i3i 



JOOBNAL OF HOBTICULTUliE AND COTTAGE GA.BDENEE. 



[ D«comber 2, 1869. 



I have seen it shown by some amateurs from near Bedale, bot 

 I have grown two plants each year for the last two years, yet 

 have not had a flower fit to exhibit. There are many more 

 good sorts which I have grown, but tbey are so inconstant as 

 to he of no nso to an amateur, sometimes producing nut one 

 good flower in a season. 



My method of cultivation is to obtain strong plants by the 

 last week in May, and then plant them out ; watering them 

 overhead twice aweek, or oftener, if the weather be very dry, 

 and thinning the lateral shoots out as soon as they are an inch 

 long, taking two shoots out of every three in the case of medium- 

 sized flowers, and with large flowers less, supplying the plants 

 when making their flower buds with a drenching of liquid 

 manure once aweek, besides washing them overhead with 

 clean water every night to keep thrips off the flowers. By 

 following out this plan, an amateur can cut twelve or more 

 dissimilar varieties any timo from the middle of August to the 

 end of the season — that .is, if the land be well manured and 

 'wenched to begin with. — Jcu.n Hildketu. 



APPLICATION OF MANURES. 



KoiniNG is easier for any person fond of reading than to gst 

 up an orthodo^i: opinion on any well-diacussed subject. It is 

 only when wo thiuk for ourselves and advance independent 

 ideas we get into trouble. L nfortuualcly it is not every one 

 who can bow to authority on purely ecientifio suljects, and 

 though chairmen can do no wvonp, and eiitors are supposed to 

 know everything, I am more than ever convinced that nufer- 

 mented manure loses nothing by sun aud wind. For have I 

 not been answered by our Editors? Has not every argument 

 that could have been advanced been recorded against me by 

 the highest authority :' If these have not carried convii;tion, 

 what more can be expected '.' 



With the excellent directions forpreparing fermented minure 

 we have now no coucsru, hecaute that is not now the question, 

 nor whether my opinions accord with those of Professor John- 

 ston and of Davy, with whose works I am well acquainted, but 

 whether unfermented manure loses anything besides water by 

 exposure to sun aud wind. The Editors say fresh pigeons' 

 manure, fowls' manure, and sheep's manure are stronger than 

 old, wh;ch is just begging the question ; that fresh guanos are 

 richer in ammoniacal salts than those long exposed to the sun, 

 which i'; again bej,'giug the question, or, at any rate, taking the 

 eauee of loss for granted. .Johnston says, " Pigeons' manure when 

 exposed to moisture undergoes fermentation, and loses a portion 

 of ammoniacal salts;" " iu warm climates pigeons' manure 

 dries rapidly, and may be kept for a considerable time without 

 losing its fertilising virtue " (?ee page 801 of his " Lectures on 

 Chemistry "). " Daring the putrefaction of urine the greatest 

 port of the soluble animal matter that it contains is destroyed ; 

 it should consequently be used as fresh a3 possible" (Davy 

 and Shiers, page '231). 



These extracts do not look as it the authorities quoted could 

 be well cited against me ; but if your readers will turn to the 

 seventeenth volume of the Rryal Agricultural Society's "Jour- 

 nal" they will find a long and interesting essay on farmyard 

 manure by Dr. Augustus Voelcker, from which I will make a 

 law extracts, though I would advise everyone to read il; for 

 themselves. " Perfectly fresh manure contains but a small 

 proportion of free ammonia." " The nitrogen in fresh dr.ng 

 exists principally in the state of insoluble nitrogenised matters." 

 " The most ell'ectual moans of preventing loss in fertilising 

 matters is to cart the manure directly on the field." " On all 

 soils with a moderate proportion of clay no fear need to be 

 entertained of valuable fertilising matters becoming wasted if 

 the manure cannot be ploughed iu at once." " Fresh, <iml ri'en 

 ii'ell-rntted nianurf contains very little free ammonia, and since 

 active fermentation, and wiih it the further evolution of free 

 ammonia, is stopped by spreading out the manure on the field, 

 valuable volatile manuring matters cannot escape into the air 

 by adopting this plan." "It may indeed be questioned whether 

 it is more advisable to plough in the manure at once, or to 

 let it lie for some lime on the surface, and to give the rain full 

 opportnnily to wash it into the soil." "In the case of clay 

 soils, I hive no hesitation to say the manure may bo spread 

 even six month-i before it is ploughed in, without losiug any 

 appreciable quantity of manuring matters. " " Daring the 

 fermentation of dung ulmic, humio, and other organic acids are 

 formed, as well as gypsum, which lis the ammonia generated 

 iu the decomposition of the nitrogenised constituents of dung." I 



I seut the three numbers containing this controversy to a 

 gentleman well known as a first-rate analytical chemist, &nd 

 asked him to forward his opinion on certain questions, which I 

 wish yon to publish, though, as I have not his leave to give his 

 name yon will please not insert it. I received Dr. Voelcker's 

 essay, from which I have made these extracts, since writing 

 the first part of this paper, and certainly was pleased to find I 

 was so borne out by such an authority. 



Mr. Bivers, in a letter received some time since, says he not 

 only agrees with me, but practise; the same plan of manuring. 

 I may now be permitted to eay, that when old guano is less 

 valuable than fresh, it is due to rains having fallen upon it, or 

 damp having caused fermentation, and the same with the dung 

 of the sheep or pigeon ; and that I was quite surprised to see 

 the loss of carbonic acid mentioned — first, because it is impos- 

 sible to occur in the absence of fermentation, and, secondly, it 

 would be little loss if it did. I hope at least that your nume- 

 rous readers, whichever side of the question they take, will 

 give me credit for not advancing opinions without some con- 

 sideration, and that the Editors will excuse my differing from 

 them in the matter.— J. U. Peai-.son, Chiluell. ' 



The letter Mr. Pearson enclosed is as follows :— " In answer 

 to your ioquiiies I beg to give you as my opinion — 



' Ist, That no carbonic acid would be lost by spreading fresh 

 manure upon the land. The loss of carbonic acid occurs in 

 the manure heap several fcot in thickness where active fer- 

 mentation is going on. 



" 2ud, Ammonia is only present in unfermented dung in 

 very, very small quantity. 



"3rd, Uiio acid in manure would not be dissipated unless 

 the manure were in an active state of decomposition. Spread 

 thinly over the soil, no loss would be sustained. 



"lib, Uric acid will be turned into ammonia only by tlie 

 process of fermentation. 



"5th, Heavy showers and fermentation have more to do 

 with the depreciation of guano than sun and wind. In moist 

 climates the ammonia is all washed out, and nothing but the 

 phosphate left. 



" 'There is an old adage — 



'" Be it wot or be it dry, 



Spread year muck aud let it lie' 



After which, in my opinion, it is best to be ploughed in as 

 soon as convenient." 



[We remain of the opinion we expressed, and consider that 

 exposing spread stable manure for a lengthened period to the 

 sun and wind deprives it of some of its fertilising constituents, 

 and that by such exposure it canuot gain anything. The other 

 examples we quoted of animal dungs, we consider illustrations 

 of the consequences of exposing such excie'ions for a long time 

 until they have become as dry as sun and wind can make them. 

 We will pass over what Prof. Johnston states about the waste 

 from allowing long dung to remain on the surface of the soil, 

 and what Davy says about keeping dungs from exposure to the 

 air; and we will proceed at once to the quotations from Prof. 

 Voeloker's well-known cimmunication to the lloyal Agricultural 

 Society. He says, " Perfectly fresh manure contains but a 

 small proportion of free ammonia." What becomes cf that 

 proportion when the manure is exposed until it is dry as sun 

 and air can make it? Why, it is dissipated and lost, which 

 would not have been the case it the manure had been ploughed 

 or dug in. When Profetsor Voelcker speaks of no fear of waste 

 it the soil contains clay, he only refers to what is washed into 

 the soil ly the rains. So, when the Professor observes that 

 active fermentation and the evolution ol free ammonia are 

 stopped by speaiiing out the manure, he does not proceed to 

 say that it loses nothing but water, as Mr. Pearson implied, il 

 it be left exposed on the surface. We quite agree as to checking 

 fermentation, but we add, spread and plough or dig in at once, 

 it only to save the "small" amount of free ammonia. Pro- 

 fessor Voelcker says no more than that it is to be " questioned 

 whether it is more advisable to plough in the manure at once, 

 or to let it lie for some time on the surface, aud to give the 

 rain full opportunity to wash it iuto the soil ;" but with all 

 the well-deserved deference we feel for the Professor, wc cannot 

 perceive why all lisk of loss should not be avoided by burying 

 the manure at once in the soil, instead of waiting for it to be 

 washed in by the rain. The Professor adds, " that exposure 

 for six months on the surface would not cause the loss of any 

 appreciable quantity of manuring matteis," but he confines 

 this fo "clay soils," and therefore refers to the soluble matters 

 washed in by the rains. The "small" proportion of free 



