79 



and decomposed leaf mould. For succession plants 

 he uses one-half good turfy loam and one-half leaf 

 mould, decomposed cows' and fowls' dung well incor- 

 porated together. (Gard. Chron. 1845, 200.) 



The practice of Mr. Oldacre, well known as gar- 

 dener to the late Sir Joseph Banks, was very eccentric. 

 At first, he used good sound loam and dung, with a 

 little sand, when he found it necessary ; but at the 

 close of his life he grew his fruiting plants chiefly 

 in powdered bones, in which he thought they throve 

 better, and produced more highly-flavoured fruit. Mr. 

 Loudon, however, was not able to discover any thing, 

 in the appearance of either fruit or plants, to lead him 

 to suppose that powdered bones are more congenial 

 to the pine plant than good loam and dung ; his 

 plants were certainly not equal to Mr. Baldwin's, nor 

 superior to those grown by Mr. Andrews, or Mr. 

 Aiton. He, therefore, considered their thriving in 

 this compost a proof more of the hardy nature of the 

 pine, than of any thing else ; and he had no doubt it 

 would grow in powdered granite, or coal, or almost 

 any powder, not even excepting gunpowder, if a due 

 proportion of well rotted manure were added, and 

 water, heat, light, and air, duly supplied. (Loudon 

 on Pi?ie Apple, 135.) 



These opinions are coincident with our own, already 

 expressed, and we will add here, having given the 

 directions of those in favour of richer composts than 



