488 



JOURNAL OP HORTICOLTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 7, 1876. 



my neighbourhood, but I think there must be many others, 

 unless these " plants of the past " are become nearly extinct. 

 I remember some years ago seeing a work, but I do not recollect 

 the name of the author, in which Cape Geraniums were re- 

 presented by some very good illustrations. The flowers 

 figured were grotesque, curious, and many of them beautiful. 

 I desire names in addition to those above given, and to know 

 where the plants can be obtained. — Cape. 



THE COST AND ADVANTAGES OP DEEP 

 CULTIVATION. 



Finding my present garden too limited in extent, I have this 

 autumn hired an additional plot of 600 square yards. This 

 piece of land comprises one of twelve allotment gardens, and 

 has been cropped for the last twenty years or more chiefly 

 with Potatoes. Along with the annual crop of Potatoes the 

 land has produced a fair crop of weeds ; as many of these weeds 

 were deep-rooted (the land only being cultivated at a maximum 

 depth of 6 incheB), I at once determined to subsoil or double- 

 dig it over. 



Having now done so it has occurred to me that my experi- 

 ence as to the cost of the work might be useful to some readers ; 

 I submit also my estimate of the advantages of deep digging. 



I found that myself and a labourer working cheerfully could 

 subsoil or double-dig about 100 square yards of land in eight 

 hours. If we charge labour at the moderate rate of 3d. per 

 hour, the cost will amount to id. per yard, or say at the rate 

 of £10 per acre. In some portions of the plot the cost was 

 nearly double, owing to beds of deep-rooted weeds, including 

 Thistles, Docks and Bindweed. These roots were all picked out, 

 and the bottom spit dug twice over ; but where the land was 

 fairly clear of weeds the above is a fair estimate of the time 

 and labour required. 



I find the four or five-tined steel digging- fork far better for 

 the work than the spade ; in fact a man using a spade would 

 not do the work so well, nor would he be able to do as much 

 of it. To ensure the work being done thoroughly, a master 

 or some trustworthy person should be there to take a part in 

 the work. It is work that is easy to slip, leaving a portion of 

 the bottom soil undug, and the weed roots unpicked out. The 

 total depth of the two spits would be from 15 to 18 inches. 

 So much as to the labour and cost, and now as to the advan- 



In the first place it should be remembered that snbsoiling 

 and trenching are quite distinct. I can quite understand why 

 some persons object to trenching. I have seen land trenched 

 and made so barren by the operation that even weeds have re- 

 fused to grow on it for a season. I never trench land before 

 it has been subsoiled two or three seasons previously, for I 

 have found from experience that bringing the raw and hungry 

 subsoil to the surface and burying the top soil is a great mistake. 



The first advantage arising from deep digging is the removal 

 of deep-rooted weeds. It certainly is a great advantage to the 

 gardener to be able to determine beforehand what class of 

 plants he will grow on a given piece of land, and deep-rooted 

 weeds can only be destroyed by deep digging. But if I may be 

 allowed to digress, let me here state that I think " weeds " are 

 often abused and called by harder names than they deserve. 

 It seems to me like " man's ingratitude " and ' ' benefits forgot " 

 for the gardener to complain in such bitter language about the 

 " growth of evil weeds," for Mb soil owes much of its fertility 

 to the accumulated deposit of ages of weed remains. For my 

 part I have long looked upon weeds as " friends in disguise." 

 But however slow many of us may be to find out the uses and 

 value of weeds, I think we are all agreed that it is not con- 

 venient to grow them indiscriminately amongst our garden 

 crops, and by far the best and cheapest plan to eradicate those 

 having deep roots is to subsoil and pick them out by hand. 



Another great advantage of deep cultivation in my opinion 

 is this — -land that is thoroughly cultivated has not only greater 

 power of retaining moisture after rain, but it is enabled to 

 gather a supply of moisture during periods of severe drought : 

 from the soil beneath and from the atmosphere above moisture 

 may be obtained. Use the fork or spade in the autumn and 

 the hoe freely during the summer, and the crops will not often 

 suffer from dry weather. 



To use the watering can during every fit of dry weather is a 

 misohievous practice, for it is more likely to ruin the crop 

 than to benefit it. If you wish to destroy the independence of 

 a plant, if you wish to pauperise it, if you wish the sun to 

 burn it up, by all means fly to the watering can ; but if you 



wish your orop to be independent of the season, if you wish it 

 to enjoy the bright warm sunshine of summer — in a word, if 

 you wish your crop to come to perfection, dig deep and hoe oft 

 (once a-week if you like), and neither weeds nor dry weather 

 will hurt your crop. The large amount of moisture in the 

 atmosphere during the hot and dry weather of summer may 

 be taken advantage of. The soil may be prepared by thorough 

 cultivation to act as a powerful condenser ; and if we thus offer 

 facilities for the circulation of the air in the soil we not only 

 gather a supply of moisture to sustain the plants in health 

 during the summer, but all through the wet and cold days of 

 winter a good work is still going on. 



The exposure of the soil by deep digging to the disintegrating 

 influences of the rains and frosts of winter has a very beneficial 

 result on nearly all classes of soils. We thus assist Nature 

 (ever ready to help us) to unlock the latent stores of plant 

 food of which the crust of the earth is composed. The soil 

 is rich in mineral food, but without cultivation and exposure 

 to the air it remains insoluble, and is not available as food for 

 plants. Gardeners would do well to remember that cultivation 

 of the soil is an equivalent for manuring it. 



I think it is about time I was bringing my writing to a close, 

 as too much writing at once is as bad aB too much digging, so 

 I will just mention one other advantage and then conclude. 

 Most of us are aware that pulverised soil moderately dry is a 

 powerful deodoriser, and very possibly, as the air circulates 

 through the soil, it may be purified and the soil enriched to 

 their mutual advantage. The poisonous gases floating in the 

 air are absorbed and captured by the soil as they pass over its 

 surface. The soil having once obtained possession of them 

 transmutes them into food for plants. — W. Lovel, Weaver- 

 thorpe, York. 



CHAPTEBS ON INSECTS POE GARDENERS. 



No. 14. 



In the course of our survey of the domains of insect life we 

 have now arrived at an order which wins admirers even 

 amongst those who have little taste for, or knowledge of, 

 natural history. One section of this order — the butterflies — are 

 associated in the case of a number of persons with the earliest 

 recollections of childhood and of the pleasures of country 

 scenery. If we were to ask the poet or the artist to asBign 

 these and the equally gaudy moths a fitting place in the ranks of 

 insects, it is probable they would at once declare that these 

 delicately plumed and variously coloured creatures ought to 

 form the leading or principal group. Pursuing, however, that 

 natural arrangement which has the approval of most entomo- 

 logists, and working as before from the lower to the higher, 

 we step from the frequently uninviting inBects of the order 

 Hemiptera to the Lepidoptera, which embraces the butterflies 

 and moths. Beyond this lies the Hymenopterous order, so 

 that our friends the bees and our enemies the wasps and saw- 

 flies might consider themselves (could they reason on the 

 subject) superior to their broad-winged downy-coated relatives, 

 which possess the same number of the organs of flight. 

 For many reasons the Lepidoptera have had more attention 

 given to them by the entomologist than any other order of 

 insects. Their conspicuousness on the wing, the elegance or 

 beauty of their appearance, the comparative ease with which 

 they can be kept in cabinets and the regularity of their trans- 

 formations, with the facilities for watching these usually at- 

 tainable — all these circumstances have given butterflies and 

 moths a position of their own amoDget the insect tribes. It is 

 amusing to find that not a few individuals have prided them- 

 selves on being " entomologists," whoBe knowledge of insects 

 goes hardly beyond the Lepidoptera, and who could scarcely 

 say whether the grub of a beetle has legs or not, or give any 

 account of the habits of a dragon fly. This is much as if a 

 man professed to be an ornithologist who only collected water- 

 fowl or finches. Happily for science a better state of things 

 has begun, and many gardeners are becoming well acquainted 

 with the struoture and habits of insects. 



Looking at the order Lepidoptera from the horticultural 

 point of view, we perceive that it occupies a middle place. On 

 fflsthetic grounds we might praise it, for it includes species that 

 give ornament to the garden or the parterre in their winged 

 condition ; but also, unfortunately, various species in their 

 caterpillar state are more or less harmful to vegetation. Of 

 friends to the gardener we can reckon few amongst butterflies 

 and moths, for the larva; of these are not parasitic in habit, 

 though one singular exception occurs abroad, where the larva 



