ARTIFICIAL MANURES AND HORTICULTURAL PRACTICE. 



65 



amount of either nitrogen, phosphoric acid, or potash, and are 

 consequently devoid of fertilising properties; these substances, 

 despite their specious advertisements and numerous testimonials, 

 should be let severely alone. Road- scrapings are much more 

 valuable material. 



Speaking generally, the gardener is chiefly short of phos- 

 phoric acid ; the dung he uses is proportionally richer in nitrogen 

 and potash than in phosphoric acid, so that if he supplements 

 his dung by dressings of steamed bone flour or basic slag in the 

 winter, he will keep his soil in excellent condition. A little 

 nitrate of soda is further very useful when forcing an early crop 

 or raising a heavy crop rapidly, since in these cases it is not 

 always possible for the nitrogen of the soil to change into 

 an assimilable condition rapidly enough for the needs of the 

 plant. 



Where one of these compound manures is wanted a 

 mixture of four parts of steamed bone flour, two parts rape dust 

 or fish meal, two parts kainit, one part superphosphate, and one 

 part sulphate of ammonia will make an excellent cheap all-round 

 fertiliser, costing about £4 a ton, and worth more than most of 

 those usually sold. But it should not be forgotten that this, 

 like most concentrated manures, should not come into direct 

 contact with the delicate roots of plants, but should be mixed 

 with the potting soil some time before it is used. 



WINTER AND SPRING BEDDING IN FLOWER 

 GARDENS. 



By Mr. A. Dean, F.R.H.S. 

 [Read April 27, 1897.] 



Whether the practice of bedding out diverse plants in flower 

 gardens annually, or more often, be right or wrong, at least it 

 has behind it some half-century of existence, and so long as the 

 practice remains all effort should be directed to making the best 

 of it. That strong opinions antagonistic to the practice have 

 been put forward influentially there can be no doubt, but if it be 

 objectionable, at least it dies hard ; and if it be otherwise, then 



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