve we ob- 

 tained a large heap that will do for potting, pot-draining. See., 

 and another large heap of black dust, first-rate to serve for 

 sprinkling and surfacing for cuttings, &c. What was left in 

 our heaps we appropriated to burning up weeds, old soil, and 

 stumps and stems that would have been of little use either in 

 the charring heap or the rubbish heap. 



Sawdtut. — We have this pretty well charred, and therefore 

 made useful, by mixing it sparingly with the brushwood charred ; 

 and though by leaving open conduits for drains for air we have 

 sometimes been fortunate in charring it by itself in a heap, 

 yet on the whole our success was very unsatisfactory, and the 

 result hardly justified the labour and trouble involved. In 

 many places sawdust, both hardwooded and softwooded, is 

 often so abundant, that it is desirable to get rid of it, being o£ 

 but little use so far as cultivation is concerned. If charred it 

 would be invaluable as a surface-dressing, and as helping to 

 keep enemies away. Anyone who can tell of a simple, easy, in- 

 expensive process, by which the charring of sawdust can be 

 accomplished without ovens, retorts, or anything of the kind, 

 would be conferring a benefit upon many. 



Perhaps the most useful purpose sawdust can be applied to 

 in a garden is, when tolerably fresh and dry, using it for giving 

 a mild bottom heat to plants plunged in it. Thus used it will 

 retain its heat for a long time. The only drawbacks are, that 

 if the bottom af the pot rests on the sawdust the hole in the 

 pot will be so apt to be clogged as to prevent water passing cS 

 freely, however well the drainage has been attended to ; again, 

 fungi, &o., are so likely to appear, as to require watching and 

 destroying by quicklime applications. 



We have seen sawdust recommended for packing fruit, roots, 

 and even banking-up Celery, but for none of these purposes 

 should we like to use it, as it is likely to heat and always to 

 give a disagreeable taint to whatever is edible that comes in 

 contact with it. In plunging pbmt.s in it, it is easy to avoid 

 choking by the battering-up of the drainage hole ; but neglect- 

 ing the precaution of looking after such matters has ruined 

 many a plant. The more water was used the more would the 



