ARTIFICIAL MANURES AND HORTICULTURAL PRACTICE. 37 



There is but little doubt that an indifferent system of soil 

 preparation and of the feeding of plants, is at the root of a great 

 many well-founded complaints of failure in various branches of 

 gardening, and in fruit cultivation in particular. 



I have in my mind at the present moment an estate on 

 which it was said good fruit could not be grown, and such 

 luxuries as peaches, nectarines, and apricots, or, in fact, any 

 stone fruit, was an utter impossibility ; yet by the introduction 

 of a gardener who was to some extent acquainted with the 

 elementary principles connected with horticultural chemistry, 

 and who understood the value and method of using artificial 

 manures, this soil now produces some of the finest fruit in the 

 kingdom, and that in abundance. 



Our views as to the use of manures generally have undergone 

 a considerable transformation during the past few years. 

 Scientific investigation has succeeded in solving a number of 

 most important questions, and we have in consequence been led 

 to adopt new and clearer principles relative to the application of 

 manure to our various cultivated plants. Yet, while the farmer 

 has been told by the agricultural chemist how much phosphoric 

 acid, how much potash, and how much nitrogen any of his crops 

 require, also in what form they should be applied, and the way 

 to use the manure to the best effect, so as to get the highest 

 possible return ; in most books on horticulture, and with the 

 majority of practical gardeners, an astonishing ignorance is 

 displayed on all these topics, and in actual work the condition of 

 things is no different. Gardens, orchards, conservatories, and 

 vegetable areas, are manured usually without any consideration 

 at all. They are dressed with large quantities of stable-manure, 

 farmyard manure, or vegetable compost, which frequently con- 

 tains but little real plant-food sustaining constituents, no thought 

 is given to the waste of certain ingredients, which must neces- 

 sarily ensue from an excessive manuring with such materials, 

 and how much more useful these manures could be rendered by 

 an admixture with suitable artificial fertilisers. 



It may surprise many gardeners to learn that 20 tons of 

 good farmyard manure will not produce so large a crop of 

 cucumbers as 150 lb. of nitrate of soda, provided available 

 minerals are not deficient in the soil. The 20 tons of dung 



