June 11, 1885. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
483 
to the winner of the largest amount of prize money at the summer show, 
it will remain in the custody of his employer, the gardener to have for 
permanent possession a silver medal, showing him to have been the winner 
for that year. 
-4 Prizes for Marguerites. — Mr. Ollerhead, from Wimbledon 
House gardens, writes : “ Sir Henry W. Peek, Bart., desires it to be made 
known that he intends to place in the hands of the Council of the Royal 
Horticultural Society the sum of £20, to be divided at their discretion 
into prizes for the well-known section of Chrysanthemums called Mar¬ 
guerites, or French Daisies. Full particulars will be shortly advertised.” 
- Flower Shows. —The Wakefield Paxton Society’s Window 
Garden Exhibition will be held on August 8th, and the Ludlow Horticul. 
tural Society’s Show on August 27th. 
-“T. S.” sends us the following: note on BrocGolis for succes¬ 
sion :— “ Having seen an article on this vegetable, I may mention the 
names of three varieties that have produced a supply from the 1st of March 
to the present time—viz., Sutton’s Early White, Sutton’s Perfection, and 
Sutton’s Late Queen. The last named I have cut some beautiful heads, 
5§ lbs. to 6 lbs., compact, and of good flavour.” 
- Gardening Appointment.— Mr. W. Palmer, foreman, Rood 
Ashton Park, has been appointed to succeed Mr. Fyffe as head gardener 
to W. F. W. Dick, Esq , Thames Ditton House, Kingston-on-Thames. 
- Liverpool Horticultural Association. —The seventh sum¬ 
mer Exhibition of plants, flowers, fruit, and vegetables, will be held in 
Sefton Park on Saturday, August 1st, and Monday, August the 3rd 
Entries close July 25th. The sixth Exhibition of Chrysanthemums and 
fruit will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 24th and 25th. 
Mr. Edward Bridge, Huy ton, near Liverpool, is the Secretary. 
- A heavy and much-needed rain refreshed vegetation in the 
metropolitan district on Monday last. The downpour continued the 
whole day, and in parks, gardens, orchards, and fields the benefit is very 
great. The recently planted flowers and vegetables will now make a 
good start, and the recently set fruit, which is generally abundant, 
will swell freely, and there is now good hopes of a golden harvest. 
From what we learn, however, the rain was by no means general; at 
Brighton, for instance, the day—the opening of the Great Agricultural 
Show there—was clear and bright. 
-- We had the pleasure 'of [inspecting Mr. McIntosh’s Rhodo¬ 
dendrons at Duneevan last Saturday, and they were magnificent. The 
collection includes hundreds of varieties, the best of the newer ones having 
been added yearly until the assortment is singularly rich and complete 
The shrubs thrive remarkably well in the dark rather sandy soil on a 
moist base, and as the colours are judiciously arranged the effect as seen 
from the terrace above is extremely beautiful. The shrubs are grouped in 
large beds, while a few fine standards on the lawn, laden with noble 
trusses and relieved by handsome Conifers, contribute powerfully to the 
general display. 
- Soon after the Rhododendrons fade the garden will be rendered 
imposingly gay by the splendid groups of Liliums that are established 
among the shrubs. The Liliums are growing with great freedom. A 
plant of L. Krameri already exceeds 5 feet in height, while the stems of 
the L. auratums are remarkably strong, one of L. a. platypetala being 
quite remarkable, no doubt girthing upwards of 4 inches ; but as it is 
surrounded with a guard of wire netting it could not be conveniently 
measured. It will be interesting to note to what extent these vigorous 
examples produce stem roots during the season, that being a subject to 
which some of our readers and writers appear to attach importance. It is 
pleasant to record that Mr. McIntosh is so far recovered as to be able to 
enjoy his garden, which is undoubtedly one of the best maintained in the 
kingdom. In the fruit department the crops are abundant. 
- The following Summary of Meteorological Observations at 
Hodsock Priory, Worksop, Notts, for May, 1885, has been sent to us by 
Mr. Joseph Mallender:—Mean temperature of month, 47 - 6; maximum 
on the 28th, 70 8 ; minimum on the 12th, 27'9 ; maximum in sun on the 
28th, 126'2 ; minimum on grass on the 7th, 19-4. Warmest day the28th ; 
coldest day the 7th. Mean temperature of air at 9 a.m., 49’5. Mean 
temperature of the soil 1 foot deep, 50 0 ; nights below 32° in shade five, 
on grass nine. Total duration of sunshine in month, 144 hours, or 30 
per cent, of possible. The brightest day the 11th (10’4 hours). We had 
three sunless days. Total rainfall, P73, Maximum fall in twenty-four hours 
on the 14th, 34 inches. Rain fell on twenty days. During the last ten 
years only two Mays have been a3 cold as this one—viz., 1877 and 1879. 
Rainfall double of last year’s, though rather less than any of the pre¬ 
ceding seven. Sunshine much less than any of the last four years. 
Vegetation made scarcely any progress except during the last week. The 
frosts have damaged the Pear blossom. 
-The monthly dinner of the Horticultural Club was held 
on Tuesday last, and was largely attended. Amongst those present were 
Mr. John Lee (Chairman), Messrs. Loder, Girllestone, G. Paul, J. S. 
Cousens, Gall, Druery, Upcott Gill, &c. In the evening a discussion on 
Alpine Plants took place, the subject being opened by the Secretary, who 
dealt with it in its practical bearing, and dwelt on some of the points 
which ought to be considered in making a rockery. The discussion was 
continued by Mr. E. G. Loder, who detailed his method of dealing with 
such plants as Phyteuma eomosum and Gentiana bavarica, &c. ; by Mr. 
Girdlestone, who spoke of his treatment of Iris Susiana, Edelweiss, &c.; 
by Mr. George Paul, who mentioned the success he had amongst other 
things with bog plants ; and by other members. Mr. Girdlestone ex¬ 
hibited a very beautiful box of cut flowers, containing amongst other 
things Anthericum Liliastrum, Anemone sulphurea, Thalictrum adianti- 
folium, Iris Susiana, Edelweiss, Pentstemon glabrum, Rosa rugosa 
coruscans. Mr. Druery showed a fine plant of Saxifraga pyramidalis, and 
some interesting blooms were shown by Mr. Geo. Paul, including his new 
Saxifrage, S. lantoscana supsrba. Mr. Porter of Leamington sent up a 
beautiful plant oE his new white decorative Pelargonium Volonte 
Nationale album,which was greatly admired; and Messrs. Francis & Arthur 
Dickson sent up some splendid Asparagus, which was duly appreciated by 
the members. A most interesting and profitable evening was spent. 
MANURES FOR THE ORCHARD AND GARDEN. 
[Extract from a paper read by Prof. G. C. Caldwell of Cornell University, before the 
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in Boston, March 28th.] 
How to manure the garden or the orchard for the most profitable 
results is one of the most difficult questions the horticulturist has to meet. 
It is doubtful whether the demand for animal manures is any less urgent 
now than before the commercial manures became the important articles 
of trade that they now are; yet in agricultural operations superphos¬ 
phates, bonemeal, nitrate of soda, and the like have, in many cases, been 
made to take the place entirely of stable manure with profit. Commer¬ 
cial fertilisers do contain all the food required by crops, and with their 
assistance only a farm can be brought up from a low condition to a higher 
one and held there for a series of years. 
The value of a commercial fertiliser is based on the quantities of 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash that it contains, and in respect to 
these nutriments we can meet the wants of any crop better by supplying 
commercial fertilisers than we can by stable manures. Besides this the 
crop must find in the soil, supplied from some source, lime, magnesia, 
sulphuric acid in the form of sulphates, of which plaster is one, a very 
little iron, possibly chlorides, of which common salt is one, and perhaps 
silica. These substances are found in all good soils, or supplied in ferti¬ 
lisers. Hence we are justified in charging all the cost of the commercial 
manure to its nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The rest of the 
ingredients must be thrown in gratis. All of these matters the stable 
manure contains also in abundance. 
So far no one can claim anything for the stable manure that is not 
supplied by the commercial fertiliser. Stable manure is distinctively com¬ 
posed largely of dead vegetable and animal matters in process of decay. 
The product of this decay is the humus or vegetable mould of the soil. 
About one-fifth of ordinary stable manure is made up of this vegetable 
and animal matter, while not over six or eight one-thousandths is potash, 
five to six one-thousandths nitrogen, and three one-thousandths phosphoric 
acid. Of nitrate of soda one-sixth is nitrogen. Of a good average supei- 
phosphate one-eighth is phosphoric acid, and of a German muriate of 
potash from a third to a half may be potash. But in all other materials 
there is no vegetable matter, and little or no animal matter. Here, then, is 
a clear distinction between the two kinds of manure, the stable and the arti¬ 
ficial. Four-fifths of dry manure is decaying vegetable and animal matter, 
about one-fortieth is potash, one-eigthieth phosphoric acid, and one-fiftieth 
nitrogen. About three-fourths of the stable manure is only water, however. 
That humus, or vegetable mould, is an important ingredient of a fertile 
soil no one can doubt. Given two soils equally rich in nitrogen, potash, 
phosphoric acid, lime, and all matters of such sort, but of which one is 
poor in humus, the other rich in it, there is not a farmer or gardener who 
knows soils who would not give more for the soil rich in humus than for 
the other. In the course of the decaying of these vegetable matte; s 
several acid substances are formed, chiefly carbonic acid. These acids 
act on a large quantity of soluble plant food, and aid m bringing it into 
sulution and in easy reach of the plant. 
Commercial fertilisers, it is oiten observed, do their best when use 1 
with stable manure, and this is because the abundance of carbonic acid, 
generated by the fresh application of such manure, assists in rendering 
soluble the native foods of the soil. 
Prof. Caldwell gave the following comparison of the values of certain 
kinds of manure :—Cow manure at 1 dollar 1G cents, per 1000 lbs. is not 
a cheap w: y of getting plant food; it would be more costly than com- 
