256 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[April 7, 1863. 



profitably, by having eight acres of it grass land, if the owner 

 wanted to keep a horse and a cow or two, and the remaining 

 two acres as described, while it is hardly likely that he will want 

 all the ten acres in garden stuff; and if he cultivate for sale, he 

 ought well to study what the ground is best adapted for, and 

 plant more extensively of those crops for which it is suitable. 

 Even then, unless he ha3 well studied the requirements of the 

 market in his neighbourhood, he will find it difficult to under- 

 sell those whose personal and practical experience is already in 

 the field against him ; but he may succeed, though, probably, 

 not until after some practice. This need not surprise ' W. B.,' 

 •who if he be a city man retiring to the country, with a view to 

 make gardening pursuits as profitable as he may perhaps have 

 made his city business, it is not unfair to ask if he could write a 

 email work on the mode of making a fortune by the business he 

 has just left, and make that work intelligible and easily to be 

 followed by a midland county's farmer with a certainty of 

 success. 



"It is easy to perceive that a close attention to the minutiae of 

 business in both cases will alone be accompanied by a good 

 result ; but the pursuit taken up early in life is the one most 

 likely to prosper. However, I would not dishearten ' W. B.,' 

 nor any other person intending entering business of this kind ; 

 hut I will help him a little in calculating hi3 labour expenses. 

 His returns I must leave him to estimate himself ; only it is fair 

 to say, that if he require all the produce of two acreB for his own 

 use, it ought to be calculated as worth the retail price he would 

 have to pay for it if he bought the articles at the greengrocer's. 



" Trenching on dry, stony ground is worth £6 per acre, and 9d. 

 per load for the stones taken out. In many cases these stones 

 are sold to a good profit to the road surveyor and others. If 

 there be tree roots on the ground, a pile of these stacked up close 

 together, making 128 cubic feet, is often sold for 8$. or 10s. 

 This, when dry, often sells for double that amount. Special 

 agreements for vrork of this kind are sometimes entered into, 

 allowing the -workman to have either the roots and stones, or 

 both. 



" Digging is done in various modes. Eough digging, shallow, 

 and the turned-up portion not broken, is from 16*. to 18*., or 

 20s. per acre. This is often paid for what is dug up in fruit 

 plantations. Deeper digging and breaking the clods is worth 

 double this amount. A hedge may be trimmed in summer 

 for Is. or Is. 6d. per 100 yards. Mowing of hay, if the crop 

 is good, and in the neighbourhood of a town, will cost 6s. or 

 more per acre. Mowing short grass is difficult to calculate, so 

 much depends on the way it is done. In fact, it is not easy to 

 say what ought to be given for any piece of work without seeing 

 it; neither is it fair to enter into calculation of the profit and 

 loss of undertakings without being on the spot when the under- 

 taking is in working. Eailway prospectuses have put forth 

 plausible tables which experience has over and over again 

 proved were hollow and worse than useless. I can, therefore, 

 only say to ' W. B.,' that by using great prudence, economy, 

 and perseverance, he may make his ten-acre cultivation a paying 

 undertaking. — J. Roesox." 



This is just the answer we expected. Soils, situations, and 

 seasons so vary that no one can give a prophetic table of profit 

 and loss with any reasonable prospect of approaching the real 

 result. The best guide for "W. B.," will be the man whose 

 services he purposes retaining, and who, if intelligent and trust- 

 worthy as well as industrious, will be the surest leader to 

 success.] 



EHODODENDEON SEEDLINGS AND CULTURE. 



I ah glad to see in your dumber for the 24th ult. a reply to 

 "J. N. M." on the subject of " Rhododendron culture." May I 

 say a few words on the subject ? Having grown thousands of 

 seedlings from the best hybrids. I asked one of the questions, 

 which your correspondent there puts, of Mr. Standish, and he 

 very kindly replied to me that " all the best Rhododendrons 

 generally come true from seed." Of course there is a chance of 

 obtaining varieties where the plants are grown in juxtaposition. 



It may interest "J. N. M." to know that Ehododendrons bar- 

 baturo, Thomsoni, and Campbelli (all Sikkim), have proved per- 

 fectly hardy, and the foliage good at all seasons. These have been 

 planted-out since 1858 in an exposed northerly aspect here. Rho- 

 dodendron ciliatum was cut down to the ground in 1861, but is 

 now covered with flowers, having been potted last autumn, and 

 placed in a cold pit on frosty nights or days. All the Bhotan kinds 



proved too tender. Azalea indica alba has been ont in the same 

 exposed portion since 1856, and has flowered every year, remain- 

 ing unhurt, though unprotected, when Laurels and Bays were 

 all killed or severely injured by frost. Having now proved these 

 plants hardy, they are to be moved into a more sheltered posi- 

 tion, to give the Ehododendrons a chance of flowering, and to 

 allow the Azalea to flower where the north wind will not tear 

 the blossoms. This i», you may be assured, a rather cool spot, 

 rather damp, and feeling early frosts more than most places in 

 Ireland. Were I to name the county it would mislead your 

 readers, as at one side of the mountains the Myrtle blows as well 

 as in its native Ischia, while on this Bide the climate is more like 

 Switzerland without the advantage of its milder latitude. 



I see in your Number of November 25th, 1862, a reply to 

 "An Old Subsceibeb " (I am an old one, too), in which it is 

 said that '' manure is not only not good, but an actual poison to 

 Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Heaths." This must, no doubt, 

 be true under certain conditions, or it would not be 60 distinctly 

 stated; but the old saying holds good here, "What does not 

 poison fattens," for in every case in which I have used old 

 well-rotted manure the results have been most satisfactory. 

 Manure, containing long straw or other undecomposed material 

 of that kind which would render the soil open or loose, is certainly 

 most injurious, either applied to the ground before planting or 

 dug-in afterwards; but, indeed, digging is, I think, always 

 destructive to all the Ericaceae, and if ever the earth is to be 

 stirred it should be done with a fork, and never even then except 

 to apply manure. 



Perhaps you will consider it of sufficient interest to allow me 

 to give your readers the following advice given by Mr. Yeitch in 

 his catalogue for 1861, now before me. He says, " Bog or peaty 

 mould is the best ; but when this cannot be procured good 

 fertile loam with a dressing of rather fresh eowdung once in two 

 years will grow them well;" and he adds, "a good mixture for 

 them [American plants] can be made as follows : — To three 

 parts half-rotted leaves add one part of the turfy surface of a 

 meadow cut about 4 inches thick ; to this add a good quantity 

 of white or other sand. Chop but do not beat the soil, and use 

 as rough as possible ; should the foliage become yellowish top- 

 dress with eowdung, or the use of liquid manure about four 

 times during the month of July will soon change them to dark 

 green." Mr. J. Waterer recommends "well-rotted stable-ma- 

 nure in proportion of one barrowful to six of the formei 1 

 ingredients." 



I should not trouble you with these remarks, but that I have 

 saved the lives of some of my most valuable Rhododendrons by 

 the application of manure. Here and there, too, I find a Rhodo- 

 dendron ferrugineum losing almost every leaf, but quite revived 

 by pointing-in well-rotted manure, after opening a trench out- 

 side the ball of roots, and filling it up with the same stuff. 

 Curious enough, Rhododendron hirsutum grows better here than 

 ferrugineum. These two kinds, bythe-by, I have never met 

 with in their wild state growing together ; they generally occupy 

 distinct districts, though growing at the same altitudes. 



In conclusion, it is worth while to remark that though much 

 of the soil here is that best fitted for Rhododendrons, yet there are 

 two other soils in this place — viz., fine limestone gravel and fine 

 rabbit sand of decomposed granite. On both of these last there 

 are to be Been good healthy Rhododendrons, of course more dwarf 

 and less luxuriant, the soil being, I believe, almost entirely 

 devoid of vegetable matter, and no mixture of manure or any 

 thing else being applied ; and it may be worth while remarking 

 that on these soils "the Rhododendron ponticum strain does better 

 than the catawbiense. 



Enclosed is a small paper of Rhododendron seed of fifty of 

 the best hardy named kinds, having flowered together last season. 

 This is for your correspondent "J. N. M." should he wish for 

 them.— D. C. M., Ireland. 



IMPOETANCE OF GENEEAL KNOWLEDGE. 



In a lale article on attention, &c, which has met with more 

 consideration and sympathy than I eTer expected from the 

 greatest gardeners and the employers of gardeners, I borrowed 

 a sentence or two from a nobleman when addressing an Institute 

 at Birmingham. I have just read with great delight the address 

 of the noble Premier on his installation as Rector of the Univer- 

 sity of Glasgow. I would urge the reading of that address, and 

 that of theDuke of Argyll and others, upon my younger brethren ; 



