BURNT CLAY. 567 



Wheat and Potatoes, but the particles of soil run together after rain, 

 and present a smooth cemented surface) were manured with the follow- 

 ing substances, \iz,, 1, bone-dust ; 2, burnt earth ; 3, nitrate of soda ; 

 4, guano ; 5, pigeon-dung ; and 6, decomposed stable manure. The 

 guano produced the earliest visible effects, causing a vigorous growth, 

 which continued through the season,- the flowers, however, were 

 not so abundant, and the shoots did not ripen well, and were conse- 

 quently much cut with the frost. The bed manured with burnt earth 

 next forced itself into notice ; the plants kept up a steadier rate of 

 growth, producing abundance of clean, well-formed blossoms ; the wood 

 ripened well, and sustained no injury during winter. The results of 

 the other manures were not remarkable — acting as gentle stimulants, 

 the nitrate of soda and bone-dust least visibly so — although they were 

 applied in the quantities usually recommended by the vendors. From 

 the fact of the beds of Roses being all planted at the same date, and 

 their progress being carefully watched, I would suggest the application 

 of burnt earth as an excellent manure for Roses in adhesive soils, as 

 weU as for fruit-trees where disposed to canker, "Whether it acted by 

 furthering drainage, or by opening the soil to the fertilising influences 

 of the atmosphere, or by fixing the ammonia conveyed to the soil by 

 rain, I do not pretend to say, but its value is sufficiently apparent. 

 I believe it is considered that the vegetable matter contained in 

 soils is destroyed by the act of burning ; and I do not think the 

 remains of the materials used in combustion could exercise any extended 

 influence, as the quantity compared with the earth burned is so smaU, 

 and the earth comes from the heap burnt red and hard, and a great 

 portion qtiite free from the substances used in ignition," This ia con-^ 

 firmed by Mr. Rivers, another eminent Rose-grower, and by Sir Oswald 

 Mosley, who makes the following remarks : — " I have had for some 

 time past several of these burning heaps in the environs of my garden, 

 which produce us in succession a very valuable manure : they are 

 easily kept in a state of combustion, and aU the care they require is, to 

 cover and surround them occasionally with fresh clay or marl, that 

 they may not burst out into an open flame. My gardener sowed 

 two beds of Onion-seeds of the GHobe, James's Keeping, and Strasburg 

 sorts, mixed together, about the 10th of March last, with one pound of 

 seed to each bed. The beds were each of them eighteen yards by twelve 

 yards, and one of them was manured with good stable dung; the other 

 by this mixture of burnt clay and vegetable ashes. The produce of 

 the first did not exceed five bushels of an inferior size, the greater part 

 having been destroyed by the larva of the Onion-fly, whilst that of 

 the latter was twenty bushels of Onions, as large as those imported 

 from Portugal. Another remarkable circumstance is, that the former 

 have not kept well ; but the latter are as soxmd as possible, not a 

 single bulb in the strings showing the least appearance of decay. The 



