Juae 8. 1871. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. 



397 







WEEKLY 



CALENDAR, 















Month 



Day 



of 

 Week. 



JUNE 8-14, 1871. 



Average Tempera- 

 ture near London. 



Eain in 

 43 yeai-3. 



Sun 

 Rises. 



Sun 

 Sets. 



Sroon 

 Rises. 



Moon 

 Sets. 



Moon's 

 Age. 



Clock 

 after 

 Sun. 



Day 



of 



Year. 



8 

 9 

 10 

 11 

 12 

 18 

 14 



Th 



F 



S 



Son 



M 



Tn 



W 



Meeting of Royal Society, 4 p.m. 



1 Sunday aftek Trinity. 

 Meeting of Koyal Geographical Society, 

 ( 8.80 P.M. 

 Royal Botanic Society's Show opens. 



Day. 

 70.6 

 70,8 

 69,6 

 72.1 

 71.4 

 71.9 

 72.6 



Nisht. 

 46.4 

 47.2 

 46.9 

 47.6 

 46.1 

 47.4 

 47.9 



Mean. 

 58.6 

 69.0 

 58.3 

 59.9 

 68.8 

 5l).6 

 60.3 



Days. 

 15 

 20 

 19 

 13 

 21 

 20 

 19 



m. h. 

 47 afS 

 46 3 

 46 3 

 45 8 

 45 3 

 45 8 

 45 8 



m. h. 

 llafS 



11 8 



12 8 



13 8 



14 8 



15 8 



16 8 



m. h. 

 19af0 

 46 

 5 1 

 22 1 

 39 1 

 66 1 

 12 2 



m. h. 

 26af 9 

 43 10 

 57 11 

 after. 

 18 2 

 26 3 

 34 4 



Days. 

 20 

 21 



c 



28 



24 



25 



• 26 



m. 8. 

 1 22 

 1 10 

 59 

 47 

 35 

 22 

 10 



159 

 160 

 161 

 162 

 163 

 164 

 165 



From observations takpn near London during fortv-tliree years, the average day temperature of the week is 71 3 

 perature 471°. The greatest heat was 90 ', on the "iSth and 14th, 1843 ; and the lowest cold 80°, on the 11th, 1866 

 rain was 1.48 inch. 



', and its night tem- 

 The greatest fall of 



THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES IN POOR 

 SOILS. 



N the excellent remarks of Mr. Fish, under 

 the familiar heading of " Doings of the Last 

 Weelv," I have been pleased to see such pro- 

 minence given to work in the Kitchen Garden, 

 every process of cultivation being detailed 

 with such painstaking minuteness as to render 

 it easy to understand and to apply these use- 

 ful lessons. I once heard it remarked that 

 " no glass, no gardeners," seemed now to be 

 the motto of young men, whose sole aim was 

 to work altogether in the glass houses or among the flowers ; 

 vegetable-growing being frequently spoken of as " a thing 

 anyone can do." Nor can it be disputed that in a rich soil 

 and with a fair average season no great skill is necessary 

 to produce fine crops of vegetables ; yet all those who 

 have to meet the requirements of a family throughout the 

 year, will agree with me that the production of a few 

 excellent crops in favourable seasons is a very different 

 affair from maintaining a steady supply and constant 

 succession of each kind in its season, or as long as it may 

 be required. To overcome the evils of our fickle climate 

 and the ever-changing temperature of spring, which is so 

 frequently a series of trying alternations of bright hot 

 days, frosty nights, cold, cutting, moisture-laden blasts, 

 drought, or blight, demands much more care, forethought, 

 and skill than inexperience would suppose, even when one 

 enjoys all the important advantages of an abundance of 

 rich manure and a good water supply ; but when these 

 grand aids to success are wanting, and one has in such 

 a season as that of l'^70 to battle with the drought, which 

 fell with such scathing power upon the earth, then is the 

 time of trial calling forth our best efforts, so that no miss- 

 ing dishes or paucity of supply shall be evident, even to 

 that insatiable individual the cook. 



Having had some experience of vegetable culture in a 

 poor soil, I purpose offering a few notes on the subject. 



When the lengthening day and mild temperature of 

 spring come to us in their regular course, they indicate 

 that the seed time has come for which we began preparing 

 as long ago as the autumn of the preceding year, for then 

 the majority of the crops having been gathered in, every 

 part of the garden not occupied by permanent crops or 

 winter vegetables should be at once taken in hand, the 

 damp fpits seen to, drains made, faulty di'ains repaired, 

 and all the soil trenched at least two spades deep, and 

 thrown up either in ridges or as roughly as possible, so 

 that it may be thoroughly exposed to the ameliorating 

 influence of the frost, air, and rain during the ensuing 

 winter. The action of the frost upon the soil is the most 

 important, and may be described as the changing of the 

 moisture of the soil into ice, which expands so forcibly as 

 to completely shatter the soil, separating it on thawing 

 into so many particles that the air is admitted freely 

 among it ; it loses all its sodden sourness, becomes changed 

 from a cold inert mass to an open lively soil, and is in the 

 best possible condition for cropping. In a heavy tena- 

 No. 532.— Vol. XX., New Sebibs. 



cious clayey soil something more than this is required, 

 otherwise it settles down into its former condition so 

 quickly that it becomes hurtful to the growing crops, 

 especially in a wet summer. To remedy this evil, and 

 make the soil more friable and open, a dressing of some 

 such material as burnt earth, ashes, brickdust, or mortar 

 rubbish answers admirably. Some stress is laid upon 

 this autumn cultivation of the soil, for obvious reasons. 

 When the soil of a garden undergoes such excellent and 

 timely culture it lies ready for use, for by its being so 

 pervious to the action of sun and wind one is enabled to 

 take advantage of the favourable opportunity which two 

 or three days of bright sunshine afford in order to sow the 

 seed of early vegetables, and of those kinds requiring all 

 the months of spring and summer to develope their full 

 excellence. Cold damp weather is so frequently the charac- 

 teristic of our changeable climate during the earlier months 

 of the year that not one fair day should be lost, or we may 

 have cause to regret it throughout the season. 



Compare the prospects for success of A, whose soil is 

 well stirred in autumn, and so exposed during winter that 

 it is purified of all its crude sourness, and so thoroughly 

 pulverised that it is ready for the seed at the proper time ; 

 and of B, who has sufi'ered his ground to lie through 

 winter a down-trodden inert mass, only digging it over as 

 the time for cropping it approaches, when it is thrown 

 over in wet heavy clods, and as soon as it is slightly dry 

 at the surface in go the seeds, very often to perish as they 

 vegetate. There can be no question as to the superiority 

 of A's practice ; in fact, it strikes one as being so patent 

 to the dullest intellect that nothing more need be written 

 to enforce it. 



Next in importance to the cultivation of the soil is the 

 application of manure. To produce first-class vegetables 

 one can hardly have too much manure ; if enough of it can 

 be had it is, of course, best to apply a liberal dressing, to 

 be well worked in the soil as it is stirred in autumn. By 

 a liberal dressing I mean a layer at least fi inches thick 

 all over the surface ; if it is thicker, so much the better, 

 no matter what may be the nature of the soU. I would 

 only take care, when the trenching is done, not to bury the 

 manure too deeply, but to keep it so near the surface that 

 the roots of the vegetables may feed upon it while the 

 plants are young, and these from growing briskly and ■with 

 vigour will come quickly into use, and also withstand the 

 attacks of drought and blight to which plants of more 

 weakly growth would quickly succumb. There need be no 

 fear of waste when manure is so applied, for the power of 

 most soils to absorb and retain the salts contained in 

 manures is a well-established fact, the only exception 

 being that of very sandy soil, to which manure is best 

 applied in a liquid state frequently during the growing 

 season. It too frequently happens, however, that the sup- 

 ply of manure falls very short of the requirements of the 

 garden, causing one to resort to all kinds of makeshifts, 

 for it is useless to sit down and bemoan the want of the 

 precious commodity ; far better is it to look keenly around, 

 and see that no particle of any matter useful for mamue 

 is wasted ; every barrowful of lawn-mowings, weeds, or 

 No. 1184.— Vol. XLV., Old Series. 



