146 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 
higher temperatures can be employed. With market- 
growers, waiting for the flowers to cut them as soon as 
they open, we have known temperatures of over 100 used 
with success, but the amateur should avoid anything of 
the kind. The slowest groivn flowers last longest. About 
five or six months should be allowed for full development 
from time of potting — that is "retarded" bulbs would be 
potted at the end of June for Christmas and New Year 
work and freshly potted bulbs in December would flower 
in July and August. Of course only the broadest rules 
can be laid down, so much depends on seasonal variations. 
Bulbs naturally start much quicker in summer than in 
winter and yet the summer started bulbs have the difficult 
lighting and temperature conditions to contend with when 
coming into flower. The best growers fumigate their 
houses every week and the amateur should at least fumi- 
gate every two or three weeks to keep down fly and other 
insect pests. 
Throughout their cultivation watering must be done 
with intelligence. In early stages, when there is little root 
activity, little watering will be needed. Later on, with 
the soil a mass of roots, a large quantity of water will be 
needed. Never allow the pots to run dry. Regular spray- 
ing should also be adopted to keep the foliage clean and 
vigorous and the air from becoming too arid. Water over 
the pots; wet the soil, the plant, excepting when they 
are in greater heat, then spray on cloudy days or in the 
evening. 
In Japan where these Lilies are at home, the hot days are 
followed by damp nights, generally speaking ; under those 
conditions Lilies do wonderfully well and it is therefore 
that we recommend "spraying" with a fine hose at night 
just before closing up your greenhouses ; try it and you 
will note wonderful results. This pertains to Japanese 
Lilies of all sorts. 
When the buds are ready to develop, they can, if de- 
sired, be given cooler temperatures, as slower development 
at this stage gives finer flowers. The best artistic effects 
are obtained by keeping the anthers on the plant. Market 
growers, of course, remove the anthers to keep the flowers 
clean. 
While Lilies may be shifted gradually from one tem- 
perature into a higher one, they should never be shifted 
back from heat into the lower temperature until they are 
in bud ; then they can be shifted at will. 
Some growers have the habit of turning pots around if 
the plant is growing to one side ; this has a tendency of 
checking: the growth and should not be done. 
THE MANURE HEAP. 
A GARDENER has no need to be a chemist in order 
to realize that remarkable and far-reaching changes 
occur in farmyard manure during its storage in heaps. 
He knows, moreover, that many of these changes are 
useful — that is, they increase the value of the manure — 
and he may infer from the state of a heap which has been 
left unused for a very long time that other of the changes 
are of a kind which reduce the manurial value of the 
heap. 
Garden practice shows, moreover, that the series of 
chemical changes summed up in the word "fermenta- 
tion" may be controlled to some extent by manipula- 
tion. For example, the "fire" may be taken out of the 
heap by constant turning, and so letting in air to fa- 
cilitate oxidation. Thus in preparing a mushroom bed 
the manure is kept loose and turned frequently, with 
the result that the fermentation processes are increased 
and the temperature rises. Presently, however, when 
the bed has been made firm the temperature inside it 
beeins to fall and the bed is ready for spawning. 
One reason why manure from a spent mushroom 
bed, or manure which by turning has had the fire 
taken out of it, is recommended so frequently for cer- 
tain garden purposes resides in the fact that it is free 
from an excess of ammonia, which, if present, might 
do considerable damage to the roots of plants. But 
this loss of ammonia is, from another point of view, a 
very serious matter to farmer or gardener. How con- 
siderable may be the loss from manure heaps of am- 
monia and other nitrogen compounds has been demon- 
strated again and again. In the most recent experi- 
ments by Russell and Richards, this loss of nitrogen 
during storage was found to be from 25 to 33 per cent. 
The nitrogen lost in this way means, of course, a 
considerable reduction in value — for in the commerce 
of the garden nitrogen is money. One mode by which 
the heap sustains this loss of nitrogen is as follows : 
Urea, one of the nitrogenous constituents derived from 
the liquid excreta of the farm animals which made the 
manure, is converted by one, and possibly more than 
one, specific micro-organism into ammonium carbon- 
ate — a substance which readily liberates its ammonia 
to the air. Russell and Richards, in their work just 
cited, indicate another method whereby loss of nitro- 
gen is sustained. These observers state that a forma- 
tion of nitrates goes on on the outside of the heap ; but 
these nitrates if washed into the body of the heap 
undergo a sort of denitrifying process, as a result of 
which nitrogen is formed, and escapes into the air. 
Many attempts have been made to prevent the loss of 
ammonia by the addition of fixers; that is, substances 
which interact with the volatile ammonium carbonate 
to form a more stable compound. Gypsum, calcium 
sulphate, kainit (potassium and magnesium chloride), 
superphosphate (acid calcium phosphate) have all 
been tried, though without much success. Gardening- 
books in particular often insist that gypsum is effica- 
cious, but as a matter of fact, for it to do its work ef- 
fectually about one cwt. of gypsum would be re- 
quired for every ton of farmyard manure ; and, further- 
more, the use of gypsum is open to the objection that 
some of it, as Mr. Hall points out. in his valuable work 
on Fertilizers and Manures, may become reduced to 
the form of calcium sulphide, a substance injurious to 
plants. 
A practice which does result in a reduction of the 
loss of nitrogen from the manure heap consists in using 
a layer of old and well-rotted manure as the basis for 
a new heap, and this simple and effective device should 
be followed by all gardeners who have to make manure 
heaps. 
From what has been written it follows that the ab- 
sence of that wasteful dark brown liquid from the 
foot of the heap is no guarantee that loss of nitrogen 
is not occurring; for the nitrates washed from the sur- 
face into the depth of the heap may, and certainly will, 
undergo decomposition, and thus give rise to nitro- 
gen, which escapes into the air. 
This loss may be reduced if the heap be made thor- 
oughly firm, and if it be possible while making it firm, 
to "protect the manure heap from rain, the escape of 
nitrogen from it may be checked almost entirely. 
There is room for further experiment as to the best 
means of protecting the manure heap from rain — a pro- 
tection which, as we have shown, is of the greatest im- 
portance. Possibly a thin layer of peat moss litter 
with a covering of earth might serve the purpose ; or in 
the garden a layer of leaves covered with earth ; but in 
any case if the nitrogen is not to be lost some protec- 
tion must Lie given, and the heap must be made as 
compact as possible. — Gardener's Chronicle (English). 
