32 PICTOBIAL PRAOTIGAL VEGETABLE] GROWING. 



weather sets in, then soak the trenches and mulch Avith the spare soil. 

 If the Peas are thinly grown, and the shoots are topped, immense 

 pods will swell up, and if liquid manure, whether natural or artificial, 

 is supplied from time to time, the plants will go on growing and 

 bearing. As regards the abstract comparative merits of natural and 

 artificial manures for Peas, I am inclined to favour the former foi 

 early and the latter for late produce. I am aware that the general 

 opinion is to the contrary, but I believe it to be wrong. On rows of 

 Sweet Peas manured half their length wuth dung and half with 

 artificials, I have noticed that the former are flowering first and the 

 latter last. And this has beeu very clearly and distinctly marked, too. 

 Soil in which dung is decaying is probably warmer and drier than 

 soil without it. The warmth would be in favour of early develop- 

 ment, but the drought would militate against continuance. In 

 speaking of artificials as being slower in action than dung, and 

 therefore suiting late Peas better, earlier not quite so well, I must 

 take care to make it clear that I allude to such fertilisers as super- 

 phosphate, bone flour, and kainit. Nitrogenous manures, like 

 nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, would act more quickly, 

 but their use ought to be limited to coaxing a plant along through 

 the medium of liquid manure when, in the midst of a hard struggle 

 with drought, it is inclined to languish. 



Potatoes.— One never realises the absurdity of indiscriminate 

 manuring more fully than when he observes the difference between 

 the development of a Potato and, say, a Brussels Sprout. In the 

 former case we have a vegetable which forms its crop underground, 

 developing from tiny, tender tubercles on thin, stoloniferous stems ; 

 in the latter a plant which forms its crop aboveground on a strong, 

 fleshy stem. The Potato tubercles come into actual contact with the 

 manure in the soil unless it be buried to a good depth ; the Brussels 

 Sprout does not do so. The method of development of the Potato 

 crop^ — the lateral expansion, so to say, of the tubers — should teach 

 that the soil favourable to it is one of a very friable, yielding nature, 

 and that a stiff", stubborn, clinging soil is unsuitable. On the other 

 hand, a firmer medium is necessary for Brussels Sprouts. The 

 tenderness of the Potato tubercle should teach another thing, 

 namely, that sharp particles in the soil, such as cinders, are bad, 

 because the soft skin is liable to be scratched, and admission aflforded 

 to the growth of the scab fungus. The more we study the Potato 

 the more clearly w^e realise that the first essential to success is a 

 well-drained and finely pulverised medium. With respect to manure, 

 it is not unreasonable to demur to the practice of applying rank, wet 

 dung so late, and at so shallow a depth, that it comes into actual 

 contact with the tubers. Dung may be used for Potatoes with, good 

 results, but it should be well clecayed, and trenched in a foot below 

 the surface several weeks in advance of cropping. It should never 

 be used in the drills unless very short, dry enough to handle without 

 unpleasantness, and quite crumbly. In such a state it will, if mixed 

 with burnt rubbish from the garden fire, and sweepings from a 



