160 MORE POT-POURRI 



the need for abundant manuring. Wherever there are 

 manure heaps near houses or stables, or in farmyards, 

 it is very desirable to sink a tub in the ground on the 

 lowest side of the heap, where the manure has a tendency 

 to drain, cutting out a nick in the tub to guide in the 

 liquid, which can be constantly emptied out with a can. 

 This liquid makes very valuable nourishment for young 

 vegetables, pot-plants, and in fact all garden produce 

 strength in youth being naturally a great help to the 

 whole crop. Besides its usefulness, this prevents the 

 untidy wasting of a manure heap. 



I am very ignorant of Irish affairs in general, but I 

 listened with extreme interest to all that I could hear 

 of the co-operative movement now being carried out by so 

 many farmers in Ireland. I have since kept myself 

 informed in the matter by taking in that excellent little 

 weekly paper * The Irish Homestead.' Mr. William 

 Lawler in a long poem in the ' London Year-Book ' for 

 1898 begins a paragraph on Ireland, of which the first 

 lines at any rate do not inappropriately express my wishes 

 and my hopes for the co-operation of Irish industries : 



Oh, Ireland, when your children shall abate 

 Their love of captious things to study great ; 

 When you shall let your aspirations lie 

 Far less in Statecraft than in Industry ; 



Then shall your people prosper and advance. 



A charming shrub, and new to me, is Escallonia 

 pterocladon, which I saw growing on the walls of a house 

 in Ireland ; it was covered in this mid-winter time with 

 white flowers rather like a large Privet. 



I saw a pretty dinner-table decoration consisting of a 

 quantity of Jasminum nudiflorum picked and put in small 

 glasses with leaves from greenhouse plants. Also an 

 effective decoration was of Geranium flowers (Pelar- 



