848 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



own ; and quackery, even in the growing of flowers, has as many followers as in any other 

 line." {Treatise, &c. p. 103.) 



6351. Maddock recommends "one half rotten cow-dung, two years old. The cow-dung produced near 

 London is more crude and gross than that of the country, occasioned by the difference of food on which 

 the animal subsists ; it of course requires longer preparation and exposure to the atmosphere that the lat- 

 ter, but two years and a half will be found sufficient for it in its grossest and most crude state. . One sixth 

 fresh sound earth, of an open texture. One eighth earth of rotten leaves. One twelfth coarse sea or river 

 sand. One twenty-fourth soft decayed willow wood. One twenty-fourth peaty or moory earth. One 

 twenty-fourth ashes of burnt vegetables." This compost is to be thoroughly incorporated and exposed to 

 the air in an open situation for a year before it is made use of 



6352. Emmerton says, " Good compost is the food, the very life of the auricula ;" it must be very rich, 

 and properly tempered and sweetened by the sun, frost, and air. His materials are goose or pigeon dung, 

 night-soil, sugar-bakers' scum, yellow loam, or loam from such land as will grow good crops of wheat, and 

 sea-sand. He does not use salts of any kind, which are, no doubt, supplied by the sugar-bakers' scum, that 

 substance being chiefly blood, lime-water, and oily matter. He gives various proportions, all of which he 

 found successful ; in some, night-soil anG sand are wanting, thus : three barrowfuls of goose-dung, steeped 

 in blood from butchers ; three barrowfuls of sugar-bakers' scum ; two barrowfuls of fine yellow loam : 

 or, two barrowfuls of goose-dung, steeped in blood ; two barrowfuls of scum ; two barrowfuls of night- 

 soil ; and two barrowfuls of fine yellow loam. These composts require two years' preparation ; in the 

 first, they are mixed up in a hole in the earth ; and in the next, turned over every month in an open ex- 

 posed situation, so as every part may be thoroughly frozen in winter, and heated by the sun and penetrated 

 by the air in summer. Those composts, he says, he used with very gr«at success, though they contained 

 no sand. He next introduces that material thus : four barrowfuls of loam, steeped in night-soil and 

 urine ; two barrowfuls of goose-dung, mixed with blood ; two barrowfuls of sugar-bakers' scum ; and 

 two pecks of sea-sand : or, two barrowfuls of night-soil ; one barrowful of cow-dung ; one barrowful 

 of fine yellow loam ; and one peck of sea-sand : or, two barrowfuls of night-soil ; two barrowfuls of 

 goose-dung ; two barrowfuls of cow-dung ; two barrowfuls of fine yellow loam ; and two pecks of sea- 

 sand. Great stress is laid on the blood, which, " when rotted down with other manure, does wonders be- 

 yond all idea ;" but unless the above composts are " stirred and turned over frequently, it will poison and 

 rather kill and destroy your plants, than nourish them. Rendered sweet and wholesome, it will be the 

 means of throwing brilliant colors into the pips or petals, and of giving life and vigor to the plants, as 

 much as fine old port or rich Madeira wine does to the human constitution." {Cult, of the Auricula, 

 Sec. p. 77.) 



Qo53. The late P. Kenny, Hogg observes, " gardener by profession, was, perhaps, one of the most successful 

 and eminent growers of auriculas in his day, and who won as many prizes as most men, during the course 

 often or twelve years that he lived at Totteridge, in Middlesex. He certainly had all the benefit of air, 

 situation, and soil, which, coupled with his fondness for the flower, and his skilful treatment of it, (to say 

 nothing of his being almost constantly in the garden,) gave him a decided superiority over many of his 

 competitors, and ensured, as it were, his chance of success. He always kept by him a quantity of sound 

 staple loam, of rather a sandy nature ; this he sweetened, by frequent turning. His next principal ingre- 

 dient was sheep-dung and hay-litter, obtained from the sheds used to rear early lambs, well rotted, by 

 being turned, mixed, and fermented in the same manner as the gardener does horse-dung and straw-litter. 

 His proportions were one third loam ; two thirds sheep-dung and hay-litter ; one tenth coarse sand. 

 These formed his compost for growing them in ; but he had another of a richer quality, if I may so term 

 it, with which he used to top-dress his plants, and this he would do sometimes twice in the year. When 

 they killed any sheep, he always reserved the blood, and mixed it with the dung of poultry. These 

 two ingredients he added to his loam and sheep-dung, and these constituted his compost for surface- 

 dressing." {Treatise, &c. 104.) This compost was employed and much approved of in the Hammersmith 

 nursery. 



6354. The LancasJiire growers, Hogg informs us, " use horse-dung and cow-dung indiscriminately, 

 sometimes mixed, sometimes apart ; the dung of poultry most frequently ; and old decayed willow wood, 

 when they can get it ; with the mould cast up by moles ; taking care that the same be properly mixed, sweet- 

 ened, and pulverised. In winter, they throw it up in narrow ridges, and when the top of it is frozen, they 

 take it off, and so continue to do, till the whole of it has been frozen." 



6355. Justice gives the culture of the auricula in a " hitherto-unattempted manner, and which, although 

 repugnant to the rules given by our cultivators of auriculas, T shall here insert, as the only true method 

 to procure a fine blow of auriculas, such as I had this last spring, 1762 ; which, to the sight of numbers of 

 spectators, exceeded all the blows of any auriculas ever seen in Scotland, in England, or in Europe; 

 which was composed of the most capital flowers in England and Holland, and some very fine new seed- 

 lings of my own raising." The soil he recommends is, one half free fresh loam, from under an old pas- 

 ture; one half composed of the following parts, viz. three parts three -year-old cow-dung, and one part 

 sea or river sand : no horse-dung to be used, and the ingredients not to be mixed together tiU a few days 

 before being made use of: " for otherwise, when they are mixed for some time, they breed vermin and 

 worms." He adds, " if you use fullers' earth to them, it must be done in the proportion only of an 

 eighth part, and at no time but in the spring dressing; for if used in autumn, it is prejudicial ; and even 

 when it is used in spring. It must be well dissolved in warm water before being used, and then use no 

 sand." {Brit. Gnrd. Direct, art. Auricula.) 



6356. Curtis, in a note to the last edition of Haddock's work, says, " We have seen the strongest auri- 

 culas produced from the following ingredients : two thirds of the rotten dung from old hot-beds reduced 

 to fine mould ; one third containing equal parts of coarse sand and peat or bog earth, such as is used in 

 the culture of heaths, mixed well together by sifting or screening, and suffered to be well aired by fre- 

 quent turnings during the frosts of winter." {Florist's Direct. 161.) 



6357. Henderson, of Delvine, uses two parts of very rotten dung from old hot-beds, one part of vegetable 

 mould, one quarter of river sand, mixing the whole, and exposing it for a winter. {Caled. Hort. Soc. Mem. 

 ii. 230.) 



6358. The compost in most general use among auricula-growers is of fresh loamy soil and perfectly de- 

 composed cow-dung, equal parts of each, adding one tenth of the mixture of sea or river sand. Some use 

 leaf-mould instead of cow-dung. The whole incorporated and prepared for one summer and one winter 

 in the usual manner. 



6359. Manner of growing. The common sorts are grown in beds or in mingled 

 borders ; but all the fine flowers in pots. Maddock recommends pots of six inches and a 

 half interior diameter at top, seven inches deep, and the interior bottom diameter four 

 inches, for full-grown flowering plants ; and smaller sizes for seedlings and newly sepa- 

 rated offsets. Emmerton uses pots for large blooming plants, eight inches Iiigh, five 

 inches and a half diameter at the top, and four inches and a half at the bottom outside 

 measure. 



6360. Time of potting and transj^Ianting full-grown plants. The most advisable time 

 to pot auriculas, according to Haddocks, is immediately, or soon after bloom, and 



