November i, 1881.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
473 
the little pathways need not 
they may he simply marked o 
better to see the ground covered 
of flowering plants than a greai 
plea 
i dual kind o 
here. Thus, 
iters, 
nient 
hyacinths grown in the open air may be left in the 
ground for several years, their roots planted deep, and 
when they die down, or just before they die down, 
some beautiful annual or other light rooting plant may 
be put in the same beds to furnish them gracefully, 
but not in the least rob the roots. This we have seen 
done frequently, without in the least deteriorating the 
bloom of the open air hyacinth growing in well-prepared 
beds. In these little distinct beds, with one or two 
things combined in each, and fully exposed to the sun, 
with good preparation at first, we get the best result, 
and thero is very little trouble afterwards. When the 
things do get tired of the soil, or require a change, 
having no plan, it is more easy to establish a land of 
rotation, making our pink beds of the past few years 
the annual plant ones for the next, and so on. It 
would bo easy to so change one's favourites from year 
to year, that richly feeding plants should follow those 
of a surface-rooting kind, and thus the freshness and 
novelty of the garden would be kept up. The abolition 
of all edgings, beyond one or two main lines through 
the space, would tend to more careful culture, as the 
whole spot could be so readily dug up and manured, 
or otherwise attended to. 
Such a plot well done would be 11 paradise for ladies 
who wish to cut their flowers in quantity, and also a 
great aid to the gardener in replenishing such other 
arrangements of similar plants as he desires to estab- 
lish in ill her quarters — on the margins of shrubberies, 
in the Sower garden proper, or on the rock garden. 
It is also a great help to those who wish to exchange 
with their fiiends or neighbours in the generous way 
that all truo gardeners like. The space that such an 
arrangement should occupy will of course depend upon 
the size and wants of the place in every case ; but 
anywhere where the room could bo spared an eighth 
of an acre of ground might be devoted to the culture 
in simple beds of favourite flowers, and even tho smallest 
place should have a plot of the same kind. 
0 RAX UK TREES. 
TO TUB EDITOR OF THE "AUSTRALASIAN." 
Biu, Will you kindly tell me in your next issue the 
proper mode of prunim; oiuiev he 7 Ought the lo u r 
110 
branches to be cut off, making them into regular trees, 
or should the branches be allowed to grow close down 
to the ground ? Do you recommend much thinning out ? 
Eldorado. T. H. 
[Experience has shown the desirability of allowing the 
branches to hang low enough to shade the stem of the 
tree from the sun. Orange trees are subject to a disease 
of the bark near the ground, and as this occurs chiefiv 
on the north-west side of the tree, growers have concluded 
that it is either caused or aggravated by the heat of 
the sun when its power is greatest — about 3 p.m. The 
small weak branches should he taken out, the head generally 
should not he much tliiuned. — Ed.] 
A PREVENTIVE OR CURE FOR BLIGHT OX FRUIT 
TREES. 
Sin, — Your correspondent's letter respecting the use 
of the above recalls to me a remark which fell from 
Mr. Bosisto conirrming the above statement. He said 
that at Ms distillery he had a number of apple trees gro mi g 
and the refuse from the still bad been employed, arid 
cured them of blight.— Yours, <fcc, J. H 
Sandhurst, Sept. G. 
fully with tl 
of capita, 
and incre 
and appl 
It 
ell 
FARMERS AND THE MANUFACTURE OF 
FERTILISERS. 
(Field, 10th Sept. 1881.) 
Sir, — In your editorial on the Agricultural Lookout 
last week's Field, you say, "All are agreed that the 
dy chance the British fanner has of competing success- 
foreign producer rests in the application 
ie soil for the purpose of maintaining 
its fertility, and of improving the mooes 
of agriculture," You go on to say, 
is, seeing that sooner or later — and the 
er— something must be done, by whom 
•e put the difficulty fair and square he- 
's, and you have left it to then common 
r self-interest to supply the practical 
not out of place to suggest a reply to 
le question, i.e., to that important one 
ibject of expense, which will to some 
3 difficulty. 
iderstood that the supply of guano is 
g short, and that some of the best houses in 
the trade arc with difficulty able to respond to the orders 
they receive. However, as demand tends to regulate 
supply, there is little doubt that the necessary substitute 
will be available when the time comes. But in these 
hard times the prolit of production is something to 
think of, and believing that sued 
to themselves as to an outsider, 
landowner and the British farm 
manufacturers of artificial fertilise 
forelock to prevent the manufacti 
fifty per cent over the cost prii 
must have if they are 
hitherto ? 
It is possible to produce, for instance, a superphos- 
phate of lime, seventy-five per cent soluble, at a cost 
of, say, about bix pounds a ton to the manufacturer, 
if he goes the proper way about it ; and if such be 
tho fact in his case, there is no reason that it should 
not bo 60 in that of others. 
I do not, of course, suggest the home manufacture 
of fertilisers ; such an idea is out of the question. A 
combination on the part of landowners and fanners to 
keep down prices h\ no longer permitting a monopoly 
iu tho artificial manure trade is within their own power 
to accomplish, and they may possibly find that raw 
material prociuiiblc at home could be winked up with 
greater profit than that derivable from the application 
to their land of American lacustrine deposit, which 
uch might be as useful 
, why do not the British 
rmer become their own 
isers, taking time by the 
cturers making them pay 
nice of an article they 
ltinue growing corn as 
