948 



THE GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



December 7, 1912. 



NEW BOOKS- 



4- 



THE CITY DIARY, 1913. 



(Messrs. W. H. and L. Collingridge, 148 and 

 149, Aldersgate Street, London, E.G.) 

 Price Is. 



The City Diary, which has been our con- 

 stant companion for upwards of a quarter 

 of a century, ha^^ again made its appearance 

 upon our table, and is certainly not less wel- 

 come at the present time than in any pre- 

 vious year during the period over whieli we 

 luive had the advantage of the aid it is so 

 well able to render, in entering up engage- 

 ments and keeping a record of events of 

 special importance. The present is6ue is 

 of much interest from the fact that with 

 its publication the City Diary celebrates its 

 jubilee. For our own use we find it un- 

 surpas-sed in u-efulne^s, and to the City man 

 it can har'lly Tail to be of immense value, 

 MS it not only lia., ample space for the inser- 

 tion of daily records, but it contains a- large 

 amount of information respecting the City 

 of London, and is a reliable guide to all itl^ 

 institutions. It gives lists alphabetically 

 arranged, according to wards, of the mem- 

 l>ers of the Corporation and its officers ; of 

 the City churches with the names of clergy, 

 lectui-ers, and vestrv clerks, and of the Citv 

 Livery Companies with the names of the 

 clerks and the situation of the halls. De- 

 tails concerning the London County Coun- 

 cil, the City Union, and other governing 

 bodies are supplied, and an exhaustive table 

 of fiocial organisations, forming a singularly 

 practical companion for every citizen. The 

 diary portion, with three days to a page, is 

 interleaved Avith blotting-pajper of excellent 

 quality, and cash columns are ruled on the 

 several pages. It is certainly a remarkable 

 shillingsworth. 



SOIL CONDITIONS AND PLANT 



GKOAVTH. 



By Edward J. Russell, D.Sc. (Longmans, 

 Green, and Co.. 39, Paternoster Row, 



Price OS. net. 



E.C.) 



m 



From the earliest period in the history of 

 the world until the present day, the wonders 

 of the (ioil and plant growth have been a 

 constant source of interest to those who ap- 

 preciate to the full their immense importance 

 in relation to the prosperity of nations and 

 to the health and enjoyment of the indivi- 

 dual member^ of communities. There is 

 consequently no occasion for surprise that the 

 problems associated with the soil and the 

 development of plants should in all ages have 

 received the close attention of thoughtful men 

 with a scientific turn of mind or that strenu- 

 ous endeavour shoiild have been made to 

 effect their solution. In Roman times there 

 was an extensive literature in agriculture, 

 which both scientific aspects and the 



practical d( tail> of the art were dealt with 

 in accordance with the views that were held 

 at the tinio. Immense numbers of works 

 have bt'en written .since then, and probably 

 at no tifTic iiavo author and printing press 

 been more artively engaged in adding to the 

 literature of agriculture with whieh in this 

 connection must be associated horticulture, 

 than at the present. One of the most impor- 

 tant of the books on the scientific aspects of 

 the soil and plant development is that by 

 Dr. E. J. Russell, the director of the Roth- 

 amstead Experimental Station, who has de- 

 voted much time to the investigation of the 

 soil and its flora. 



This book is of special importanco because 

 the information it contains is bailed on flif 

 results obtained from original investigations 

 conducted on carefully devised lines/ and it 

 i>. of importance also because of the remark- 

 able' cI.Mriies8 with which the facts are 

 -tatcd. It is in no .sense an elementary wo*'k 

 but the li'xt ^i) rcinarkabl<^ f(»r its liu idily 

 that t'V( n the yoiincr gardener will not ex- 

 perience any difficulty in reading it or in 

 clearly understanding what the author savs 

 with re«rard to tlie somewhat complex pro- 

 '>h'in^ that ar.^ dealt witli. Tlie introductory 



e search for knowledee 



chapter in which th 



of the soil by a large number of investigators 

 is briefly described, is of much interest and of 

 considerable educational value for the light 

 it throws on the necessity for great care in 

 carrying out investigations and in accepting 

 as conclusive the results obtained therefrom. 



The earlier investigators, we are told, 

 sought for a "principle"' of vegetation to ac- 

 count for the phenomena of soil fertility and 

 plant growtli, and Van Helmont considered 

 he had found it in water. He made an ex- 

 periment by filling an earthen vessel with soil 

 weighing 20()lbs., then well moistened it with 

 rain water, and planted therein a shoot 

 of a willow weighing 51bs. At the end ot 

 five years the willow had grown into a tree 

 of conhiderable dimensions, and weighed 

 1691b. and about 2oz., although it had not 

 received any assistance other than from sup- 

 plies of rain or distilled water. The soil wa^s 

 dried and weighed, the weight being the 

 same as at first, less 2oz. Boyle repeated the 

 experiment with "squash, a kind of Indian 

 pomion,*' obtained similar results, and was 

 satisfied. "Nevertheless,'' writes Dr. Rus- 

 sell^ "the conclusion is incorrect, because two 

 factors had escaped Van Helmont's notice — 

 the parts played by the air and by the miss- 

 ing two ounces of soil." 



About 1650 Glauber propounded the theory 

 that saltpetre is the "principle" of vegeta- 

 tion, and this view w-as generally accepted by 

 later writers. Boerhave taught that plants 

 absorb the juices of the earth, and then 

 convert them into food. Very little progress 

 appears to have been made in the scientific 

 aspects of cultural methods until the com- 

 mencement of the second half of the eigh- 

 teenth century, and excellent work was done 

 on the eft'ects of vegetation on air towards 

 the end of the century, but its horticultural 

 and agricultural significance was not recog- 

 nised at the time. De Sanssure did good work 

 in 1804, and was able to show that carbon 

 dioxide in small quantities was a vital ne- 

 cessity for plants, and that the soil supplied 

 only a small part of plant food, but, as Dr. 

 RiiSsell states, his views Avere not for some 

 years accepted, or his methods followed. 



Then followed experiments by Boussin- 

 gault, who w^as the first to appreciate the 

 importance of field experiments; Sprengel, 

 who studied the ash constituents of plants, 

 and others of lesser importance. For a long 

 period it was held that plants derived their 

 carbon from the humus in the soil, but this 

 was demolished by the ridicule that was 

 poured upon it in the report presented bv 

 Liebig to the meeting of the British AssJ- 

 ciatiou in 1B40. Thi.s great agricultural 

 chemist, as in the case of some who had pre- 

 ceded him, and others who followed him, 

 unfortunately made serioug mistakes for he 

 propounded the " mineral theory," and intro- 

 duced a patent ma-ure prepared in accord- 

 ance with his views but the theory was sliown 

 to be erroneous by Lawes, and his fertiliser 

 was a failure. This failure was not, we are 

 told by Dr. Russell, wholly the fault of the 

 theory, but only affords a further proof of 

 the numerous pitfalls of the subject. The 

 potassic compounds and phosphates it con- 

 tained were rendered insoluble by their ad- 

 mixture with lime for the purpose of pre- 

 venting their nutrient properties being 

 washed out of the .soil, it not having been 

 foreseen that in a state of insolubility thev 

 would not be able to supply the plants with 

 tood. Not until the second half of the la^t 

 century was it recognised that bacteria were 

 active agents in the process of decomposition 

 in the soil, which had been regarded by 

 Liebig as purely chemical. 



The chapter on the requirements of plants 

 which may be regarded as the commencement 

 of the more practical part of the work is of 

 much importance, and will be found ofVreat 

 value by those who are desirous of knowing 

 sornething of tlie plant as a svnthetic agent 

 and accumulator of energy, taking up simple 

 substances and manufacturing complex 

 sugars, starcli, proteins, essential oils, colour- 

 ing mattor, and other substances This 

 knowledge will add much to the interest asso- 

 ciated with plant culture, and, coupled with a 

 thorough acquaintance with the information 

 that IS given on the processes of assimilation 



transcolation, metabolism^ and respiration 

 will be of much assistance to cultivators in 

 contending with the difficulties they are con- 

 stantly meeting with. In referring to the 

 formation of soils, the author points out that 

 the plant in a natural state returns more to 

 the soil than it takes aw^ay as a consequence 

 of a considerable proportion of the complex 

 and other substances manufactured in pro- 

 cess of grow'th falling back to the soil when 

 it is dead. This organic jnatter introduces a 

 fundamental change, and the difference be- 

 tw^een the soil and the original heap of 

 mineral matter is that the soil contains 

 sources of energy while the mineral matter 

 does not. The distinguishing characteristics 

 of soil is that it contains part of the com- 

 plex material synthesised by plants. This- 

 material, the author tells his readers, affords 

 energy to numerous micro-organisms', and is 

 gradually converted by them into simple 

 substances tliat are utilised in the nutrition 

 of plants. Its constituents are regarded as 

 taking part in a perpetual cycle; iu one stage 

 nourishing the growing plant and storing up 

 the energy of sunlight, in the other sta^ 

 nourishing micro-organisms and liberating 

 energy. These are all matters with which 

 the cultivator should be acquainted, and it ia 

 uf some imjx>rtance that the author should 

 have broken away from traditional methods 

 and stated his facts and deductions with 



e 



such clearness that no difficulty will be found 

 by cultivators with a fairly good education in 

 understanding them. The consideration of 

 the biological conditions in the soil forms 

 a chapter of immense interest, and because 

 of this and the high degree of utility of the 

 information it contains^ we should have at- 

 tempted a brief summary, but, having 

 reached the limits of space, this is practicallv 

 impossible. AVe therefore lay down the book 

 with some degree of reluctance, and in 

 doing so we strongly advise all w4io are en- 

 gaged in the work of the garden to place it 

 on their book-shelves, and take full advan- 

 tage of their opportunities for mastering its 

 contents. 



THE 



V 



RY 



AND 



I 



HAND PNEUMATIC SPRAYERS 



The " Four Oaks," acknowledged by all 



users to be far and awav the best on the 

 market. 



No separate pump. Self contained. A 

 great advance over those kinds with sepa- 

 rate pump. Cannot get out of order. The 

 easiest, handiest, and most economical 



sprayer for greenhouse and 

 g'arden Avork and disin- 

 tecling. 



FOUR OAKS' 



Streetley 



Pattern. 



Capacity, 



Quarts. 



Working capacity, 



6 Pints. 



Prices 



In Copper 

 In Steel 



17/6 



The copper machine is recommended 

 where price is noi a great consideration. 



Is lighter, cleaner, and will not rust. 



Sole manufacturers : 



THE FOUR OAKS SPRAYING MACHINE 



Four Oaks Works, Co • 



SUTTON COLDFIELD, BIRMINGHAM. 



