November i, 1875. ] 



JOURNAL" OP HOKTICOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



395 



WEEKLY CALENDAR. 



MANURE AS A SURFACE DRESSING. 



R. LUCKHURST has, on page 87, opened 

 an interesting question, and in advocating 

 the applying manure to the surface of tlie 

 ground has well sustained his position. 



Ho has told us not only that the practice 

 is good, hut why it is good, which is the 

 best of all modes of teaching. I do not 

 propose to ooneider the theory of the pi'o- 

 ceeding, but will confine myself mainly to 

 my practice and observation, confirmatory 

 of what Mr. Luckhurst has so well said on the point. 



In a village ia the north of England a cottager lived 

 until recently who was generally known as an " old 

 cure" — that is a popular name adopted to point out that 

 iin individual has peculiarities too numerous to be other- 

 wise laconically described. One of the peculiarities of 

 this " old cure " was his mode of manuring his g.ardcn 

 aud planting his Potatoes. His plot was half an acre in 

 extent, and for fifty years and more half of it was occu- 

 pied with Wheat and half with Potatoes, on the alternate 

 system. 



His system of planting Potatoes was to select large 

 tubers and cut them, and to plant each set with the 

 cut side uppermost. His mode of applying manure was 

 to spread the whole of it on the surface after his Wheat 

 was sown and his Potatoes were planted. Year after 

 year he was laughed at, argued with, and advised, but 

 nothing could move him from his plan. Much might be 

 said, and was said, against the soundness of the system — 

 the Potatoes would " go blind," and the manure be " wasted 

 in the air ;" but in the end no one could gainsay the fact 

 that not any of his neighbours had better crops than he 

 had. For half a century he did not change his mode of 

 cropping, and applied every particle of manure on the 

 surface after planting, and he left that land as good as he 

 found it. Of that man and his practice were many dif- 

 ferences of opiuioH, but on two points all were agreed — 

 viz., that his crops were good, and that he was an " old 

 cui-e." The manure I ought to say was rotted, and 

 did not interfere with the work of hoeing and land- 

 cleaning. 



Another instance : A cottager, a very near relation of 

 mine — I will not call him an " old cure," but I daresay 

 some people might — was noted for his good garden crops. 

 His plan was to spread the manure on the ground in the 

 -winter when in a green, long, unrotted state. By the 

 spring its soluble constituents were washed away, and the 

 surface was covered with littery refuse. On a suitable 

 xlay this was loosened with a rake, and was set fire to on 

 the wind side to give, as he said, the land a " swinge." 

 Better crops of Potatoes I have never seen than were 

 produced on that man's land. I knew it for twenty years, 

 and to this day he ig remembered by his neighbours as 

 having been the " best gardener in the place." He at- 

 tributed great importance to the "swinge" (scorch), and 

 on this point let anyone try it who may — spread any- 

 thing over the surface and burn it, and I care not what 

 No. 762.— Vol. XXIX., New Seeies. 



crop is afterwards planted, that crop will be benefited by 

 the surface-scorching. 



Further : In the garden where I was apprenticed the 

 gi-eatest trouble the gardener had to contend with was 

 his failing crop of Raspberries. The plantation was dug 

 aud dunged, aud first one manure was tried and then 

 another, but the crop did not satisfy. It was at length 

 determined to procure fresh canes for a new plantation. 

 " Not another bit o' muck should be dug into the old 

 bed, but it might take its chance for a year or two " until 

 the new canes were profitable. That was the verdict 

 passed on the profitless Raspberry quarter. It did "take 

 its chance," recovered, and for ten years yielded profitable 

 crops of fruit. It was never dug afterwards, but manure 

 was applied to the surface. That lesson I have turned to 

 account. For fifteen years I have been responsible for 

 the fruit supply of gentlemen's gardens, and have never 

 dug amongst the Rasps, and never failed to gather abun- 

 dant crops. Manure has always been applied on the 

 surface. 



Ten years ago I took the charge of a garden. It was a 

 light soil in a dry district. The Black Currants appeared 

 to bo, as the owner said, " on their last legs." They were 

 at the least twenty years old aud produced trashy fi-uit. 

 They had been regularly dug amongst and manured. 

 The digging was omitted, but not the manuring, and 

 every alternate row was chopped nearly to the ground 

 with the billhook. These stumps pushed fresh shoots, 

 and in two years the rest were cut down. The same 

 trees are now bearing heavily as fine fruit as need be 

 grown. They have never failed, and have never had the 

 spade or fork amongst them, but have been top-dressed 

 with soil and manure. I fii-mly believe that under simDar 

 treatment Black Currants will continue to bear satis- 

 factorily for fifty years ; those trees are thirty years old 

 and are better than ever. The same practice I have 

 always followed — that is, never digging, but applying 

 manure on the surface — with Gooseberries and Straw- 

 berries, and with the same good results. I found by 

 actual trial that it was the best plan for a dry district 

 and a light soil, and therefore, like the " old cure," I have 

 adhered to it with unvarying success. 



But what about vegetables ? Well, to every crop, with- 

 out exception, I have found the application of the manure 

 to the surface during the growing season the most pro- 

 fitable mode of applying it — in fact, without following out 

 the plan I never could have given the satisfaction which 

 I have given in providing an unbroken supply of garden 

 produce over a series of years. Broccoli ! why, to dig- 

 in manure for this crop I hold to be absolute waste. 

 What does it do ? It fosters a sappy stem and flabby 

 leaves for the frost to penetrate. I have always planted 

 this crop thinly in hard unmanured ground, and have 

 trusted to the rains of autumn to give the plants all the 

 support they need before winter. When frost arrives 

 then have I covered the surface thoroughly, and the 

 benefit of that manure is not spent in growing succulent 

 plants for the frost to kill, but in perfecting sweet fine 

 heads for table use. The time will come when all grower. 



No. 1114,— Vol. LlV., Old Series. 



