1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
539 
Seishin elds Now ready, price 4s. 6d., 
UCR Aes CECH oa MasT 2S. DR sey. 
$ By Epwarp Souny, Esq., Jun, F.R.S., 
Experimental Chemist to the Horticultural Society of London, 
Royal Agricultural Society, and Lecturer 
on Chemistry at the Royal Institution. 
London: 3, Charles-street, Covent Garden. 
The Gardeners’ Chronicte, 
SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1848. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
cart seo re og’ }West London Floricwltural, Walham Green, 
[ Tuesday, August15 . . . Horticultural. « BPM 
Tur new aids which recent observers have been 
suggesting to gardeners will doubtless prove to them as 
beneficial as modern potent medicines have become 
to physicians. What mercury and calomel, with all 
the poisonous brood of Hellebore, Aconite, and Hen- 
bane, are now to the latter, ammonia, with the 
nitrates, sulphates, muriates, and phosphates, will soon 
be to the gardener. But in both cases, a knowledge 
of the true and beneficial application of them will be 
arrived at through many accidents and errors. If 
this has been the case with medicines for man, it will 
e much more so with appliances to plants; for those 
who have to administer the latter are unskilled in 
delicate operations, and the death of their patients 
involyes but little responsibility. Nevertheless, as a 
good deal of inconvenience and some serious loss 
tay attend the unskilful administration to plants of 
the most beneficial substances, we cannot do better 
than offer some observations upon the manner in 
which, as a general principle, agents of unknown 
force ought to be applied. 
_ The common error of all those who are experiment- 
ing is to imagine that becausea substance is undoubt- 
edly beneficial to one plant, under one set of cireum- 
Stances, it will necessarily be so to all plants, and 
under all other circumstances. A man is apt to 
believe that he cannot have too much of a good thing ; 
and, applying that idea to his plants, to suppose that 
if a little of anything is useful to them, a good deal 
must be still better. It was some years ago ascertained 
that if a little muriatic acid was mixed with a great deal 
of water, the plants in the neighbourhood of the ves- 
sel from which this fluid was evaporating became 
excessively vigorous ; immediately after this disco- 
very, a zealous gardener placed pans of pure muri- 
atic acid in his greenhouse, and, of course, killed 
everything within reach of the fumes. Nitrate of 
soda has been proved incontestably to exercise a highly- 
beneficial action upon most plants, if used in ver 
small quantities ; yet how many hundred plants have 
perished under the infliction of this agent in excess ! 
Nothing can be more important to healthy vegetation 
than ammonia ; yet, because we suggested the proba- 
bility of its proving advantageous to plants in Vine- 
ries, and similar buildings, if allowed to mingle with 
the air, a gardener of our acquaintance placed pans 
of the strong London gas-liquor among the leayes of 
his Melon plants, and, of course, a couple of hours put 
an end to the experiment by destroying half his foliage, 
The truth is, that all agents of this sort should be 
applied in what it is now the fashion to call homco- 
pathic doses, that is to say, in quantities so small as 
to be inappreciable by our senses. It is thus that 
Nature administers them, and we never can do better 
than follow her closely. Naturally, ammonia is con- 
veyed to plants in rain-water, but in quantities so 
Very small at each dose, that chemists could not for a 
long time discover its presence at all. In thunder- 
Storms the quantity may be doubled, and we all 
know with what beneficial effects; yet even then it 
1s undiscoverable by our ordinary senses. Salt is in 
like manner given to plants by the atmosphere, yet 
who can taste salt in the air of even the Sea-coast, 
unless in stormy weather? Now these things are not 
the result of mere chance, but form a most important 
Part of the system of unerring Wisdom observable in 
the universe. The organs of plants are not capable 
Of sudden and violent action ; they have not, like the 
Stomach of animals, a rapid power of decomposing 
ant assimilating what is presented to them ; but their 
Agestion is sluggish and incapable of being much 
quickened withoutdanger to their lives. Tothat danger 
nature does not expose them—why should man ? 
‘ € more we see of the action of alkaline and other 
pea upon plants, the more: we are convinced that 
Rites way of administering them is in extremel 
ae quantities at a time, and that although they 
fia. Sometimes bear larger doses with impunity, yet 
tit a always attends their administration in quan- 
sie or example, suppose that it was desirable to 
. io plants gas-water at the rate of one gallon 
GHG ee of applying it all at once, however 
i ene would be infinitely better to give it at ten 
would be bee and each time greatly diluted. It 
ot WAG etter, instead of mixing it with fitty gallons 
€r, and applying it all at once, to mix it with 
five hundred gallons of water, and to apply it on ten 
successive occasions. e are extremely anxious that 
this should be clearly understood, because we foresee 
that if itis not attended to, all that powerful assistance 
which artificial agents are capable of giving to plants 
will be lost, and that gardeners, dismayed by the bad 
q! doses, will leave off using them 
at all. And yet their own experience gives them a 
better warning than we can of the great importance of 
attending to these matters. i 
very gardener knows that when a hot-bed is first 
made up, the atmosphere of it is one in which plants 
cannot live; although when it “sweetens,” as they 
say, it becomes more grateful to plants than any other 
which is known. Now what is it that renders the 
atmosphere of a hot-bed fatal at first, and salubrious 
afterwards? Its temperature ?—hardly that, for it is 
easily moderated, and rarely is more than plants can 
well bear. The quantity of water that is suspended in 
it ?—certainly not; for a damp atmosphere is inca- 
pable of producing such sudden death as seizes plants 
in the vapour of a fresh and rank hot-bed. It is the 
ammonia that flies off, which, when abundant, as at 
first, is fatal, and which, when in moderate quantity, 
as afterwards, is so grateful to plants. We have here 
a case of poisoning at first by an over-dose of that 
which afterwards, in proper quantity, is the carrier of 
health and vigour. 
These are most important considerations, in every 
point of view, and more especially now that the tank- 
system of furnishing bottom-heat is so rapidly driving 
stable-litter out of the field. We fully anticipate dis- 
appointment in the effect of the tank-system, as com- 
pared with the old hot-beds, unless some means are 
taken of throwing a proper quantity of ammonia into 
the air. We have no doubt that in using this substance 
a good many gardeners will kill their plants outright ; 
but we are also persuaded that it will be easy to apply, 
and that there is not the shadow of a necessity for 
any such unfavourable result. The maxim must be, 
“A very very little, very very often.” We should 
begin by pouring a wine-glass-full of gas-liquor for 
every ten sashes into the tanks or water-troughs once 
a day, when about to steam the pits, and if we found 
this a safe quantity we should double it ; and go no 
further, except with extreme caution. 
Some general directions as to the mode of cultiva- 
ting the small portion of arable land which we 
recommended to be occupied with the Grass-land 
attached to a country-house or villa may be accept- 
able even to those who have ample means of inform- 
ation, from their own observations, or from Agricul- 
tural works. This land must be considered as some- 
thing intermediate between a garden and a farm; it 
should be cultivated as a garden, but cropped like part 
of a farm. The tillage should be as perfect as pos- 
sible; and the great object, whatever be the nature 
of the soil, to bring it to the highest state of fertility 
of which it is capable. If the soil be originally poor, 
a judicious outlay in labour and manure will gradu- 
ally improve it; but a certain system must be fol- 
lowed to avoid a useless expenditure of capital. In 
all cases it should be trenched all over at least two 
feet deep. If the subsoil is of so barren a nature as 
to be unfit for being brought to the surface, and only 
a small depth of good soil lies over it, the improve- 
ment will be slow. The subsoil must be stirred to a 
small depth at first, and earths mixed with it to 
improve it. Suppose a very coarse gravel mixed 
with sand and yellow oxide of iron within six inches 
of the surface, where the soil is a poor light sandy 
loam—we can scarcely suppose a worse soil. We have 
chosen it on purpose; for it is frequently met with 
in Surrey and Hampshire, and particularly on Bag- 
shot-heath ; yet such a soil has been improved and 
rendered fertile by poor cottagers, who were allowed 
to build a hut and inclose a garden on the heath, the 
land being of no value. A person with a command of 
capital would improve such a spot in much less time, 
In the first place, the iron is to be neutralized, 
which may be done by exposure to the air, when 
moist, with the addition of lime, or chalk, and peat- 
ashes. ‘The protoxide will gradually be washed 
out, or changed into peroxide. Clay or marl mixed 
with the sand and gravel will consolidate it, and 
animal or vegetable manure will make it produce 
something. Potatoes are often among the first crops. 
Buckwheat and Rye are the only kind of grain which 
will succeed as yet. Continued tillage and abundant 
manuring soon produce an improved top soil, which, 
from being of a yellow colour, becomes brown 
by the addition of humus. ‘There is often a hard 
thin crust at a small depth below the surface of such 
a soil, which is known by the name of the pan, or 
moor-band. This is formed by the iron deposited 
from water which runs through the light soil, and 
meeting a more impervious loam, crystallizes or forms 
a kind of hard cement with the fine siliceous sand. 
This is impervious to water, and until it be removed 
or broken through, no improvement can take place. 
Deep trenching is therefore indispensable, and is 
repaid by the loam which is found under the pan, 
and which, although impregnated with iron, 
improves the texture of the loose top sand. 
By great expense or indefatigable industry many 
acres of such a soil, which the law declares to be suapte 
natura sterilis, or absolutely barren, so as to be exempt 
from tithes for seven years after cultivation, under the 
old laws, have been brought to a comparative state of 
productiveness. We would not recommend such 
Jand while better is to be had, but we take an extreme 
case as an example. 
The other extreme is a wet stiff yellow clay, 
which it is impossible to work upon in its wet 
state, and which becomes a perfect rock for hard- 
ness when dry. Yet this soil is more readily ren- 
dered fertile than the last. It must first of all be laid 
dry by numerous drains two-and-a-half feet deep, and 
very close to each other, the tiles in the drains being 
covered with six inches of small gravel, and the whole 
ground trenched two feet deep, laid in ridges before 
winter, and not touched again till moderately dry and 
mellowed in spring. Manures chiefly in a long unde- 
composed state may be dug in, and Potatoes planted, 
laying the ground as loose as possible over them ; or 
Beans may be dibbled in rows, two feet apart. If 
lime or chalk can be obtained, it will greatly improve 
the soil, and may be put on to almost any extent. 
Twenty cart-loads of chalk, forty bushels each, will 
not be too much; or 800 bushels of lime per acre. 
Coal-ashes likewise will greatly improve the land, by 
preventing its running into clods. However unpro- 
mising this soil may be at first, it will be more easily 
improved than the poor sand impregnated with iron. 
We do not suppose that many spots will be chosen 
for cultivation where the soil is so unpropitious; but 
many partake of the one or the other extreme, and 
with a little pains may be converted into very useful 
land. Patience and perseverance overcome many dif- 
ficulties. This may be considered as a digression, as 
few of our readers we hope have such soils to bring 
into cultivation ; but by giving extreme examples we 
shall better instruct those who have little experience. 
We haveourselves land in cultivation, once very nearly 
as unpromising, and our description is not taken 
from mere imagination. 
The spade, the pickaxe, the fork, and the heavy 
hoe are the instruments of tillage which alone can 
bring ungrateful soils to a productive state. Tillage 
is the great improver. ‘The old man in the fable, who 
told his sons when he was on his death-bed that a 
treasure lay buried in their field, gave the great secret 
of fertility. Dig deep, stir it well, expose it to the 
air, and the tréasure will be found in the crop—J/Z. 
TREATMENT OF FUCHSIA CORYMBIFLORA. 
BEING aware that the robust growth of Fuchsia corym- 
biflora had often been complained of, on account of its 
attaining to a size altogether unsuited for small buildings, 
I was, last summer, induced to endeavour to flower this 
plant in as dwarf a state as possible, but having it at the 
same time in good health. As I have succeeded beyond 
my expectations, and as an account of its treatment may 
be of service to others, I communicate it to you, that you 
may make jt known through the medium of the Chronicle. 
The leading shoot of a young plant was last summer 
pinched off, so as to leave two healthy joints, to produce 
shoots from the axils of the leaves. When these shoots 
were about a foot in height, the strongest of them were 
bent down and trained horizontally, for the double pur- 
pose of allowing the weaker ones to overtake them in 
growth, by remaining erect ; and likewise _to cause other 
young shoots to spring from those parts of the stem that 
were growing horizontally : this they will do, upon the 
principle, that the sap in general has a tendency to ascend. 
From those shoots that pushed, nine of the strongest 
were selected, the remainder being rubbed off. Six of 
them were arranged to form the outside, the other three 
composed the centre. The tops of the shoots were kept 
nearly upon a level at first ; but as the central shoots had 
the benefit of receiving more of the ascending sap, they 
soon took the lead of those forming the circumference, 
which brought the plant to the most suitable shape for 
rendering its floral beauty attractive. This spring, when 
it was scarcely two feet in diameter, and about the same 
in height, it developed its ‘gaudy corymbs from the sum- 
mit of each shoot. The plant has been a very conspicuous 
object for a long time, attracting the eye of the visitor 
immediately on entering the greenhouse. It was repotted 
before the commencement of winter, when, I gave it a 
good shift, and used very rich soil. It has not been re- 
potted since, being allowed to bloom in the same soil in 
which it grew through the winter. As it is a gross feeder. 
I occasionally give it liquid manure.—H, H, Caniley. J 
On tHe TRANSMISSION INGS ro INDIA. 
Axour the first fortnight in August is the ritht time 
for taking the first steps for preparing grafts or cuttings 
of fruit-trees, &c. destined to go by the overland mail, next 
November, to India og China, ‘or to any other of our 
distant possessions. For the manner of preparing such 
grafts see the remarks at the head of the Calendar to-day, 
and others on the same subject, which I made this time 
last year, vol. ii., p. 558, which have met the approbation 
of a gentleman of high physiological acquirements, who 
takes an active interest in all subjects tending to the 
general improvement of our East Indian territories; see 
aiso vol. ii. p. 539, and Number 14 of the current volume, 
