JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
February 16, 1882. ] 
present in loam. When fresh manure is mixed with loam the 
chief qualities are absorbed and fixed. It will thus be seen that 
keeping the loam in one heap and the manure in another till 
potting time, and then mixing, is not at all a good plan. 
It is best to use horse or cow droppings free from litter, for the 
droppings constitute by far the most valuable part of the manure. 
When the straw is thoroughly decayed it is as good as leaf soil. 
Urine should also be applied to the heap in order to furnish potash. 
This may be done a month or two before using it, as if freshly 
applied it may prove dangerous. Soil thus prepared has in itself 
ail the elements of fertility in abundance. When used in pots, 
however, they disappear quickly or slowly as the soil contains 
little or much clay—in other words, as it is light or heavy. 
Men of long experience can almost tell a good loam in the dark. 
At the beginning of a career when experience is most needed 
rules are often of great value, therefore the following are sub¬ 
mitted as guides to young readers. The first is—In choosing a 
loam never be satisfied that a medium loam is a good one merely 
because of its texture : that is very misleading. A loam may be 
composed wholly or nearly so by siliceous sand and yet seem 
heavy because of its fineness. Turn off the upper soil and see 
what the subsoil is like ; if it is rather clayey choose the soil, if 
it is merely fine sand pass it if ypu can do better. A mixed soil 
is always best. Loam from whinstone is generally first-class, and 
is always mixed. The felspar which it contains furnishes clay 
enough, the harder granite grit. Moreover, such are mostly 
healthy, as they generally lie high and dry. Lowland loams often 
contain deleterious matters, such as iron oxide, but these are often 
abundant in the subsoil, and absent or nearly so in the upper soil. 
The worst of the matter is, few of us have any choice. When 
lime is deficient a little should be added. 
By choosing a proper loam and preparing it properly a good 
commencement is made. To go on well requires more attention. 
If it is light and will not hold manure we must begin not 
long after it has been taken possession of by the plant to make 
good the deficiency, and this eventually becomes a necessity, 
even in the case of the best loam. To do this liquid manure must 
be supplied, but as this leads into another subject I will now 
stop, reserving a few notes upon that until a future occasion.— 
Single-handed. 
A FEW DIFFICULTIES. 
Boeder Auriculas. —I grow border Auriculas largely, and 
have done for many years past with considerable success. My 
soil, which is a strongish loam, appears 10 suit them, and they grow 
luxuriantly, so much so as to require to be divided about every 
second year. I find no better time for this operation than im¬ 
mediately after flowering. I have sometimes through force of 
circumstances moved and divided them in the autumn, but they 
make no progress before winter sets in, and then they are not un- 
frequently forced out of the ground by frost. Even when mulched 
they never get so well established as to enable them to resist the 
rigours of the winter and the trying spring time as wheu they 
are transplanted soon after flowering. If “ G. O. S.,” who seems 
to have found a situation in which his plants succeed, will try 
this treatment, I anticipate that he will not be disappointed. It 
is desirable to wait for suitable weather for transplanting—that 
is, when the ground is moist and the sky clouded, or if the sun is 
very powerful after the work is done a little shade afforded to 
the'plants will be of great service to them. Alpine Auriculas 
not infrequently fail if planted on a north border, and they 
nearly always do so if they are transplanted late in the season 
and the rainfall of the district is considerable.—S. X. 
Carnations Decaying. —The “difficulty,” I apprehend, of 
“Amateur” (page 110) was the result either of potting the 
plants too late or employing pots needlessly large, or a com¬ 
bination of both these evils, for evils they undoubtedly are. If 
your correspondent examines the roots of his plants he will 
probably find that they have never moved since he moved them 
himself; aud unless Carnations are potted soon enough to produce 
fresh roots in the autumn, and reach the sides of the pots, the 
greatest possible skill and care will be needed in watering and 
ventilating to prevent the decay of the foliage, especially when 
old plants are lifted, as appears to have been the case in this 
instance. If such plants are removed late in the autumn aud 
replanted in the open ground similar results follow, while those 
left undisturbed (except in unfavourable soil and seasons) remain 
healthy. Even young plants or rooted layers, if either potted 
too late or placed in too large pots, seldom winter satisfactorily, 
but “go off” in the manner indicated. If a number of small 
rooted layers are potted late in October, and a portion of them 
137 
are placed in 5-inch pots and another portion in 3-inch pots, both 
batches being placed in the same frame and having the same 
treatment, the plants in the smaller pots will, as a rule, be in far 
better condition in February than those in the larger. Seedling 
Carnations are usually sufficiently hardy to pass through even a 
severe winter with little or no injury, at least a winter following 
their first season of flowering ; after that the growths become 
long and the plants more liable to sustain damage. Choice 
florists’ varieties are more tender and must not be trusted out 
during the winter ; and with these a safe mode of having strong 
healthy plaut3 in spring is to layer the grass early in the summer 
and pot the layers early in the autumn, so that they produce 
an abundance of roots before winter. Let “ An Amateur ” re- 
Fig. 29.—Babiana stricta. (See page 129.) 
move all the decayed foliage from the plants, dust them with sul¬ 
phur if affected with mildew (which is not unlikely), stir the 
surface sod with a pointed stick, apply water carefully, and as 
the season advances fresh roots will be produced, and growth, 
probably healthy, will follow.—A n Old Grower. 
Mushrooms Decaying. —In reply to J. Welsford (page 110), 
without being fully acquainted with all the circumstances it is 
hard to say decidedly the causes of failure, but the following are 
the most probable. First, spawn strewed on the surface of the 
bed. This most likely will run over the manure next the soil, 
whilst the pieces inserted in the bed are growing inside. The 
surface spawn would possibly throw out a few small Mushrooms 
as described, and not have sufficient strength to grow to any size. 
The only places in the bed where good Mushrooms can be pro¬ 
duced would be where the spawn from the lumps could come 
through without touching that strewn on the surface, as by the 
time the spawn from the pieces reached the front, that on the 
surface would be in a state of partial decay, and no spawn will 
grow through manure where spawn has been before. The second 
cause is probably a dry surface heat. If the house is kept at a 
