HAIR— MALT-DUST— SAWDUST. 565 



it should be mixed with mineral superphosphate of lime. It 

 has been much praised as a manure for Orange-trees and 

 the like. 



Hair, horns, shavings, and refuse matter of a similar nature, 

 are very like blood in their action, as they are in their compo- 

 sition, each containing about 17 per cent, of nitrogen. They, 

 however, decompose much more slowly, and may be used 

 advantageously wherever ammonia is to be formed slowly but 

 permanently. Vine borders are improved by them, and to 

 Hops they seem to be of specific value. 



Malt-dust, the dried radicles of barley, is very rich in 

 nitrogen. It is employed as a top-dressing for lawns, or to 

 promote the formation of roots by sifting over ground about to 

 be turfed. Its effects are powerful but transient. 



Oilcake, in powder, has also a highly energetic though 

 transitory action. Its great value consists in giving an impulse 

 to vegetation in the early stages. 



SawdMSt, Spent Tan, and similar refuse woody materials, 

 have no value in gardening until they have been rotted down or 

 charred; on the contrary, they are apt to injure the soil to" 

 which they are applied. This has, however, been denied. 



".The following experiment with. Strawberries in tan I saw made near 

 Edinburgh.. The soil was very light, and appeared unfit for their 

 growth, yet finer fruit or of better flavour I have seldom seen. This 

 was entirely owing to a covering of old tanner's bark, about an inch 

 thick, being applied between the rows. The bark not only kept the 

 ground moist and the fruit clean, but it is the material of all others in 

 which this plant most delights. Many persons may have remarked 

 how almost all plants, but particularly the Strawberry, wiU root into 

 the old tan of a bed in which they have beenj forced, and yet because 

 they know new tan will kiU weeds, they do not think it valuable as a 

 manure. In the same garden were beds of Strawberries which had 

 not been covered, but after growing, and flowering well, these bore no 

 fruit worth gathering (a very common thing if the soil is too light) ; 

 others were almost burnt up, whilst those to which the tan had been 

 applied were luxuriant, and the ground was covered with fine runners 

 fit to plant out, though the fruit was just in perfection — an uncommon 

 circumstance near Edinburgh." — I. R. Pearson, Chikvell. 



Bmnt Clay. — ^Why burnt clay should be better than that sort 

 of soil in its ordinary condition, is sufficiently obvious. Its 



