(®^e gardener's ^antlilg. 



131 



out for fall crops, and Endive sown for winter Salad. 

 Lettuce also for summer and fall use. This, how- 

 ever, must be sown in very rich soil, and in a par- 

 tially shaded situation, or it will go to seed. Peas, 

 Beans, and other crops, should be sowed every two 

 weeks. They do much better than when a large 

 crop is sown at one time, and then have too many 

 on ai one time to waste. 



Melons, Cucumbers, Corn, Okra, Squash, Beans, 

 Sweet "Potatoes, Lima Beans, Pepper, Egg-plants, 

 Tomatoes, and other tender vegetables that do not 

 do well till the sun gets high, and the ground warm, 

 should go into the soil witho it delay. 



Bean poles should be set before the beans are 

 planted ; and near cities where they are compara- 

 tive high priced, their ends should be charred. 

 This will make them last some years. 



1 



HOT AND GREENHOUSES. 



'Mst of May" is the usual time in this re- 

 gion, for putting out tubs and large pots kept under 

 cover through winter, and used, in summer for 

 decoration of the grounds. Oranges, Lemons, Pome- 

 granates, Crape m\Ttles,Pittosporums, Agaves, Aloes, 

 and Sago palms are particularly employed for this 

 purpose. Many are very much troubled about re- 

 potting them ; but unless very healthy, they are 

 often injured by too much potting. It is safest to 

 put a few inches of well decayed cow manure on 

 the surface, and the watering will carry the nutri- 

 ment down to the roots. 



Almost all plants do better in the open air in 

 summer than under glass ; but with what are called 

 hard- wooded plants, like Reaths and Epacrises, the 

 dry heat of our climate does not seem to agree. A 

 partially shaded place is best for most of them, but 

 not under the drip of trees, though many persons put 

 them out under trees, as such shade with drip, is 

 better than the hot sun. Plants are better also with 

 their pots plunged into the soil, but they ought to 

 be twisted around or take n up and reset about once a 

 month ; or the roots will So many go through the 

 bottom of the pot as to injure the health of the plant 

 when taken up and so many broken off at once in 

 the fall. Azaleas usually*flower better when plun- 

 ged in the full sun. 



There are some things which do well kept under 

 glass all summer, as Achimenes, Gloxinea, Bego- 

 nias, Ferns, &c, , but it will be best to try to get as 

 much as possible in the open air, in the first place 

 because they are more enjoyable thus, in summer, 

 and, in the uext place, because they usually keep 

 hardier, and clearer from insects, which are very 

 hard to contend with, under glass, in hot weather. 



(Jommunirafions. 



WASTE SUBSTANCES USEFUL AS MA- 

 NUHES. 



BY DR. J. S. HOUGHTON, PHILADA. 



Read before the Pa. Hort. Society, March 5, 1867. 



The subject of Manures, though it commends it- 

 self but little to the general attention of mankind, 

 is one of commanding interest to the cultivators of 

 the soil. We must give it attention, whether we 

 like it or not. In our relation to this matter, we 

 are like the hero in the old Fairy tale, who, in his 

 search for the Grarden of Eternal Delights, was com- 

 pelled to eat his way through an immense mountain 

 of unpalatable rice before he could enter the land 

 of perennial flowers, where the gorgeous Plums and 

 golden Apples blossomed. 



In all large towns and cities a great variety of sub- 

 stances may be obtained, of a waste or refuse char- 

 acter, which possess no small value as fertilizing 

 agents, when applied to the soil of the garden or 

 farm. The art of increasing the fertility of the soil 

 by the application of manures of this kind, though 

 much studied by scientific and practical men, is still 

 involved in some degree of mystery and uncertainty. 

 The product of the stable and barnyard is admitted 

 by nearly all our most distinguished farmers and 

 horticulturists to be the most perfect fertilizing 

 agent, take it all in all, that can be found. The 

 chief difficulty about stable manure is, that it re- 

 quires a vast amount of it to elevate the productive 

 power of the soil to the highest point of fertihty, 

 and hence the expense renders it too costly for even 

 market gardeners. 



It may be a question, also, whether this much 

 lauded product of the stable would, alone, be capa- 

 ble (if employed in even an unlimited quantity) of 

 maintaining a market garden at the common point 

 of productiveness for a long series of years. — 

 Whether this question has been settled by actual 

 experience I am not aware. 



Next to stable manure, the product of the cess- 

 pools of large cities has been supposed to possess a 

 higher value as a fertilizing agent than any other 

 material, — and, indeed, in an economical point of 

 view, it is preferred, by market gardeners, to the 

 first named substance. I was surprised to learn, 

 from a recent work by Peter Henderson, a distin- 

 guished market gardener of New York, that the 

 richest product of the cess-pools, when applied as 

 as manure upon market gardens, fails to maintain 

 them, for any long period, at a profitable point of 

 fertility. In other words, that market gardens 



m 



