148 THE SPIRIT OF THE SOIL 



the treated peat. There is only one other garden, 

 however, that I have been able to find time to visit 

 while writing this book, a market garden kept by the 

 well-known horticultural writer, Mr. John Weathers, 

 at Isle worth. The conditions under which he has 

 had to conduct his experiments have not been very 

 favourable to the peat, as in most cases it could not 

 be delivered to him until the plants were already 

 in the ground. In such circumstances, combined 

 with the drought, he obtained only negative results 

 by top-dressing in the case of bulbous plants. With 

 Marguerite daisies, however, a striking and valuable 

 result was obtained. His crop generally was top- 

 dressed with the peat, but there was one portion of 

 ground in which he was able to dig in the humogen in 

 the quantity of 2 J ounces to the square yard. Mar- 

 guerites were planted in this, and though they were 

 planted later than the others, they flowered a week 

 earlier. 



With Pyrethrum the peat gave excellent results. 

 By May 25 the treated plants were being cut, while 

 by June 4 cutting had not commenced on the plants 

 which had not been treated. Lily of the Valley 

 responded well to treatment, while Forget-me-nots 

 bloomed in greater abundance when treated with 

 the peat and compared with untreated beds. On 

 Rhubarb the rows receiving humogen were con- 

 siderably in advance of a row that was left un- 

 treated. Apart from the experiments on wheat, 

 described in the chapter on General Results, the 

 most striking of Mr. Weathers's results were those 

 he obtained with some cabbages. The peat was 

 a plied, i ounce to the square yard, to a plot of 





