50 
THE CULTURE OF THE ORANGE TREE. 
There is nothing revolting or unnatural in 
this compost, which Miller directs should be 
laid together a year, and turned to rot the 
turf ; but in all the composts we have recom- 
mended, we have considered the loam from j 
rotted turves the staple, and, whatever may be \ 
said to the contrary, nobody can succeed so ' 
well without this as with it. The soil which 
is the result of turves cut as if for laying down j 
as grass, or somewhat thicker, is rich in all 
the essentials to healthy vegetation. There 
is in itself, when properly rotted, a third of 
vegetable mould, the most useful and safe of i 
all manures, and there is generally in pastures \ 
that have been fed off, enough animal manure | 
to form it altogether into a rich compost, in 
which almost anything will grow welL But 
Miller contemplates the top spit of the loam 
of a pasture, which will consequently be so 
much the poorer than the turves alone would 
be, that the third of neat's dung will be neces- 
sary. A glance at a few other composts 
recommended by different writers may not be 
lost, in well studying the effect of soil on the 
health of the trees. In Italy we are told they 
are grown in the natural soil, which is strong 
soil, and for this purpose richly manured. So 
also at Genoa and Florence. At Naples, the 
soil is a good deal of it of volcanic origin, yet 
they thrive well. The French gardeners, as 
we are told by Mr. Loudon, on the autho- 
rity of Bosc, seem to fancy that the appe- 
tite of the orange tree is like that of a pig, 
and that they thrive in proportion to the 
lilthy nature of the soil they are in. To a 
soil that is already composed of a third of 
clay, a third of sand, and a third of vegetable 
matter, in other words, perhaps a compost not 
very different to the loam of rotted turves, they 
add an equal bulk of half-rotted cow-dung. 
The first soil is supposed to have been three 
years rotting. This cow-dung is to be mixed, 
and the next year it is to be turned over 
twice. Thus is a fourth year occupied in pre- 
paring compost, and the fifth year it is to be 
mixed again with one half its bulk of rotten 
horse-dung, and be turned over two or three 
times, and the winter before using, it is to be 
again mixed with. 
One-twelfth rotten sheep-dung. 
One-twentieth of pigeon's dung. 
One-twentieth of dried night soil. 
Is not this six years' preparation enough to 
deter anybody from growing orange trees ? 
that is to say, if there be any truth, or a man 
believes it all to be necessary ? It is quite 
ridiculous to so clog the, most simple and 
easily-managed operations with such unije- 
cessary trouble, even if it were free from 
mischief ; and we very much doubt if it be, as 
Mr. Loudon affirms, the practice of the French 
gardeners. We do not dispute that there 
may be such empirics in France as well as in 
England, but we do not join in the libel upon 
the good sense of a whole class of men, when 
perhaps the folly is confined to one or two 
Avhose fingers have itched for writing, and 
who want to be thought different from every- 
body else, or, what is very probably the 
case with all these quacks, want to make the 
difficulties as great as possible, that there may 
be the more merit awarded to the writers for 
their success amidst such difficulties. Strange 
to say, the composts recommended by different 
people vary so much, that nobody who studied 
them could fancy they were for the same 
plant. We are told in the Encyclopcedia of 
Gardening, that M'Phail and Abercrombie, 
who appear to have written on the subject, 
recommend the following : — 
Three-eighths four-year-old cow-dung. 
One-eighth sheep-dung. 
One-fourth vegetable mould from the leaves 
of trees. 
One-sixth fine rich loam. 
One-twelfth road grit. 
In this compost there are three-fourths manure 
to one-fourth of soil such as it is, and the 
loam may also be charged with manure. It 
is neither reasonable nor practicable to keep 
plants in soil like this ; that is to say, they 
could not be kept in health. Mean, as we are 
told, recommends. 
Leaf-mould, one-half. 
Decomposed cow-dung, one-fourth. 
Mellow loam, one-fourth. 
with a small quantity of road grit added to 
the compost. We hate anything so indefinite 
as " small quantities," because it must depend 
on a man's notion ; a small quantity may 
mean a peck or a bushel ; it means everything, 
it means nothing. But without going to these 
trifles, here is a compost of three parts 
manure, vegetable and animal together, and 
an addition of a small quantity is to be made 
that will alter the relative quantities, inas- 
much as sand is the opposite of dung or vege- 
table manure. If there be a bushel of com- 
post as above, a peck of sand added would 
make the manure three-fifths instead of three- 
fourths. But apart from all this, there is too 
much animal and vegetable manure for the 
health of any tree to be permanent in it, and 
we doubt if they ever tried it. We believe 
that many people who write have found that 
a little of some particular thing has improved 
their growth of a plant, and they have jumped 
at the conclusion that if a little made a little 
improvement, a good deal would make a great 
improvement, and so written what they have 
never tried. Henderson, as we are informed, 
recommends, 
