14 



especially Ammonia, some of which it gets from the atmosphere, 

 phosphate of lime and potash. The first inch of top soil, (which 

 is 100 tons per acre of earth) gets the best chance of appropria- 

 tion and then come the next and lower ones. As plants multiply 

 their side fibres near the surface we may comprehend why surface 

 manuring is so often found beneficial. The sub-soil is cold, dense, 

 pale and unaltered, altogether different from the friable and 

 manured surface soil. It is therefore necessary to break up the 

 sub-soil and intermix it with the upper soil. This is best done in 

 this country by digging up the garden beds early in the hot season 

 when the ground is lying fallow and letting the sun's rays act 

 fully on the up-turned clods, which, on the first showers of the 

 monsoon will crumble and be easily worked. 



EARTHING UP. This is performed by the hand and a small 

 spade, or with a large sized hoe ; it consists in turning up the 

 ground round the stocks of plants, so as to support and nourish 

 them, a thing very essential to the growth of all kinds of vege- 

 tables, potatoes, peas, beans, &c. 



ESCULENT ROOTS delight in a light, rather sandy, deep and 

 well stirred soil. It must be dry at bottom, but a moist atmos- 

 phere and moderate temperature are greatly favorable to the 

 growth of them. 



ESPALIER TREES. Such as are suitable for, or are planted 

 against rails or upright trellis- work, which are much more suit- 

 able for India than walls. 



ETIOLATION. A disease of plants which destroys their ver- 

 dure and renders them pale : it arises from the want of the 

 agency of light, and may also arise from the depredation of 

 insects nestling in the radicle, and consuming the food of the 

 plant, and thus debilitating the vessels of the leaf, so as to 

 render them unsusceptible of the action of light, for on exam- 

 ining with a microscope, the leaves of peas and other plants 

 in this state, the meally greyish appearance evidently arose from 

 eggs and excretions deposited upon them by a minute greenish 

 coloured insect which was seen feeding, and moving in every 

 direction upon their surface ; this readily accounts for the de- 

 struction of the stem and plant. A similar appearance was ob- 



