ft 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
733 
FINEST CARNATIONS and PICOTEES. 
OUELL anv CO. beg to refer the readers of the 
Gardeners’ Chronicle to their Extensive List, with Prices, 
of the above highly-esteemed Flowers, which appeared on the 
Advertising pages, 706 and 707, of this Paper, of the 14th inst., 
and will be found to contain every variety worthy of cultivation. 
Great Yarmouth Nursery, Oct. 19, 1843. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1848. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Friday, November3 . . . Botanical. . . + «+ 8 Pat 
For the last few years the striking discoveries of 
some Chemists, aided by the rhetorical flourishes of 
others, have so dazzled the world that men have been 
induced to look to Chemistry for every possible and 
Ampossible result. A few pounds of some saline 
Ingredient were to restore fertility to exhausted land, 
and to cover our moors with teeming crops. We are 
not sure, indeed, that the farmer was not to scatter 
abundance around him from his waistcoat pocket as 
he rode across his fields. At all events the gardener 
Was to substitute his snuff-box for the dung-cart; 
Manure, like wine, was to be bottled up for use, and 
dealers were to sell it by the dozen, not the ton, ‘The 
very absurdity of these exaggerations made them 
current, and gained for them a belief which would 
‘ave been refused to more sober statements. Now, 
however, the hot fit is going off, it is to be hoped that 
it will not be followed by an access of cold. 
Let us not be misunderstood. No one can possibly 
form a higher estimate of the importance of Chemistry 
to the arts of cultivation. The opinions upon the 
subject 'that have been from time to time expressed 
in these columns are daily str d; we 
publish the completion, along with a capital paper on 
Salvias by the same cultivator. These papers cannot 
be said to depend upon any new facts, but are founded 
upon a novel and better method of applying well- 
known facts to practice. The main principles in his 
method of management are:—1. That plants while 
growing are to be kept growing without interruption ; 2, 
That the effect of this is to augment (or accumulate) their 
power of develop tin a quasi geometrical ratio. The 
mode of carrying out these principles is regulated, on 
the one hand, by a skilful selection of materials, of 
which the quantity, together with their nutritive and 
mechanical nature, is well suited to the object of culti- 
vation ; and on the other, by taking care that the 
influence of the sun and atmosphere shall balance 
the power of absorption which plants, under given 
cireumstances, may be able to exercise. For a detailed 
explanation of the mode employed to effect these 
objects we refer to the papers themselves. At a very 
early opportunity we shall offer some further observa- 
tions upon the views of Mr. Wood, and the conse- 
quences that are likely to grow out of them. For 
the present, it will be sufficient to state that they are 
perfect in theory, and unobjectionable in practice, in 
every instance where fine plants are more valued than 
the space they occupy. 
Tuerp is an old opinion, founded on a want of dis- 
crimination with regard to the nature of soils, that 
much ploughing is detrimental to the land—some 
farmers call it “ ploughing the heart out of it .” while, 
on the other hand, it is the practice of many farmers 
to plough five or six times as a preparation for Wheat 
sowing. It is evident that both opinions cannot be 
true in all cases, yet there is seldom a maxim gener- 
ally adopted in any one district which has not some 
r ble foundati e error is, that every farmer 
ani 
entertain no doubt that afroad to most important 
discoveries in al] that concerns the artificial manage- 
ment of crops will in time result from the manifold 
researches Bow in progress among Chemists. But 
eS Opinions like these must not make us blind 
a . mischief likely to arise from the anticipations 
a heated imagination, or from a blind and ignorant 
proportions. It is like 
low the stag through a 
ondon fog. 
Such, nevertheless, has happened, wherever the 
Certain but unobtrusive truths of Vegetable Physiology 
have been postponed to the bright scintiliations of 
Vegetable Chemistry. When Professor Liebig made 
ls inconsiderate attack upon Vegetable Physiologists, 
e carried with him many thoughtless and unin. 
‘Ormed persons, and led them to undervalue that im- 
Portant branch of knowledge. But truth is silently 
tegaining her empire, and people are now beginning 
to discover that whatever aid Chemistry may here- 
after give them, they must look for immediate and 
Sure assistance to the well-ascertained facts of Ve e- 
table Physiology, whose value cannot be destroyed or 
aes diminished, although they may be enhanced, by 
Uture discoveries. They have also no doubt dig- 
Covered that chemical experiments are not very easil 
Made unless by those who have more experience than 
the Senerality of either gardeners or farmers, and that 
although it is the latter who will eventually put in 
Practice the results of exact chemical investigation, 
ae that until those results shall have been obtained 
‘is safer to content themselves with experiments of 
Nother kind, 
thy €ople have doubtless been in some degree led of 
i © to direct their attention so exclusively to chemical 
Nquiries, under the idea that the path of Vegetable 
like tty is scarcely trodden, and therefore far more 
ely to Tead at once to important discoveries than 
eeetable Physiology, which has for so many years 
h €n the subject of careful observation. But there can 
ais Y be a greater error. _ Vegetable Physiology 
nee in questions which it is most important to 
e ©, and in which the aid of Chemistry is unneeded: 
ae above all things, do the well-ascertained laws of 
Betable srowth want correct application to practice, 
ithe know very little of gardening, or rural affairs 
Nae who fancies that all possible perfection has 
exe] arrived at in the cultivation of any one crop, 
9) ‘USive of 
a the contrary, we entertain no doubt that the next 
shee will witness as great an advance in this 
edie ct as the last have done—provided the improved 
~ Cation of the rising generation takes a right 
wit “tology, 
thi fe practical details of cultivation will learn=to 
Woy instructive instance of this is afforded by Mr, 
8 remarks on potting, of which we to-day 
who has no guide but his own practice and that of his 
forefathers or pred in his farm, and who 
inquires no further than what has been found useful, 
or the reverse, is satisfied with a single experiment—if 
he make any at all. When you converse with a 
plain, good, industrious farmer, who has worked hard, 
paid his rent regularly, and brought up a family—than 
whom there is not a more respectable member of 
society—and you propose to him to do something 
which you think an improvement on his practice—for 
example, to plough deeper, to drain heavy lands in 
which there are no visible springs, to sow a quick- 
frowing crop on the land which he intends as a fal- 
ow—he will probably answer to each proposal, «I 
once tried this scheme, but shall never do it again. J. 
was induced to plough a field much deeper than it 
ever had been. I sowed it with Wheat after a good 
mucking—and what was the consequence? my Wheat 
was choked with Charlock and all sorts of weeds, 
although the land was as clean as a garden before 
seed-time. I had not half a crop of Wheat, and it 
cost me ever so much for several years to get my field 
clean again. No more deep ploughing on my land, I 
assure you. I plough my fallows and cross-plough 
them as often as I can, but take care not to break the 
pan which the sole of the plough has made.” All this 
might be perfectly true: and yet this very land, once 
cleared of its weeds—the seeds of which may have lain 
buried for ages without losing their power of vegeta- 
tion, when brought within reach of the external air 
and dews—might produce much better crops than it 
ever did before, and bear a much more profitable 
course or rotation. [} 
We tried the experiment of deep ploughing with 
exactly the same result as that of the above-quoted 
farmer ; but we did not come to the same conclusion : 
wesaw immediately that the deep ploughing should have 
preceded the fallow crop, and not the Wheat; but we 
made the best of a bad bargain : we had every plant 
of Charlock weeded out as it came up. This weeding 
cost 25s. per acre ; but instead of having a deficient 
crop of Wheat, we had much above an average of good 
clean Corn. As the land was well stirred, and partly 
sown with Tares, and partly with Swedish Turnips 
and Mangold Wurzel, in the next season, with a suffi- 
cient quantity of manure, the weeds were eradicated, 
and this field is improved at least 25 per cent. in value 
by an operation which in the mind of an unreflecting 
farmer would have been pronounced to be decidedly 
detrimental to the land, and not to be recommended 
asan example. Here we see the advantage of a little 
science and reflection ; in trying experiments we should 
never be disheartened, unless the result entirely contra- 
dicts our expectations, and it is evident that we have 
iscalculated tl quences. One deep ploughing 
preceded by @ slight scarifying to destroy surface 
weeds, and followed by @ deep stirring with a heavy 
implement—such as Biddle’s or Lord Ducie’s Scarifier, 
another cross-ploughing and harrowing, and picking 
out and burning the weeds, will generally prepare the 
land for manuring and final ploughing in good time 
to sow a cleansing crop—such as roots which require 
repeated hoeing. The next crop may be spring 
the soil in which Clover or artificial grasses may 
be sown, to be followed by Wheat, unless Wheat 
was sown after the roots, in which case Beans 
may be substituted. This is the usual process on 
good mellow Wheat land which has been drained, 
if necessary. In the old method of ploughing, 
the furrow-slice was often turned over and over 
several times, without being pulverised or the roots 
of the weeds being disturbed. fa dry season 
followed, the clods dried through and through, the 
roots were killed, and it was called an excellent 
fallow; for the first heavy rain made the clods 
crumble, and the land looked free and mellow. But 
in a moist summer the land was never thoroughly 
cleansed ; the harrows destroyed some annual weeds, 
but docks and thistles remained in abundance, ag 
might be seen in the next crop, which was usually 
Wheat. The introduction of scarifiers and deep- 
stirring implements, such as the subsoil-plough, has 
caused a great revolution in the practice of husbandry. 
So many ploughings are not thought necessary on 
Wheat land ; and fallows, except as a preparation for 
roots the same year, are almost excluded, except occa- 
sionally on the stiffest wettest soils which have not 
been thoroughly drained. 
Many young and amateur farmers who are zealous 
in introducing improvements in Agriculture, will be 
surprised to hear that there is nothing new in these 
improved practices. They have been detailed in 
books for half a century ‘and more; and in the Agri- 
cultural reports of the counties in England, published 
under the sanction of the Board of Agriculture, in 
the beginning of this century, there is scarcely one in 
which the most improved practices of the present day 
are not described and recommended. Every one 
interested in Agriculture read them, b y few 
put them in practice. The old plodding farmer had 
no idea of altering his old ways. The landed pro- 
prietor recommended his bailiff to try the new plans ; 
something was attempted, but ignorance and prejudice 
and sometimes conceit were the cause of failures and 
losses. The zeal cooled, and the old methods were 
thought the safest after all. Intelligent farmers were 
precluded from adopting or even trying new methods, 
by absurd restrictions in their leases, sometimes 
forcing them to follow a disadvantageous rotation, and 
sometimes forbidding the cultivation of profitable 
crops, such as Potatoes, for fear of exhausting the 
land. As well might Wheat and Oats be prohibited, 
for they are both great exhausters. There is a new 
Wheat, Barley, or Oats, according to the fertility of 
spirit arisen, which has been diffused and greatl 
promoted by the exertions of the Royal Agricultural 
Society of England. If this Society will only let the 
practical farmer know what methods have already 
been proved to be right ; what soils are suited to each 
different mode of cultivation ; will show how sound 
theory and practice may confirm each other, and, 
collecting well-planned experiments and their results, 
will show how they tend to increase our knowledge of 
Agriculture, it will do more good to the nation than 
the soldiers or diplomatists who by their sword or 
Negotiations should have added whole provinces to 
the Queen’s dominions. —M. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW SYSTEM OF 
POTTING PLANTS. 
By Wm. Woop ; at Messrs. Henderson’s Nursery. 
No. 6 
Tur principal difficulty in adopting the system now 
recommended will be found in a proper application of 
large proportions of soil in the process of potting ; a diffi- 
culty which at first sight may appear really insurmountable 
to those who are but partially acquainted with the system- 
atic modes employed by experienced cultivators. 
_ The principle involved in the application of large propor- 
tions of materials in the process of potting may be defined as 
follows :—* All powers and qualities, whether mechanical 
or chemical, are enhanced by the accumulation of num- 
bers; that is to say, each part or parcel of a massis raised 
to a higher value or intensity, when it forms one of a heap, 
than when left to itself; and the more complete and 
immediate the correspondence of parts, one with another, 
the more will this enhancement be accelerated.” This 
principle is not urged as being merely applicable to the 
practical operation in favour of which it is now adduced, 
but is also applicable to all other modes of culture, how- 
ever modified in their nature. The lawremains the same, 
although its effects may be varied by the conditions under 
which it operates. : 
As the processes of potting need not be restricted to 
the application of soils in the proportions mentioned in a 
previous paper, nor are of absolute importance to the 
attainment of fine growth ; it may be necessary to advert 
to the precautions considered essential to success in cul- 
tivation generally. 
Ist." A proper selection of soil is indispensable, in the 
first instance. It is probably to the facilities possessed by 
some cultivators more than others for obtaining a suitable 
material, that the heavy mode of shifting is due, rather 
than to any original combination or previous preparation. 
It has only recently been proved that some kinds of peat 
in general use are greatly deficient in texture and quality, 
while that in which pure decomposed vegetable matter 
greatly preponderates, in a pulverised state, is preferred. 
