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latter, it is now known, is unsuitable to moist stiff land; still, 
both the one and the other of these are certainly, under proper 
management, of inestimable value to the agriculturist and 
horticulturist. 
Charcoal, as shown in the preceding pages, has, under 
certain circumstances, been used alone; we may now further 
notice its having been used in various proportions, mixed with 
soils of various sorts, and with great success. It has, on the 
contrary, in the estimate of one or two cultivators, been con- 
sidered of little use. This may have arisen from the liberal 
use of other stimulants, either with, or in comparison with, it; 
and forms no criterion, on which to found an opinion, unless 
proper data were given. To form a compost for cucumbers it 
has been successfully used, in equal proportions with fresh 
loam ; without other manure. For orchidaceous epiphytes it 
has proved peculiarly applicable ; blocks of wood being charred, 
the plants have been secured on them, and have grown with 
the most gratifying luxuriance. Mr. Barnes, the gardener at 
Bicton, Devonshire, the seat of the Right Honourable Lady 
Rolle, appears to have used Charcoal more abundantly than any 
other person. He does not found his admiration of it on a few 
experiments, or the uncertain operations of a season or two, but 
on the liberal use of it for fourteen years, on, as he says, thou- 
sands of plants, without meeting with one that did not delight 
in it. In a mixture of loam and Charcoal only, he seems to 
have succeeded to admiration in the culture of pines and other 
stove plants, palms, &c. Musa sapienta he mentions as having 
been planted out in this mixture, in March — a young plant, four 
feet high ; at the end of the following September it was fourteen 
feet six inches high, with leaves reaching to the very top of the 
house, thirty-three feet high ; the base of the stem being three 
feet three inches in circumference. The removal of the surface 
soil, and supplying its place with Charcoal and loam, seems to 
have produced the most striking effects. Amongst which may 
be noticed the growth of Cycas revoluta, with seven hundred 
fruit on it; Luculia gratissiina seven feet high; Doryanthes 
excelsa, flower stem sixteen feet high ; Cactus speciosissima 
twenty feet high. Mr. Barnes says that every plant under his 
care has Charcoal used about it; this assertion from a practical 
man, will go far to dissipate the fears that may have arisen in 
