386 



SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 



Part II. 



1977. Collecting and forming comjjosts for manure is an essential part of the economy 

 of the garden, no less than of the farm. The following judicious observations on this 

 subject, by Bisliop, merit attention : — • 



Without enumerating the various means that, with careful economy, may be used for increasing the 

 stock of garden manure, such as collecting the urine of animals, chamber-lie, soap-suds, or mixing fresh 

 soils of opposite qualities, I shall confine myself to a plain statement of a method I have practised for these 

 several years past with much success. Situated the same as many others, to whom the produce of the 

 stable-yard is the only allowance of dung that can conveniently be allotted for the garden, which, although 

 every way advantageous for hot-beds, and other purposes of forcing, yet, to use it as a manure for garden 

 crops, without having its qualities altered by fermentation, or blended with substances of a heavier nature, 

 would, in many cases, be more injurious than beneficial ; I therefore, during the summer and autumn, 

 have all the offals in the garden, such as weeds, leaves of strawberries and other vegetables, short grass, 



Eeas and asparagus haulm, with the foliage of trees and shrubs when newly shed, carefully collected into a 

 eap. These are all turned over and mixed during the winter, that they may be sufficiently rotted to mix 

 with the dung against the end of summer. I have also another heap formed with the prunings from goose- 

 berry and currant bushes, fruit-trees, raspberry-shoots, clippings of box-edgings, and loppings from shrubs ; 

 also the roots of greens and cabbages, which are generally burnt at two different periods in the year, viz. in 

 spring and autumn ; but previous to each burning, I endeavour to pare up all the coarse grasses around 

 the garden, with a portion of the soil adhering thereto, and whenever these are sufficiently dried, have 

 them collected to the heap intended to be burnt. The fire is kindled at a convenient distance from the 

 heaps, and a portion of such as burn most easily is first applied, untd the fire hath gained a considerable 

 power. After this, the process of burning is continued, by applying lighter and heavier substances alter- 

 nately, that the one may preserve the action of the fire, and the other prevent it from reducing them too 

 much to ashes. When the whole are thus consumed, a quantity of mould is thrown over the heap to pre- 

 vent the fire from breaking through ; and whenever it can be broke into with safety, it is then mixed up 

 into a dunghill with the rotted vegetables, moss-earth, and stable-yard dung, in such proportions as is 

 likely to ensure a moderate fermentation, which is generally completed in three or four weeks ; at which 

 time, I think, it is most advantageously applied, in having it carried to the ground, and instantly dug in. 

 {.Metn. Caled. Hort. Soc. i. 443.) 



1978. Liquid manures are highly approved of by many cultivators, and especially by 

 Knight. They are formed by infusing rich dungs, as those of fowls, sheep, pigs, &c. or 

 blood, in three or four times their bulk of water ; and the application of the extract so 

 procured is made at the usual seasons of watering, taking care to apply it only to the 

 roots. Knight applies this mode of manuring chiefly to plants in pots, and is convinced, 

 from experience, that trees and shrubs may grow and bear fruit in very small pots, if 

 abundantly supplied with nourishment in this manner. (Hort. T?-a7is. vol. ii. p. 127.) 

 For some plants, as the pine, vine, cauliflower, cucumber, and others which gardeners 

 consider as gross feeders, liquid manures may be applied during their full vigor of 

 growth ; but the practice, we think, would be dangerous, if so applied to culinary or 

 fruit-bearing plants in general, as producing too great excitement. 



1979. Collecting and forming comjwsts for motdd. Composts are mixtures of several 

 earths, or earthy substances or dungs, either for the improvement of the general soil 

 under culture ; or for the culture of particular plants. 



1980. In respect to composts for the amendment of the general soil of the garden, their 

 quality must depend on that of the natural soil ; if this be light, loose or sandy, it may 

 be assisted by the addition of heavy loams, clays, &c. from ponds and ditches, cleanings 

 of sewers, &c. On the other hand, heavy, clayey, and all stubborn soils, may be assisted 

 by light composts of sandy earth, drift, and sea-sand, the shovellings of turnpike-roads, 

 the cleansing of streets, all kinds of ashes, rotten tanners' bark, rotten Avood, and saw- 

 dust, and other similar light opening materials that can be most conveniently procured. 



1981. Composts for j^ai-ticular plants may be reduced to light sandy loam from old 

 pastures ; strong loam appi'oaching nearly to brick-earth from the same source ; peat- 

 earth from the surface of heaths or commons ; bog-earth from bogs or morasses ; veget- 

 able earth fropa decayed leaves, stalks, cow-dung, &c. ; sand, either sea-sand, drift-sand, 

 or powdered stone, so as to be as free as possible from iron, lime-rubbish ; and lastly 

 common garden-earth. There are no known plants that will not grow or thrive in one 

 or other of these earths alone or mixed with some other earth, or with rotten dung, or 

 leaves. Nurserymen, whose practice may be considered a safe criterion to judge from, 

 have seldom more than three sorts of earth : loam, approaching to the qualities of brick- 

 earth ; peat or bog-earth, from heaths or morasses ; and the common soil of their nursery. 

 With these, and the addition of a little sand for striking plants, some sifted lime-rubbish 

 for succulents, and some well rotted cow-dung for bulbs and some sorts of trees, they 

 contrive to grow thousands of different species in as great perfection (taking the dif- 

 ference between plants in pots and plants in the free soil and air) as in their native coun- 

 tries, and many, as the pine, vine, camellia, rose, &c. in a superior manner. 



1982. Practical limit to ingredients for comp)osts. Gushing, one of the best writers on 

 the propagation of exotics, observes, " Loam, peat, and sand, seem to be the three simples 

 of nature, if I may so call them, most requisite for our purpose ; to which we occasionally 

 add, as mollifiers, vegetable or leaf mould,' and well rotted dung ; from the judicious 

 mixture and preparation of which, composts may be made to suit plants introduced from 

 any quarter of the globe." {Exotic Gardener^ p. 153. 1814.) Sweet {Botanical Cidti- 

 vator, 1820,) concurs in this 0]^inion. See also Haynes On Collecting and Forming 

 Composts, &c. 182J. 



