WAY TO GROW CORN WITHOUT MANURE. 
85 
Loth them and the soil in a state of compara- 
tive dryness, under which circumstances, the 
frost will have far less influence on the plants. 
Many plants besides Heaths, which are de- 
stroyed when left exposed to the rain and 
moisture, might be preserved without injury 
if this plan or some similar one were adopted 
to keep them in a dry state. Such a covering 
would by no means deprive a plant of light, 
and might therefore be suffered to remain 
until all danger from frost was past, which 
would perhaps be by the end of March, either 
earlier or later, according to the season. The 
covering of sawdust should not be removed 
altogether at once, or the roots will be para- 
lysed by exposure to cold ; an inch or two 
should be removed at a time, and the whole 
cleared away by the middle of April. 
By means of protection similar to that re- 
ferred to above, it is probable that the greater 
part of the Cape Heaths would survive 
through the winter, without sustaining any 
material injury ; and than a collection of 
exotic Heaths, growing in all the luxuriance 
of nature, and blooming as profusely as they 
show themselves capable of, even under arti- 
ficial cultivation, it is scarcely possible to con- 
ceive a more beautiful assemblage. 
The hardy heaths are most readily propa- 
gated by layers, which make the best plants 
within a limited period, although cuttings root 
freely enough with careful management. If 
the young branches are brought down, and 
covered to within a few inches of their tops, 
with about an inch in thickness of the soil, 
kept firm and moist, they will usually become 
rooted plants in a few months, and may 
then be taken off, and transplanted to where 
they may be required. Either the spring or 
the autumn is the most eligible time for doing 
this : in the former case, they are best taken 
olf early in the autumn, and in the latter, 
during the spring months. 
There is one purpose to which a reserve 
stock of the winter-flowering hardy Heaths 
may be appropriated with every advantage ; 
and that is, the decoration of the sitting-room, 
the conservatory, or the green-house. Gypso- 
callis carnea' especially will continue in bloom 
nearly all the winter, and at that period, 
flowers of any kind, except forced ones, are 
very scarce. A few small neat bnshy plants, 
taken up, and carefully placed in pots, just 
before severe frost comes on, and then set in 
any sheltered corner, or in a cold frame, will 
come in about the usual season ; if they were 
required, their blooming could be accelerated 
a month or so, by taking them up earlier, and 
keeping them under shelter. What is now 
referred to, is very different from what is 
called forcing ; in fact, the ordinary period of 
their blooming out-of-doors, (December and 
January,) is the very time when they would be 
most useful for in-door decoration, because it 
is just the time of the greatest dearth of 
flowers. From the peculiar manner of their 
rooting, namely, in close dense masses (techni- 
cally called balls) of fine fibres, they are very 
easily removed, and potted without sustaining 
any injury from the operation. Plants so 
treated, should be planted out again in the 
reserve ground, early in the spring, in order 
to make a new growth, and prepare them- 
selves for a similar process in the following 
season. 
MR. BICKES DISCOVERY OF THE WAY 
TO GROW CORN WITHOUT MANURE. 
The astounding announcement of a mode 
of growing crops without manure, has inter- 
ested many persons who are, nevertheless, 
sceptical, and ourselves among the number ; 
and, on looking to a number of certificates 
signed by well-known persons, who depose to 
their actual observation of extraordinary pro- 
ductions,under still more extraordinary circum- 
stances, we are struck with astonishment ; for, 
unless mendacity and forgery have been prac- 
tised to an extent almost beyond all bounds, 
grain has been produced, in abundance, on land 
which no ordinary manuring could make 
fertile ; indeed, on the moving sands beside a 
fresh-water river, as well as on gravel and 
sand. Astounding as are the samples and 
certificates that we have seen, the means by 
which these agricultural miracles have been 
performed, are admitted to be preparations of 
the seed only. Now, this brings us to a prin- 
ciple which we can all understand ; and once 
admit a principle to be tangible and feasi- 
ble, and who shall set a limit to its power and 
extent ? We all know, at least by far the most 
of us know, that, by steeping a seed, w e can 
influence the after plant. Admitting that this 
fact is reduceable any day to practice with a 
never-failing result, however trifling the differ- 
ence may be in the steeped and unstceped 
seeds, even if steeped in water only, we have, 
then, only to give credit for a discovery of 
some new mode of steeping, or new matter to 
steep in, to account for much greater results. 
Without, therefore, presuming to contradict a 
man who is alleged to have been trying nearly 
twenty years to perfect his discovery, we will 
give some few particulars as to what is said to 
have been done by this gentleman, in different 
parts of the world, Mr. Bickes having done 
nothing in the matter but prepared and sown 
the seed. 
Cert. 1. "In the Imperial Garden at Der 
Burg, the sowing made by Mr. Bickes con- 
sisted of wheat, barley, and maize ; on the 
24th June — 1st. The wheat was flourishing; 
