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 can net 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 injure or destroy it. Hence it is obvious that liquid manure 

 must be withheld from plants growu for their wood and leaves, at the latest, by the time when two- 

 thirds of tlie 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 oi flowers, it is to be remembered that the more leaves a plant forms, the fewer blos- 

 soms in that season ; although perhaps the more in a succeeding season, provided exuberance is then 

 arrested. Tlie application of liquid manure Is therefore unfavorable to the immediate production of 

 flowers. It is further to be remarked, that even although Howers shall have arrived at a rudimfntary 

 state at a time when this fluid is applied, and that therefore theii- number can not be diminished, yet 

 that the effect of exuberance is notoi'iously 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 improving the quality of flowers, liquid manure is therefore a danger- 

 ous 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 therefore beyond the reach of 

 derangement. If the floral apparatus has once taken upon itself the natural condition, no exuberance 

 will iS'terwards affect it ; the parts which are small will simply grow larger and acquire brighter 

 colors ; for those changes in flowers which cause monstrous development, appear to take eff"cct 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 application should there be when the fruit, not the 

 flowers, are beginning to swell. Nothing is gained by influencing tlie 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 when 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 gceen surface, a power of suction capable of opposing that of the leaves. 

 At tliat time liquid manure may be applied 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 undei-go ; it is a new elaboration, which can only be interfered with by the continual intro- 

 duction of crude mattei-s, such as liquid manure ^vill supply. We all know that whenripening 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 cpi-tainly not be diminished by water holding ammoniaeal and saline substances in solution. 



" Root crops stand in a different position to any of the foregoing. They are most analogous to the 

 first of the above cases ; for their roots may be compared to wood, of which they are equivalents. 

 But there is this important difterence, that whereas the quantity of wood is in direct proportion to 

 the quantity of leaves, the reverse is the case with root crops. The turnip that throws up an enor- 

 mous tuft of leaves, has a very small bulb; and so of the carrot. In these plants the root is formed 

 by the leaves ; but only when they themselves cease growing vigorously. The true object is to obtain 

 plenty of foliage early enough to afford time for the after formation of the root. This is what hap- 

 pens under ordinary circumstances. The leaves grow rapidly during the warm weather of early 

 autumn ; but when the temperature falls, their own development is languid, and all their energy is 

 expended in augmenting the mass below them. We entertain little doubt that by the constant appli- 

 cation of liquid manure, a turnip might be absolutely prevented from forming more root than a 

 cabbage. In root crops, what is wanted is an abundant supply of liquid manure when the leaves are 

 formins, so as to secure early a large and vigorous foliage ; after which no liquid manure whatever 

 ought to be applied. This is quite consistent with the evidence collected by Mr. Dudley Fortesque, 

 anS published in the Minutes of the Board of Health, to which we have so often of late had occasion 

 to refer. Speaking of Mr. Kennedy's farm in Ayrshire, this gentleman says : ' Of the turnips, one lot 

 of Sioedes dressed with 10 tons of solid farm manure, and about 2000 gallons of the liquid, having six 

 bushels of dissolved bones along with it, was ready for hoeing ten or txoelve days earlier than another 

 lot dressed vdth double the amount of solid manure without the liquid application, and were fully 

 equal to those in a neighbor's field which had received 30 loads of farm-yard dung, together with 3 

 cwt. of guano and IG bushels of bones per acre. Tlie yield was estimated at 40 tons the Scotch acre, 

 and their great luxuriance seemed to me to justify the expectation. From one field of White Globe 

 turnips, sown later, and manured solely with liquid, from 40 to 50 tons to the Scotch acre were 



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