504 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE 



Morn 



saluberri 



July 



the tail, for tucked away) on the last page is a note commenting on my 

 "astonishing" reference to a wet spring. Apropos of the said sting in 

 the tail, I have so often observed critical paragraphs relating to my 

 humble self cheek by jowl with the market memoranda, that I have grave 

 suspicions of something more than printer's fill-up paragraphs. I am 

 beginning to think it is all a piece of genial humour at my expense on the 

 part of the Editor, who allows me to sail serenely through the pages with 

 a comfortable conviction that all is peace, and then brings me up with a 

 round turn just at the moment when I feel perfectly secure. 



But to the criticism. It appears quite evident that I cannot possibly 

 get out of the dilemma into which u South Bucks" has flung me without 

 owning up to where I live. I therefore beg to say that I live in the county 

 , of Loam shire. Everybody who has the slightest literary leaning knows 

 , that Loamshire has been immortalised by one of our most famous writers. 

 Delightful pictures of the beautiful county have been given. It is a 

 county of great gardens and of distinguished gardeners. (Needless to 

 say, the most distinguished of the latter at the present time is Peter.) 

 We are all proud of Loamshire and the magnificent examples of horti- 

 cultural produce it sends forth. And now, having obliged "South Bucks," 

 I hope he will oblige me. I want him to send along that "easy proof" 

 of my utter wrongness which he alludes to. His records, however, must 

 not deal with winter. I said spring. 



Will that estimable gentlem ^ TTWt , ATA4 . ± ^ llLy ^^^ lulUj 



accept my respectful congratulations ? Agreed. He bows an acknow- 

 ledgment, and perhaps begs to know what it is all about. Just this. 

 With a shadow of that sly humour which pops little digs at me on the 

 last page, I told a friend who is wildly enthusiastic about the Eckford 

 Sweet Peas, and has a garden full of them, including every procurable 

 variety, that I had an Eckford pea unmentioned by him which would 

 beat the lot of them. He came post-haste to see the radiant floral 

 wonder, and found the pea in the form of a dish of Shropshire Hero 

 smoking hot on the table. His disgust was limitless and profound, but I 

 observed that it did not impair his appetite. May the shadow of Mr. 

 Henry Eckford never grow less ! May he go on raising sweet peas as 



beautiful as Countess of Radnor, and culinary peas as good as Shrop- 

 shire Hero. r 



Experimentalist! 



sam< 

 thin, 

 distal 



about 



consideration, truly pointed out by Mr Princ 

 » medium " set of some sorts is the « large » of othe^ 'T ag0 > th * tl 

 in Canada seem to have the same unhapnv knarvV" tx P enn >en 



genus at home-they leave out an essential item and viti^Z of 

 thereby. More vital to us at the present tiS^hS? 6 

 Have your knapsacks ready, gentlemen l "reat« 

 weight. If UnL San* jh&U -,, 

 daily papers) under the broiling Cuban sun, and beat th«\f man » 

 boot, surely we can tackle Don Phytophthora. Spaniards 



I liked the recent article of " H " on " True Garde » • 

 issue, because it breathed a large spirit of human svmS'v Vu? 1 

 to doubt whether the writer wishes to claim that the fewer 1 w$* 

 follower of the pleasant art possesses the stronger his cSms to ii ^ 

 gardener are. If this were so, we might organise a son of sfc 5 

 of merit, beginning with the man who has lost a finger or l 

 ending triumphantly with the one who has nothing left but tee L o 

 this system of adjudicating claims, I am not sure that I could Z 



IZ^TuT^ 5 bCating ' ^ 1 kn0W of a hurable workman 5b 

 had lost both legs and one arm in an accident, yet who proved^? 



terror at gardening that there was not a man in the vie who el 

 vie with him. The delight of the one-limbed champion when he shS2 

 me his system of planting potatos, namely, by working along his fa 

 and making holes for the sets with the stumps which served him 

 lieu of legs, was good to see. He was enormously proud of it as we 

 as of many another device by the medium of which he prosecuted h; 

 labour of love. Think, good friends, of the magnitude of the alleviauo 

 ot a terrible lot given by gardening to this maimed hero. L {. 



Natural Sources of n 



I drew his 



Talking of sweet peas reminds me of another little triumph which 

 1 eter and I have enjoyed. After the friend before referred to had finished 

 ins dinner he condescended to go into the kitchen garden to look at the 

 peas His manner betrayed that it was a carnal lapse indulged in to 

 satisfy my gross appetite, but still he did it. On the way he passed a 

 bed brilliant with begonias, and surrounded by a band a foot wide of a 

 certain dwarf plant covered with snow-white flowers. " Oh ! " said he, 

 grudgingly, "you can flower that, can you?" ' " 



!i f r «7v?? a £ ° CU , lar proof of the fact - " That >" 1 mus t tell the reader, was 

 tne vvmte Cupid sweet pea, anent the non-blooming of which so much 

 nas been said. He surveyed it with a singular blending of emotions, 

 but would not own that we base culinary cultivators had beaten him. 



C . rcd ? of the achiev ement is Peter's, not mine. » „ w 

 attention to the complaints about the plant some time ago, and he read 



rh^ Van0US pan ^ aphs vvith Sreat contempt. It was "them paper 

 cnaps again. \V hat could anybody expect from the likes of them ? 



tVri • J dehvered with ^e unspeakable disdain which charac- 



i;i-l j i S attltude a sho »-t time ago, when an audacious correspondent 

 likened nun to a crested fern. About four months ago he proceeded to 



.rZ. i u- pr J ocured half-a-dozen cocoa boxes, fitted turves to them, 

 AnS V S I seed J on , the reversed turves, and so started the plants. In 

 ]ll 2 f f n i, J them ou t— of course, without disturbing them in the 

 Ivh^riT ° Id - L the y are blooming profusely. It is a lesson to 

 !?n \ a ■ ° f Peter when his eye falls on this border. The con- 

 centrated wisdom of the Bodleian Library could not express one-half as 



a ^ther there is anything in the practice, or the whole thing is an 

 amazing nuke, I do not know. The border, however, is really beautiful. 



inrl 1 r) iaVC \ this , week bee n the recipient of a very flattering compliment 



f. marke t grower belonging to another county came here this 



thJ^i, Se r V y someone w ho had seen our black currants. He was shown 



an VrS'i 211 ?', aft l r takin S carefuI stock of jt > said, "Well, if you 



' llke that in these days, you're worth thirty shillings a 

 no iumn .iT t0 2£ He e >' ed »e at this, and observing that I did 

 suLSnfn Cage ? y ' added " a »d coals." Even this magnificent 



unders a ° d his ****** offer fell flat I afterwards 

 Sn me lr m v SSft hy , m y ^ homely garden attire, he had mis- 

 SftSlttR henchma «- I told him what I have told others, 



bushes e owinV' 1 y ° U ?"5 ^ ealth y black currants y° u must ke *P your 

 S fby surface cultul ™ t0 be fri ghtened of big bud ; I am not now. 

 currants cS k^ I f ' manurm S> and the suppression of old wood, black 

 l ^J^^\ mwn l ( ^y Aty will never be destroyed by mite. 



I Jn.T« \ * that experts decla re the healthiest bushes are 



have seen are in plantations S^^fl f ^ WhiCh 1 



r ^.iuub wnere the culture is not continuous. 



It is very important to ask, from an economical point of view, whit 

 are the natural sources of nitrogen which are available to plants in 

 Nature, as this element is by far the most expensive ingredient 

 purchase in artificial manures. We know that the air we breathe is 

 composed mainly of two gases, these are nitrogen and oxygen. Xitroga 

 is by far the most abundant and forms about 79 per cent, of the whole, 

 that is to say, more than three quarters of the air surrounding every 

 plant is composed of this substance, nitrogen, in a free and uncombbw 

 condition. Its importance is shown from the fact that it forms part of 

 every plant that grows, from the tiny bit of moss or algae, to the 

 magnificent and stately oak. It will be found on analysis to enter :nto 

 the composition of every plant-organ — the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, 

 fruit, and seed. It is present in every fertile soil, and, in fact, 00 

 soil can be productive without an abundant supply of nitrogen. 



Ammonia is present in the air, but in very small quantities, and vartt 

 in amount in different parts of the earth's surface. It occurs most in the 

 vicinity of large towns, and amidst damp tropical forests. Ammonia 

 gas is given off during the decay of organic matters ; it u — — 



I mildly responded that d ? es not !? n g remain in that condition, but combines with the nitric at 



~'*~~us acids forming nitrate of ammonia ; if any portion escapes cob 



ion with the nitrates, in combines with carbonic acid and fort 

 mate of ammonia; this is especially the case in the vicinity < 

 tropical forests, where the evolution of the carbonic acid from ti 



nitrous 

 binatio 



decaying debris is exceedingly large. The nitrogenous food of orchidl 

 believed to be derived from this source. 



With regard to the use that plants make of the free and uncombmi 

 nitrogen of the air, the conclusions that Lawes and Gilbert have amjj 

 at, after fifty years of research, are that our agricultural and horticuliur 

 plants do not themselves directly assimilate the free nitrogen of thejun 

 their leaves ; but it would seem that in the growth of leguminous 

 podded plants, such as the clovers, peas, beans, lupins, &c, at any 



• . AC11 5 C ^Aiiuunr 01 nitrogen wiiicn mjwj . 



sition, and the great quantity which they frequently leave as m 



residue in the q™1 l» ..^u ^Aihika rmn<;. imav be due 



residue in the soil for the growth of future crops, >may 

 pheric nitrogen brought Jntn rombination with substan 

 soil unde 



cor-' 



nitrogciw 

 ie to atmfl 

 eady in " 



organisms, or otner iow .u.ms rfpj 



life that exist in the soil, or in symbiosis— that is, joined witn \ * m 



plani 

 trogtta 



similated by them in their growth is derived irom «« 

 The inert nitrogen compounds obtained from the aec. ^ 



nd animal matters in the soil are practically useless l0 /.- t1 ^ a 



form 

 F 



food 

 acid. 



table and animal matters inThe soil are practi 

 they have been chemically changed and altered Dy tne h" 

 tion, and finally reach the condition of nitric nitrogen, or ... '-.^ 0 

 nitric acid, which, as before mentioned, is the form most p. ^ 

 plants. And not only is the vegetable ma"-' "" ,musl 01 in — 

 worked over for the use of future plants, but 



(erf* 



seaweed, shoddy, dried blood, and the various m ater,al ^!^ 1 bv 

 ing purposes, including even ammonia salts, are ^ansforroe ^ m 

 in that wonderful laboratory which we call the soil, and cot 

 the compounds best fitted to supply nourishment to crops an 



DlantS in the* nr»» n 1 _ _ t. - J _ _ J /~r.nc*»rv.ltOrV. . -UmtS 



attacked. 



of apj 

 in ten 



growth 



at an** 1 



, coooM 



fruit 



require lor tne S r y wi ^__.„, n f nitrogc" « <w 



troduc 

 better pleas 



J- J 



I;33? pound! of nitrogen. " To restore ihis > amount^ ^£S**«g 



ercial 



e should 

 had been 



ounces, a medium 7™ V!?' tria,s - A Iarge set nii 8 ht mean 

 thr^ _ CQU i m tw °. and a small one. Or a large set miirnt 



Pound. Apatt from this plain fact there is the 



food! 



K"od enough to tell IT2 T the ° ntari o Department if it had b 

 refer, of course, to the " 11 J* means b y Iar ^ e ' medium, and small, 

 three ounces, a medium ^°J e se , 1 tria,s - A Iar « e se t might m 



more senous than by annual crops, from the laci w- r ^ 

 ocked up for many years in the trunks and branches « ^ 

 tne other hand, it should he said that the roots w 



that 



than the roots of smaller plants, so ^ ^ 

 «mUi M „,nAn annual crop:> arc ^ vVlUJ ^ 



Harpcnden. 



quickly 



J 



