NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



337 



pared with that of other lamps. The result showed 

 that, 1, it produces from two to two and two-thirds 

 (according to the size of the wick) times as much 

 light as a common glass lamp with two solid wicks 

 from the same quantity of oil, in a given time ; 2, 

 the light remains "perfectly unchangeable during the 

 time the Lamp is used; there is not the slightest 

 decrease or increase of it. This I consider as very 

 important ; for nothing impairs the eye-sight 

 more than the gradual and imperceptible change 

 of light in the common lamps; 3, as the capillary 

 attraction of the wick is entirely dispensed with, 

 the poorest oil is jus/ as good for it as the best ; 4, 

 it requires no trimming during live or six hours 

 when in use; 5, it is very elegant in its form, and 

 admits of all kinds of ornament ; but it can be 

 made for 75 cents. 



THE PROPER PERIOD TO APPLY LI- 

 QUID MANURE. 



The great importance of the liquid manure ques- 

 tion, and the numerous inquiries made of us as to 

 the application of this fluid, lead us once more to 

 resume the subject, restricting ourselves on the 

 present occasion to a single point, namely, the 

 period in the growth of a plant when it may be 

 most advantageously applied, or should be alto- 

 gether withheld. 



In order to understand this part of the question, 

 it must be borne in mind — 1, that liquid manure is 

 an agent ready for immediate use, its main value 

 depending upon that quality ; 2, that its effect is 

 to produce exuberant growth; and 3, that it will 

 continue to do so as long as the temperature and 

 light required for its action are sufficient. These 

 throe propositions, rightly understood, point to the 

 true principles of applying it; and, if they are 

 kept in view, no mistakes can well be made. They 

 render it evident that the period in the growth of 

 a plant, at which it should be applied, depends en- 

 tirely upon the nature of the plant, and the object 

 to be gained. 



If, for example, wood and leaves are all that 

 the cultivator desires to obtain, it will be evident 

 that liquid manure may be used freely from the 

 time when buds first break, until it is necessary 

 that the process of ripening the wood shall begin. 

 Wood cannot ripen so long as it is growing ; wood 

 will continue to grow as long as leaves form, and 

 its rate of growth will be in direct proportion to 

 their rate of development ; therefore, in order to 

 ripen wood, growth must be arrested. But the 

 growth of wood will not be arrested so long as 

 liquid manure continues to be applied, except in 

 the presence of a temperature low enough to in- 

 jure or destroy it. Hence it is obvious that liquid 

 manure must be withheld from plants grown for 

 their wood and leaves, at the latest, by the time 

 when two-thirds of the season shall have elapsed. 

 To administer it in such cases towards the end of 

 the year would be to produce upon it an effect 

 similar to that caused by a warm wet autumn, 

 when even hardy trees are damaged by the earliest 

 frost. 



In the case of flowers it is to be remembered 

 that the more leaves a plant forms the fewer the 

 blossoms in that season ; although perhaps the 

 more in a succeeding season, provided exuberance 

 is then arrested. The application of liquid manure 

 is therefore unfavorable to the immediate production 

 of flowers. It is further to be remarked that even 



although flowers shall have arrived at a rudimen- 

 tary state at a time when this fluid is applied, and 

 that therefore their number cannot be diminished, 

 yet that the effect of exuberance is notoriously to 

 cause deformity ; petals become distorted, the 

 colored parts become green, and leaves take the 

 place of the floral organs, as we so often see with 

 roses grown with strong rank manure. In im- 

 proving the quality of flowers, liquid manure is 

 therefore a dangerous ingredient ; nevertheless, its 

 action is most important, if it is rightly given. — 

 The true period of applying it, with a view to 

 heighten the beauty of flowers, is undoubtedly 

 when their buds are large enough to show that the 

 elementary organization is completed, and there- 

 fore beyond the reach of derangement. If the 

 floral apparatus has once taken upon itself the 

 natural condition, no exuberance will afterwards 

 affect it ; the parts which are small will simply 

 grow larger and acquire brighter colors ; for those 

 changes in flowers which cause monstrous develop- 

 ment, appear to take effect only when the organs 

 are in a nascent state — at the very moment of 

 their birth. Hence it is clear, that in order to 

 affect flowers advantageously by liquid manure, 

 it should be given to plants at the time when the 

 flower bud is formed and just about to swell more 

 rapidly. 



With fruit it is different ; the period of appli- 

 cation should there be when the fruit, not the 

 flowers, are beginning to swell. Nothing is gain- 

 ed by influencing the size or color of the flower of 

 a fruit tree ; what we want is to increase the size 

 or the abundance of the fruit. If liquid manure is 

 applied to a plant wdien the flowers are growing, 

 the vigor which it communicates to them must also 

 be communicated to the leaves ; but when leaves 

 are growing unusually fast, there is sometimes a 

 danger that they may rob the branches of the sap 

 required for the nutrition of the fruit ; and if that 

 happens, the latter falls off. Here, then, is a 

 source of danger which must not be lost sight of. 

 No doubt, the proper time for using liquid manure 

 is when the fruit is beginning to swell, and has 

 acquired, by means of its own green surface, a 

 power of suction capable of opposing that of the 

 leaves. At that time, liquid manure may be ap- 

 plied freely, and continued, from time to time, as 

 long as the fruit is growing. But, at the first sign 

 of ripening, or even earlier, it should be wholly 

 withheld. The ripening process consists in certain 

 changes which the constituents of the fruit and 

 surrounding leaves undergo ; it is a new elabora- 

 tion, which can only be interfered with by the con- 

 tinual introduction of crude matters, such as liquid 

 manure will supply. We all know that when 

 ripening has once begun, even water spoils the 

 quality of fruit, although it augments the size ; as 

 is sufficiently shown by the strawberries prepared 

 for the London market, by daily irrigation. Great 

 additional size is obtained, but it is at the expense 

 of flavor ; and any injury which mere water may 

 produce, will certainly not be diminished by water 

 holding ammoniacal and saline substances in solu- 

 tion. — London Gardener's Chronicle. 



The Wool Grower. — This work is hereafter to 

 be published at Rochester, by D. D. T. Moore, 

 Esq., of the Rural New-Yorker, but conducted by 

 T. C. Peters, Esq., its former Editor. It is the 



