FLORICULTURAL (ECONOMICS. 
Ill 
thereby get a manure of such a far more concentrated description as to render his 
plants infinitely better than they could be by any amount of a poorer material 
which he could otherwise apply : for, where a limited compass does not admit of 
a large application of manure in point of bulk — and such is unavoidably the case, 
for most part, in plant cultivation— it is of prime moment to get a more concen- 
trated form, and yet not one which is too powerful, or which does not combine 
the mechanical with the chemical uses. 
We just allude, in passing, to the last particulars here mentioned, because one 
of the chief errors in respect to manures, at the present time, is the forgetfulness 
that their value must be partly of a mechanical nature. In refined processes, such 
as the pot and border culture of flowers, this is especially true. Manures, 
therefore, which do not tend to keep the soil more open and light than it would 
otherwise be, are of less value than those which accomplish this object. And thus 
it will be seen that the old-fashioned stable dung possesses even a more valid 
recommendation than its being little liable to be adulterated. 
But another way in which manure may be economized, and its best constituents 
saved from waste, is by careful expedients for collecting all the fluid which soaks 
away from manure'heaps, from beds of fermenting matter, or from dung linings. 
This is seriously neglected in the majority of gardens. If only for cleanliness, 
every frame-ground or compost-yard ought to be most thoroughly drained, and all 
the superfluous fluid conducted into an underground cistern, which, both for 
convenience and for the prevention of exhalations, should be well covered in. In 
this receptacle, more of the real essence of the manure would be collected 
than is ultimately obtained from the whole of the manuring substance itself. 
Although we have above spoken of the desirableness of consulting mechanical 
agency in selecting manure, yet, in flower cultivation, after the substance intended 
for manure has been applied, and in part exhausted by the plant, it is often 
extremely necessary to administer fresh nutriment ; and as this can alone be done 
by mulchings or by fluids, the former expedient being too unsightly, the latter must 
of necessity be adopted. 
Liquid manures are always of great use to the plant-grower, on account 
of their immediate efi"ect ; since, if substances be employed, their qualities have to 
be taken up by the fluids applied, and so presented to the plant, whereas a liquid 
is already in a fit state for its reception, and finds its way at once to the spongy 
parts of the roots. 
In the husbanding, then, of the true virtue of manure by keeping it covered 
over, and in appropriating all the powerful fluid which flows from it in whatever 
position, we conceive that the culturist will be doing himself a most inestimable 
service, and saving much expense, besides gaining his ends in a far better manner. 
That manure is indispensable to first-rate culture, we think is readily demonstrable, 
and we may avow our conviction that it will rapidly become a staple article in plant 
growing of almost every description. 
