146 
Svp2)lement to the Tropical Jgriculiurist. 
[Aug. 2, 1S97. 
the experiment of using it, putting at first only 
5 per cent, of the malt coffee to 95 of genuine 
coffee, and gradually increasing the proportion 
of malt coffee. Though the coffee was never 
exactly “ relished ” yet, by varying the admixt ure 
very gradually, it w^as not until the proportioii of 
malt coffee had reached 50 per cent, that the pre- 
sence of some admixture was strongly m.arked. 
Whether our labouring classes will be content 
to economise by using this material is, however, 
very doubtful indeed, though, on the face of it, it 
would appear just as good to use an article like 
barley ns to employ chicory for mixing wit h coffee, 
the mixtures being frequently preferred to the 
genuine article. I am informed that the practice 
of making a kind of coffee from barley is not a 
new one even in this country, but it was given up 
as the age became more luxurious and the working 
classes better off. Nor are they 1 think, likely to 
revert to it, or to provide n stimulus to barley- 
growing by the hope of the extended use of that 
grain as a “coffee substance.” — Dr. VoelcJcer in 
the R.A.S.E. Journal. 
POTTING FIBRE. 
, The following is a racy and instructive report 
by the Government Botanist of the Cape on a 
sample of “ potting material ‘’—which our readers 
will at once identify as the patent growing medium 
which is now in our local markets. The report 
is one w'hich our local horticulturists, particularly 
those who go in for horticulture, should carefully 
read and digest. As for the fibre itself, though there 
may be no new discovery about it, it cannot be 
denied that it is wdiat amateur gardeners want, 
and, if they are willing to pay for it in the con- 
venient form in which they can get it, well, no- 
body is hurt The potting material you send is 
■very good of its kind, and will doubtless do ex- 
cellent service in a large class of your propagating 
work. But there is no new' discovery about it. 
I daresay all professional gardeners whose work 
has lain among greenhouse plants, have for fifty 
years past been accustomed to make up similar 
compost with coir waste, coconut fibre refuse, as 
it is called, with decayed sphagnum and fibrous 
peat. Then all on a sudden, somebody invents it, 
like n ne'W pill made out of familiar old drugs, 
pushes it well and makes a good thing of it. To 
this commercial hanky-panky there is not the 
slightest objection. And such popularising of 
trade-processes, and making technical dodges easy 
for amateurs, has its beneficial side. See now. 
how this potting fibre business works in practice, 
Madame sets out her flower-stand at the window 
with hall-a-dozen geraniums or fuchsias, purchased 
in high condition fron the nurse, yman. She 
knows that plants want water, so every morning 
she pours the best part of a pint of it into each 
flower-pot with religious regulaiity. You know 
what happens in a few months. The fuchsias look 
ready to perish, and begin to drop their leaves; 
the geraniums stop growing and buckle up. Then 
the gardener is called in to advise. He knocks 
the ball of earth out of the pot, and shows Madame 
that all the roots have been .sidling away from tlie 
earth, and have made a clo.se network, lining the 
sides of the pot. He points to the soil compacted 
at the surface, and 2 >erhaps covered with the first 
stage of moss-growth. His verdict is that the 
soil has gone “ sour ‘ tlirough inconsiderate over- 
watering, and says the plant mu.«t be re-potted. 
His practice is unimpeachable — it must be done — 
but his theory is all abroad. What is sourness ? 
A crab-ajjple is sour, last week’s dough, kept over, 
is sour, so is some very clever people’s wine — dead 
.sour. But it is hard to see how soil, that i=, eartli, 
can be such sort of sour, since it presents no aci- 
dity to the tongue. Tlie fact i<, this gardening 
phrase is just a manner of speaking, a word with- 
out an idea, a flash note on the Bank of Ignorance 
One mustn’t let people think we don’t know. 
And, as Jlephistopheles waggishly reminded the 
divinity student, 
“ i)enn eben wo Begriffe fehlen 
Da stellt ein Wort ziir rechten zeit sich sin,” 
It is just where the meaning fails tliat a word 
comes in so handy. Think a minute, liowever. 
The constant water-pouring has closely compacted 
the earth, till at tlie surface it is like w’et mortar, 
and is quite impervi ous to air. Trickling through 
the mass, it has long ago dissolved out and carried 
dow'n into the saucer all the soluble mineral salts 
required by the plant. Here are the two causes 
that bring about for the roots asphyxia, or stifling, 
and starvation. The roots have done what they 
could. They have crept in a white network close 
to the side ot the pot, clinging to it because it is 
porous, and lets in a little air. Had the pot been 
glazed or made of metal, and therefore not porous, 
you would have had none of that stratum of root- 
lets trying to breathe through it. Clearly, the 
remedy is re-potting in fresh porous mellow earth, 
full of air and of the small percentage of nitrates, 
phosphates and potash salts which go to make up 
plantfs’ mineral food, together with intelligent 
watering only w’ben it is needed, or rather, keep- 
ing the soil relatively dry, so as never to drown 
the air out of it. So, the fuchsias and geraniums 
take out a new lease of life. 
And 1 daresay the popularising of potting fibre 
in one form or another will bring about much 
better results, in amateur horticulture of the 
greenhouse sort, than we have been accustomed 
to see. The fibrous compost will stand a great 
deal more careless and nn.'skilled use than would 
the ordinary mould taken haphazard from the 
borders, and on which many a window-gardener 
depends with touching simplicity. It is garden 
soil — what more would you have ? So demand 
the unskilled. But the potting fibre will help 
them in spite of themselves, if they only keep 
their watering cans reasonably quiet, and will 
bear against'a deal of mismanagement. You 
ask as to the mineral salts that impregnate the 
fibre. Well, 1 do not pretend to tell you exactly 
what is used as the trade process, but if I were 
asked for a formula of a nutritive solution, I 
should give the proportions of salts which are 
used in experimental “ water-cultures,” as they 
are called. A raealie seed, for example, is caused 
to germinate at the surface of a solution of certain 
salts, and with j)i’oi)er care it will grow, blossom, 
and perfect its fruit. On this most interesting 
experimental investigation, and the knowledge it 
leads to, consult Sachs’ “ / ectures on the Physiology 
of Plants," translated by H. Marshall Ward, Ox- 
ford, royal 8vo., 1887, pp. 282-295. It will be in 
