94 Gleanings in Old Garden Literature. 



Wine, they came not up at all. This is a Rich Experi- 

 ment for Profit." 



In the Jewel- House of Art and Nature, by 

 Sir Hugh Platt, 1594, there is a representa- 

 tion of an ear of summer barley, forty-five 

 inches long, grown in ground manured with 

 soap ashes. In South Australia the experi- 

 ment has been tried of placing a peach-stone 

 in the ground, and dressing the latter regularly 

 with soapsuds, with the result that a strong 

 plant has been reared, and abundance of fruit 

 obtained. 



Bacon was, of course, aware that excessive 

 nourishment was prejudicial to vegetation; 

 but we are accustomed to consider that that 

 is more universally the case than he seems to 

 intimate as his opinion, for he says : " Dung, 

 or Chalke, or Bloud, applied in Substance 

 (seasonably) to the Roots of Trees, doth set 

 them forwards. But to doe it unto Herbs, 

 without a mixture of water or earth, it may 

 bee these Helpes are too Hot." No doubt ; 

 and the result often is also in regard to many 

 fruit-trees, that where the ground is too rich, 

 they run to wood, except such plants as 



