THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE. 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1898. 



NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. 



conditions conducive to abnormally hot weather. We might just as well 

 talk of a rain wave or a fog wave when wet or foggy weather prevails, the 



Owing 



awgoes to press on Wednesday 



determined 



insertion 



NOTES OF THE WEEK. 



LOSS OF SOIL NITROGEN. 



Nitrogen, even at the comparatively low prices that now rule for 

 ate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, which are its two principal 

 gets, is so costly a constituent of plant food that it is of primary 

 portance cultivators should be fully acquainted not only with the 

 lhods of application and the effects upon crops, but with the losses 

 u annually occur through the freedom with which nitrates are carried 

 ay by drainage water. The extreme solubility of nitrates, which are 

 istontly being formed in the soil, has long been recognised by those 

 0 have devoted any considerable share of their attention to the 

 eatific aspects of manuring, and cultivators who have been wise 



mainly by persistent aerial currents or their absence, and not to waves as 



year, given fair weather and 

 southerly winds for any length of time, the earth's crust inevitably 

 absorbs a vast amount of sun heat The next result is a general drying 

 of the surface, from which consequently much of the sunshine is reflected 

 back into the air, warming it still more. Meanwhile in our insular 

 climate the southerly breezes laden with water evaporated from the 

 ocean, are not condensed on reaching the land as they would be under 

 cooler conditions. Hence the rainfall is checked, and so, alas ! 



are our capacities for perspiration, the air, hot as it is, being by no 

 means so dry as it feels. This being so, the heat becomes oppressive, 

 and man feels parched and dry, for the simple reason that his skin is not 

 able to keep down the temperature by transpiration. In a Turkish bath 

 we can stay for sometime with impunity in air heated above boiling point, 

 but only so long as that air is dry, and so capable of taking up the copious 



oj evaporation from our bodies, which keeps our internal heat cooled down 



_4h~to combine science with practice are careful to so arrange their t0 9° de S- Saturate that heated air with water and we should be in an 

 mam of cropping as to prevent as far as possible the loss of soil nitrogen. 



Hotheavy these losses are under the ordinary conditions of soil manage- Rental conditions of climate, where the air is drier, a much greater heat 

 at* is rerv clearlv shown in the records of the Rothamsted experiments. ,s easilv borne w 'th comparative comfort, and hence we see that, instead 



of a heat wave, if it were a wave at all, we should call it a wave of 



upwards 



tLiy rtcorded, and for nearly thirty years the drainage waters have been saturation. Let the wind shift to a dry quarter, and we may still register 



fsMcally measured and analysed, and the results obtained are of great I2 9 de £- m the sun > and kee P endurably cool. This is how it is that a 



fodkal importance. For the measurement of the latter three gauges, shower on a hot day, welcome as it may be to vegetation, affords no relief 



•c" with an area equal to one-thousandth of an acre, were provided, t0 . man ' but > on the contrary, makes him feel the greater oppression, and 



mi these contain twenty, forty, and sixty inches depth of soil respec- this is how lt is that when we do P ers P ir e our skins are clammy and 



The soil has not been manured or cropped, but has been allowed moist ' and even trickling, while under drier conditions of the air the 



■tk down naturally. The results of the analyses prove to demon- m °isture would evaporate immediately and insensibly, and thus, as in the 

 be fact that water, in passing throueh the soil, carries with it an Tur kish bath, afford relief, though to all appearance it was non-existent. 



During the twenty years ending with 



man 



was at Rothamsted an average annual loss per acre of and accounts for the fact that despite the intense surface heat and long 



K ■ 



through sixty inches, 30*83 lb. through forty inches, and 35*07 lb 

 * enty inches of soil. The average of the three gauges is, 



m 



33 lb- per acre, 

 contained in 



two cwt. 



quantity 

 of 



• - nitrate of soda. The results 



JT" m the four quinquennial periods of the past twenty years are 

 ^ Wrest as showing that the average annual loss of nitrogen 

 J* «« quinqennial considerably exceeded the annual average for the 

 ;■' ^>.and that in the second and third quinquennials 



continued lack of rain, we have only to penetrate a few inches into the 

 soil to find it moist and cool, so that all established plants, except very 

 equivalent to the amount of su P erfi cial rooters, are enabled to maintain existence, though naturally 



checked in development to a greater or less extent when the sun heat 



becomes excessive. 



EXHIBITION SCHEDULES. 



■""■jMar, as will be readily understood, the losses are much 



*n? CX ? 5S ° f ram and conse q uen t increase in the flow of 



u ° ? h ° Uy prevent the loss of soil nitrogen is, of 



it was 



quinquennial rather above the 



in some degree explained by the varying climatic 

 as will ' — • *™ 



One of the most remarkable facts in connection with horticultural 



15 



respon 



sible for their management, of the importance of clearness of expression 

 in framing the conditions under which their prizes are offered for com- 

 petition. This is no new thing, and we are unable to call to mind any 

 season during the past thirty years in which our advice has not been 



Where the land ZZT1 T t0 / e f ce {t there can sought on the all important question of the interpretation of exhibition 

 '«ion of The nitot" It I throu S h /he winter, a con- reg J lations . The d lffi culties which annually arise through the ambiguity 



««ilued in n, gC Water and be lost > is ^ercepted by the 



d£ n r m,0n - HenC£ the value of catch 



'* » necess ™ t T *"* farmerS ° n H * ht ^ In the 

 Pu Sua ion° n f I 6 ' Cr thC ad ™tages resulting from 

 ^«Zn ? u hC land during the winter ^ frosts and 



PIC ^ of the soi m n dbythose who hav * a full knowledge of 



-Should be dl ay L"!Trj„ b l! tated that asa «** 



of the schedules became so great that a few years since the Council of the 



m mw m m . m *M ~— » k m m m* W * *m m « 



code 



»ils should be d 

 «Kr.tn ue °- s UVCf aurin? Ine autumn or early in 



^mC*** wh; ch the crnn" "?T " ltie aCtl0n ° f tht father, while 

 •^W- the c ^op »s taken towards the end of the summer 



» ^ardste °lTo( 0thCr qUkk gr ° Wing Ve ^ etables » ^ b « 



*Jiaj 



the soil 



'ty of the land. 



^ — ... WAVES 



v,k-2f|5*rt wid and wrltteri 



Hi^P^rt 



^ the unusual v Wrftten Iately about heat waves 



^tuial d j ng SpeIi 0f hot ' dr y weather under 

 ».ho*ev.. .r uu,raun, ty especially, have h*™ 



with a view to remove some at least of them, and, as the result of the 

 co-operation of the leading exhibitors and judges, a code was prepared 

 of which it would be difficult to speak too highly. A large number of 

 societies have taken advantage of the suggestions made, with the result 

 that the annually recurring unpleasantness at exh.b.t.ons has been greatly 

 reduced. But many societies continue in the course they have long fol- 

 lowed, and from competitors at their exhibitions we receive compla.nts of 

 their being deprived of prizes owing to the judges interpreting the regula- 

 tions differently to themselves. In many instances we have, in rep y, to 

 say that the judges were right and the exhibitor wrong, but the 

 latter is by no means invariably wrong. With a view to keep both 

 - Tbe exhibitor and judge in the proper course, we suggest that the statement 

 bu " ed as to numbers and kinds in each class should be so clear that they 

 s > thus cannot be mistaken by those not skilled m solving difficult proems. 



The other day we had a case stated for our .opinion, to this effecU 

 « We offered prizes -or twelve herbaceous plants grown m pots, and the 

 judges awarded the first prize to a collection containing a cala- 



JO . U«^^>»*./^ A r- ♦ K q H1CC 1 



tended 

 rt been 



disqualified." 



We 



ed 



right in admitting tne tuuwv-i — - - * 



an act of injustice had they disqualified it. Caladiums glonosas a 

 begonias are unquestionably herbaceous, masmuch as their growth di 

 down annually, and were, therefore, admissible. Judges have nothing 



