134 



JOUENAL OF HOETIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



t Angnst 12, 1875. 



the pod was sound, and the petals stood out as well without 

 the card as with it. Some of the flowers had badly formed 

 petals at the centre ; these were removed — perhaps one or two 

 in each flower, and the largest proportion did not require this ; 

 but every exhibitor would do the same. 



No one would show a Pelargonium with bad trusses or badly 

 formed flowers. Stove and greenhouse plants go under the 

 same manipulation. Small and badly formed Grapes are also 

 removed from the bunches, and even a badly formed petal is 

 pnUed out of a Dahlia; and " D., Deal," himself could not 

 show where the defect had been. 



But all this is very different from " plucking the centre out 

 of a Dahlia," or " plucking and pulling " a Carnation to the 

 extent of deceivinff would-be purchasers. I can assure " D., 

 Deal," that anyone with ordinary judgment might grow flowers 

 and have them on their own plants the same as they were 

 shown by me at South Kensington ; and I thus publicly wash 

 my hands from trying to deceive the public in the manner 

 stated by your correspondent. — J. Dodglas. 



SALINE MANURES TO PEEVENT THE POTATO 

 DISEASE. 

 By a chemical analysis made by M. Sprengel it appears that 

 100,000 lbs. of Potatoes contain of fixed ingredients in lbs. — viz. , 



Potash S90 



Soda 284 



Lime S3 



Magnesia 32 



Alamina 6 



Oxide of iron 2S 



Hilica 8^ 



Sulphuiio acid 54 



Fbospboric acid 40 



Chlorine 15 J 



Total of filed ingredients 814J lbs. 



My garden Foil consists of a good rich loam well manured; 

 but as I had in previous years found the disease amongst my 

 tubers, it occurred to me, having reference to M. Sprengel's 

 analysis, that both the soil and the manure I had employed 

 might be deficient in potash, soda, lime, and magnesia, che- 

 tnioally prepared, and as 1 term them, " the astringent pro- 

 perties of manure." 



In some measure to counteract the over-forcing effects of 

 the sulphates and phosphates of animal manure which pre- 

 viously stimulated the growth of the Potato to a very consider- 

 able size, and produced at the same time a superabundant 

 quantity of haulm and stem, I assumed that the careful supply 

 of these fixed chemical ingredients would in some respect 

 regulate, consolidate, and restrain the plant and the tuber in 

 their growth, and by the formation of a healthy skin rectify 

 the disease. 



The favourable result has been that this year I have not 

 found one bad Potato amongst my crop, although the market 

 gardeners in this neighbourhood, without any exception, are 

 suffering heavy losses amongst theirs. 



These are the quantities which when well combined to- 

 gether are .adapted for an acre of ground. 



^. d. 



Potash (salt of lartarM lb 2 6 



Carbonate of soda, 2 lbs 6 



Lime slaked (at 8(2. per bnshel), 1 peck 2 



Magnesia, 1 lb 2 6 



6 8 



These being retail prices, the cost would be much less bought 

 in quantity wholesale. 



This compound reduced to powder should be carefully mixed 

 together with the ordinary manure applied to an acre, and 

 spread upon the land in tbe autumn, or at all events before 

 Christmas time, for next spring sowing. 



The amount to be used per acre may seem very small, but 

 then it should bo noticed that in this particular instance these 

 ingredients are merely remedial, and are not required as fer- 

 tilisers to stimulate quantity, but rather as a check to regulate 

 and restrain the prurient growth of the Potato to maturity, 

 and under more salutary influences to eradicate disease. 



Such has been the effect upon mine this year — viz., to pro- 

 duce a yield firm, entirely healthy, and clear in the skin, of 

 an average size, and not as previously was the case, some very 

 large and others very small, and to curtail the leaf and stem. — 

 Charles F. Haiward. 



[Tbe foregoing notes, written to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 are extremely deserving of attention. 



" The day has long passed when it was disputed whether 

 saline bodies are promotive of vegetable growth. It is now 

 determined that some plants will not even live without the 

 means of procuring certain salts. Borage, the Nettle, and 

 Parietaria will not exist except where nitrate of potash is in 

 the soil ; Turnips, Lucerne, and some other plants, will not 

 succeed where there is no sulphate of lime. These are facta 

 that have silenced disputation. Still there are found persona 

 who maintain that salts are not essential parts of a plant's 

 structure ; they aesert that such bodies are beneficial to a 

 plant by absorbing moisture to the vicinity of its roots, or by 

 improving the staple of the soil, or by some other secondary 

 mode. This, however, is refuted by the fact that salts enter 

 as intimately into the constitution of plants as do phosphate 

 of lime into that of bones and carbonate of lime into that of 

 egg-shells. They are part of their very fabric, universally 

 present, remaining after the longest washing, and to be found 

 in the ashes of all and any of their parts when subjected to 

 incineration. Thus Saussure observes that the phosphate of 

 lime is universally present in plants. — {Sur la Viget, c. 8., 

 s. 4.) The sap of all trees eoutains acetate of potash. Beet- 

 root contains malate and oxalate of potash, ammonia, and 

 lime; Rhubarb, oxalate of potash and lime; Horseradish, 

 sulphur ; Asparagus, snper-malates, chlorides, acetates, and 

 phosphates of potash and lime; Potatoes, magnesia, citrates, 

 and phosphates of potash and lime; Jerusalem Artichoke, 

 citrate, malate, sulphate, chloride, and phosphate of potash; 

 Garlic, sulphate of potash, magnesia, and phosphate of lime; 

 Geraniums, tartrate of lime, phosphates of lime and magnesia; 

 Peas, phosphate of lime; Kidney Beans, phosphate of lime and 

 potash ; Oranges, carbonate, sulphate, and muriate of potash ; 

 Apples and Pears, malate of potash: Grapes, tartrate of lime; 

 Capsicums, citrate, muriate, and phosphate of potash ; Oak, 

 carbonate of potash; and the Lilac, nitrate of potash. Let no 

 one fancy that the salts are a very trivial portion of the fabric 

 of plants. In the Capsicum they constitute one-tenth of its 

 fruit; of Carrot juice one-hundredth; of Rhubarb one- 

 eleventh ; of Potatoes one-twentieth ; whilst of the seed of the 

 Lithospermum officinale they actually form more than one- 

 half. Their coustituenta being as follows : — 



Carbonate of lime 43.7 



Silica 16-5 



Vegetable matter, phosphate of lime, &c S9.8 



100.0 



These amounts of earthy saline matters are nearly as much 

 as exist in human bones ; but if we turn to the marrow, it only 

 contains one-twentieth of saline matters ; the blood only one- 

 hundredth ; muscle only one-thirty-fourth ; yet no one will 

 argue that these saline constituents, though smaller than those 

 in vegetables, are trivial and unimportant." — {JohnsorVi: Sci- 

 ence and Practice of Gardening.) 



These facts are evidence which cannot be controverted, that 

 plants require a supply of different inorganic foods. Nor is 

 the mode in which these are supplied a matter of indifference. 

 Professor Johnstone proved this. A field of Potatoes was 

 manured alike with forty cartloads of dung. The addition of 



Nitrate of soda alone gave an increase above dang alone 



of SJtone. 



Sulphate of soda alone gave no increase. 



While one-half of each gave o^ tons. 



Sulphate of ammonia alone gave 13 ton. 



Sulphate of soda, uo increase. 



But one-half of each gave *^ tons. 



Nitrate of soda alone gave an increase of SJ tons. 



Sulphate of masnesia alone gave h t«n. 



And one-hall of each gave 9l '»»=• 



The suggestion to our minds is this : probably a due supply 

 of saline manures to obtain the natural solid constituents of 

 the Potato, and storing the tubers before the late summer 

 rains increase its watery constituent, may prevent the disease. 



—Eds.] 



ROSE CUTTINGS. 



Seeing a few words on growing Rose cuttings on page 89 of 

 the Journal, I think the following may be useful, having been 

 very successful in striking them. 



At the beginning of August plant the cuttings in large pots 

 sunk in a shaded border, water well, and cover the pot with a 

 propagating glass. In the middle of October move the pota 

 to a south border, sink them, and earth-up round the glasses, 

 fco that no air is admitted, and in frosty weather have a mat 

 thrown over the glasses at night. In this way I have grown 



