THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



259 



H 



Siirri TUBAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 



(»RTICI L 1 URAL, GARDEN ._ T he First Meeting 

 EXHIBITIONS AT ] H ^ gth rf my . subjects for Exhi- 

 ^e place o»^«J^ Friday the 1/th , or at the Garden 

 ■•* ^i^ht o* ock a.m., on the day of Exhibition. 

 ^ f ^ill be prov de2 with a printed form in which they 

 n 4 r the information of the Judges, whether their 

 ****** ? r J b iLnSown previously during the Season. The 

 Si* » c - h * V ^ b !f one i m T.ckets are issued to Fellows at 

 5- ■"" * % eadf- or at the Garden, in the afternoon of 

 tail Oflce. pri« «J. on J 7 ,. C </.each; but only to orders from 



f^ow.^ the Society. ^ .^^ ^ Re&ent streefc Qn the day Qf 



.£££.-*. Re * eot street * 



ficance ? For manure is the foundation of the pros- ' ing the value of the various modifications of the tank- 

 perity of the cultivator of the soil, and no amount of 



capital, skill, or prudence, nor any happv succession 

 of good seasons, can supply its place. The market- 

 gardener cannot grow his "Cabbages, Asparagus and 

 Lettuces any more than the farmer his Wheat and 



system now in use are best answered by a reference 

 to what is going on in the Society's Garden, to which 

 all Fellows and their friends have daily access, 

 except on Sundays. For the information of those 

 who may not have an opportunity of visiting the 



Turnips, without an abundant supply of this invalu- i Gardens, we may state that the operation of the tank- 



^VTSOTANIC SOCIETY, Regent s Park.— 



.\«r B lTlONS of PLANTS, FLOWERS, and MICROS- 



ffi! It Garden of this Society, for 1844. 



c0 PES w thebaraen gj> April 30# 



K 



Tuesday, June 4. 

 Tuesday, July 2, 1844. 

 «^.«, Prires exceeding 900/. will be competed for. 

 n^^nd Members, and the bearers of Ivory Tickets, will 

 r ?°^nDon Bering their names in the Gate-book. 

 •VSS ma? obtain Tickets at 5s each except on the days of 

 JKEn when they will be ;*. 6rf. each, by orders from bel- 

 P^SiMembers of the Society only. 



^?ir« to be opened at 2 o'clock. Carriages to enter the 

 . ^rtSe of the Park by the road opposite the York Gate, to 

 ^wn in front of the principal Gate of the Gardens and to 

 X at the Gate opposite the road leading to Chester-terrace. 

 SIobUI the weather prove wet, a New Gate connected with the 



1 Mrt?and fu C rther particulars at the Gardens. fi 



*"^ By or d er f the Council, J. D. C. Sowerby, Sec. 



(ffartteitets' ©ijromcle 



SATURD AY, APRIL 27, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 



Tmjuat, April 80 - Royal Botanic ... 2 p.m. 



f Horticultural Anni-versary 1p.m. 



" \ Society of Aria ^. . > 8 pm. 



. Botanical .... 8 p.m. 



IUAT, 



Vvwit, May 1 

 Fvdav, May 3 



M«f n*r, May 6 

 Ti » dat, May 7 



• Entomological 

 f Horticultural 

 "ILinnean 



8 P.M. 

 3 P.M. 



8 p.m. 



It is the indefeasible privilege of a British subject 

 to be plundered. If a clause to that effect was not 

 inserted in the Bill of Rights, it was only because it 

 is clear and universally admitted. The thing is indeed 

 so natural, and the craving for the privilege so strong, 

 that people will cheat themselves rather than not be 

 cheated at all. It is, no doubt, upon some such point 

 as this that the clever gentlemen who live upon the 

 public satisfy their consciences. 



It may be said that when a man is eager to be 

 cheated he sanctions the cheat ; that the verb passive 

 includes the verb active, and that " to be done" implies 

 " to do." If a man will procure for himself the pleasure 

 of being robbed, it seems necessary that some kind per- 

 son should take on himself the office of robber. No 

 wonder, then, that when a gardener or farmer signifies 

 ms taste for being plundered by cheating himself of 

 half the manure his garden or farm can make, others 

 «ould minister to his fancy by cheating him also with 

 that which he purchases. And it must be confessed 

 that we have no lack of volunteers for so agreeable an 

 undertaking. Indeed, the eagerness to pluck the poor 

 cultivator is such, that we wonder he should have a 

 leather left to line his nest with. 



A memorable instance of these doings was men- 

 tioned the other night by Mr. Edward Solly, at the 

 Koyal Institution, during a lecture which we have 

 reported elsewhere. Having procured from a manu- 

 facturer a certain manure, he objected to its colour and 

 gneral appearance, and expressed his doubts of its 

 *ing genuine. "Oh!" said the seller, "it is not 

 q ue pure, but it is good enough for Agricultural pur- 



t£t , pon whicn ifc was' analysed, when it was 

 Jeered that the lmpurities ( foreign ma tter,) 



onininn f t0 u N1NETY " SEVEN P£R CENT ' so that > in the 

 een ?„•• i selIer on this occasion, if a manure is 

 enoniw the extent of 3 lbs - in a hundred it is good 



T?be " gardGner ° r farmer " 

 rials at tr,r re il is ratner expensive to purchase mate- 



convpnW !" ate;but » on the other hand, it is extremely 



man's o^n *? the ™* 0ne man ' s loss is another 

 not thp ^ ' i Desides > farmers and gardeners are 



additioL? e ° P e „ t0 find out th e trick ; which is an 



But £ f h° 0m ? rt t0 tender consciences. 

 Let iK n senous J f or this is a very serious matter. 



common oT- pare the sellin S P rice of some °f the 

 when «i,!n of con sumption, with their real price 



phoifoS r ated t0 this enormous extent. Rough 

 as onlv q IK ammonia is quoted at 3d. per lb. ; but 

 course t\t ♦ m each 10 ° lbs - would be genuine, of 



to. ' nit™ f price P aid for h wouId be 6s - * d - P er 

 *. \d TJ S ? la sold at 2d - P er lb - would cost about 

 would 'sU^^ amm °niac bought at 6d. per lb. 

 •upo*. 1 , * consum er in just 16*. 8rf. Or let us 

 + cwt of „ an acre of land is known to require 

 * suner Jl laT l ' or 20 bus hels of bone-dust, or 5 cwt. 



** dffi Sp ate ? f lime 5 the nominal ex P ense of 

 in order to " g t 8 ,K° Ud be oul y 2L > but the cultivator, 

 **<* a half 5? ' WOuld have t0 hu Y about 6 tons 



of^G6/. i '^P hos Vhate of lime, at the expense 



not tl 



W »H which aU others shrink into insigni- 



v . ^ ~*-**v op 40^, 

 ^^Pared Ihh^l T™* "* ? Is it not an evil, as 



able material ; and, skill and soil" being alike, the 

 amount of productiveness must of necessity be regu- 

 lated by the amount of manure at a man's command. 

 Yet some of the dealers in this substance have the 

 audacity to declare that although what they sell is 

 adulterated to the extent of 97 parts in 100, still it 

 is "good enough for a farmer." In examining some of 

 the samples of manure that have been occasionally 

 sent us, we have been amazed, not more at the impu- 

 dence of the sellers than at the extraordinary credulity 

 of the buyers. Clay, lime, and a small quantity of 

 smelling salts form an artificial guano ; pounded straw 

 and dry loam make Peruvian guano; lime-rubbish, and 

 a small quantity of bone-siftings form bone-dust ; dirty 

 rock-salt does for nitrate of soda to a preat extent ; 

 and even soot is enormously doctored with cinder-sift- 

 ings. However, in the opinion of the sellers, they are 

 " good enough for farmers and garden ere.'* 



Let us not be misunderstood in this matter. Let 

 us not be supposed to insinuate that all the dealers in 

 manures are rogues ; on the contrary, there are among 

 them mostrespectable men,who are above all suspicion. 

 The facts, however, that have been mentioned are 

 notorious, and sufficiently prove that fraud does exist 

 in the manure trade to a disgraceful extent. 



A remedy for this state of things is of the most 

 urgent necessity. Our correspondents cry out loudly 

 to us for assistance, as if we had the power to redress 

 such grievances. We must, however, tell them plainly, 

 that the remedy lies with themselves, and with no one 

 else. We may occasionally give a little help ; 

 but to check such an evil is beyond the means of a 

 newspaper. The sale of genuine Peruvian guano 

 last vear, by one house alone, amounted to a hundred 

 thousand pounds, and by another to sixty-five thousand 

 pounds. The temptation to a fraudulent participation 

 in such a traffic is so great, that nothing except the 

 good sense of buyers can arrest it. It is in vain to 

 say ** Deal only with persons of known respectability," 

 for the immediate reply is, " Who are those persons ?" 

 and that is a question to which, for obvious reasons, 

 no public journalist has the right to reply ; the utmost 

 that he can do is to warn people against yielding to 

 the seduction of cheapness, or the temptation of low 

 prices at auctions, got up by nobody knows whom. 

 There is, however, a remedy within all men's 



which we can without impropriety direct 

 and that is, the employment of Chemical 

 It is true that people cannot have recourse 

 to this of themselves, because they, in general, want 

 the apparatus, skill, and knowledge required to con- 

 duct it. But the country is full of young men whose 

 chemical dexterity is quite sufficient to obtain at 

 least such a rough analysis as will protect a buyer 

 against enormous fraud. The payment of a moderate 

 fee to them would secure their advice. Or, as 

 Mr. Hyett, of Painswick, has recommended, and 

 Mr. Gyde proposed, Farmers' Clubs might give some 

 neighbouring chemist a retaining fee, in consideration 

 of which he would undertake to perform analyses for 

 the Members of the Club at certain small rates of 

 remuneration. Besides which, our advertising columns 

 show that persons are to be found both able and willing 

 to apply their knowledge to this kind of investigation. 

 The utility of this is obvious. Suppose, for instance, 

 a dealer offers guano for sale ; if the farmer, before 

 buying a ton of it, pays a chemist 105. for analysing a 

 sample, and finds it of bad quality, although he may 

 lose the ten shillings, yet he will avoid laying out ten 

 pounds upon a material whose only recommendation 

 is its being " good enough for a farmer." In the same 

 way gentlemen might authorise their gardeners to 

 consult the lecturers at Mechanics' Institutions, and 

 thus save themselves many a pound, and much more 

 loss and vexation. 



For ourselves, we entertain no doubt that this is the 

 true and only mode of opposing fraud on the part of 

 dealers in manures ; and we are perfectly convinced 

 that, if it were once carried generally into effect, the 

 difficulty of putting off adulterated articles would be 

 such as to render the risk greater than the profit ; and 

 that would be the end of the system. 



Among the other experiments now in progress in 

 the Garden of the Horticultural Society are 

 several with heating contrivances, the result of which 

 may now be examined with advantage. The prin- 

 cipal of these are, an iron tank apparatus, by Bur- 

 bidge and Healy, for air- warmth ; several sorts of 

 boilers, by different persons; hot-water gutters in a 

 Vinery; bottom-heat obtained in an Orchidaceous 

 house, and elsewhere, by the same means; and 

 bottom-heat derived from iron gutters roofed over 

 with thick drain-pipes split, and converted into arches. 



The endless inquiries that are made of us concern- 



system, in all its forms, is most satisfactory up to the 

 present time, wherever both dampness and warmth 

 are wanted. In an iron Vinery, the health of the fo- 

 liage of Vines, Kidney Beans, Figs, and Psidium 

 Cattleyanum, cannot be exceeded ; and Strawberries 

 have ripened their fruit well. It is, however, still to 

 be ascertained how far the dampness of the tanks can. 

 be advantageously counteracted when Grapes and Figs 

 are ripening. 



As the season is now at hand when Horticultural 

 exhibitions will be again held all over the country, 

 we should be obliged by our readers informing us 

 whether or not they are of opinion that the publication 

 of the proceedings at the Country Shows is of any 

 real utility. We have been very often advised to 

 leave them out; and have as often replied that 

 although their publication is attended with some 

 inconvenience and great expense, yet that we are 

 willing to go on with them so long as they gratify the 

 parties concerned. 



We are again urged to discontinue them. One of 

 our most able correspondents writes thus :— 



" What 1 dislike very much in your Paper is the 

 account of Provincial Flower Shows, with the 

 Prizes awarded ; I never read them, nor can I learn 

 that any one else does in this neighbourhood. They 

 merely increase the bulk of the book when bound up 

 at the end of the year. I except, however, the account 

 of Exhibitions in London and Chiswick. Depend 

 on it you would be more popular by omitting alto- 

 gether the Provincial Mower Exhibitions." 



It is impossible for us in London to judge correctly 

 how far persons in the country, where the Shows take 

 place, participate in these opinions, which we trust 

 will induce our correspondents to express their views 

 very generally. We shall leave the matter in their 

 hands, and form our own decision as to the utility of 

 reporting the Country Shows, by the number and 

 bearing of the letters on the subject, which we may 

 receive during the next fortnight. 



reach, to 

 attention, 

 Analysis. 



SWAN. 



It may be interesting to some of your numerous readers 

 to have one more testimony added to those you have 

 already chronicled, in regard of the useful and ornamental 

 character of these noble birds, and that too of a very 

 curious and interesting trait in their habits and manners ; 

 and as the hint, at this particular season, may more easily 

 be put to the test, and prove more useful than at any 

 other, I deferred sending it till the March winds should 

 waste the icy barrier from the lakes, and let the Swan go 

 free to show his character. 



There are several pieces of water within the inclosure 

 in these gardens, to which the Swans on the lakes have 

 no access ; and in the spring of 1840 these waters, within 

 the rabbit-proof fence, and every walk and avenue in their 

 vicinity, was croaked and crawled over with thousands of 

 full-grown toads, and a thin sprinkling of frogs. Seeing 

 this nuisance, I began to think of getting them collected, 

 well, knowing that the refuse of fish— to which they bore 

 a strong resemblance — makes an excellent manure; and on 

 that score I thought the carcass would pay for the catch- 

 ing and killing, and by preventing their spawning would 

 abate the nuisance, if not prevent it for the future. 



However, on examining the larger pieces of water with- 

 out the fence in the open pleasure-ground, where I ex- 

 pected the toads had taken up their ** head-quarters," I 

 was disappointed, and found their encampments there very 

 few and far between. Seeing this, I began to think that 

 some other cause than a partiality for the picturesque must 

 have induced them to prefer a pond in an inclosed garden, 

 to an open lake outside the fence ; and, judging from the 

 array, that such a regiment could not have been mustered 

 in a space of less than a mile circuit, and as much of this 

 mile must have been over land extremely uneven, I could 

 not comprehend the reason why they did not prefer the 

 nearest pond, after travelling such a long and weary 

 way. One morning, however, I had the matter cleared 

 up very satisfactorily, and found that though they had 

 perhaps in the first instance pitched their tents in the 

 nearest pool, the fear of enemies had made them resume 

 their pilgrimage ; and though many of them had certainly 

 44 come from afar off," they must yet go still farther and 

 find some quiet place, secluded or inclosed, where Swans 

 come not to claim superiority ; for there I found, on the 

 open lake, a Swan giving battle to the toads in good 

 earnest, curing the plague by attacking the enemy on the 

 water, chacing them from place to place as fast as oar and 

 sail could steer, and ever and anon the arched neck and 

 bill, armed like a pair of pincers, descended with unerring 

 grapple on the foe ; and in one or two places where they 

 had skulked under some branches for safety, he had dragged 

 them out, and not only killed them, but cast them on the 

 bank out of the water, as if he were aware that their remain* 

 would corrupt the watery legion where he wigneo. 

 Now, though the frogs we-* no doubt a*eptable to the 

 Swan as an article of food, be would not ^ ^ 

 toads ; and this Jea«S m e ft w« B>£ ^ V{m 



