JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
188 
[ Marcli 9, 1882. 
beds. When this is done a very light dressing of guano, or 
the chemical mixture already named, will be enough to main¬ 
tain the soil in a fertile condition. Once every few years a 
light sprinkling of lime should be given, and in inland dis¬ 
tricts common salt. The addition of these alone would, in 
many cases, prove of greater benefit than even a good dressing 
of manure ; but this only applies to regularly manured land. 
Bonemeal and superphosphate of lime are valuable manures, 
but cannot be considered as proper substitutes for ordinary 
manure in the garden. Specially good effects have followed 
their use in the field, but always on land that had been syste¬ 
matically robbed of its phosphoric acid by means of the grain, 
cheese, milk, and other farm products, the ashes of which are 
particularly rich in this compound, and which had never been 
returned in quantities sufficient to compensate for its removal. 
For plants in pots and one or two special purposes the use of 
these fertilisers has sometimes a special value, as I will en¬ 
deavour to show, but they cannot indefinitely take the place of 
farmyard manure. A perfect substitute suitable for all soils 
would require to have all the mineral matters present, whereas 
bonemeal possesses only phosphoric acid and lime. The same 
may be said of superphosphate. Both are good for lawns as 
well as pasture land, the phosphoric acid directly encouraging 
the growth of fine grasses on the former, and particularly 
nourishing grasses on the latter. 
As in the open ground so it is with the soil in pots. Pro¬ 
perly prepared farmyard waste or sewage makes the best fer¬ 
tilisers. Lately I recommended that ordinary manure should 
be laid up in a fresh state with the soil months before the soil 
is wanted, and also that urine should be added to make it per¬ 
fectly fertile. It is only necessary to refer to this now, for my 
present purpose is to point out how best to do without such a 
preparation. Neither is it necessary to say anything about 
leaf soil, which is at once soil and manure. Good soils are 
necessary to success, and we can hardly employ artificial com¬ 
pounds as substitutes for loam, peat, &c., for plants in pots. 
But failing ordinary manure for making them rich to begin 
with, and sewage water to maintain their fertility, after the 
first-applied food has been taken out we can apply some of the 
artificial manures with marked benefit. 
For enriching loam at potting time with a fertiliser that vil 
last there is nothing to surpass fresh bonemeal. Standen’s 
manure I have also found very good, but it is decidedly ex¬ 
pensive when used on a large scale. The same remark applies 
to all special manures distinguished by manufacturers' names, 
hence they cannot be economically applied extensively. A 
6-inch potful of bonemeal and a 3-inch one of Standen’s ma¬ 
nure to a bushel of soil at potting time will be an ample 
allowance. 
Bones not being a perfect manure cannot sustain a vigorous 
growth indefinitely. It is well to add to the heap of soil, as 
long before as possible, a little sulphate of potash or a little 
guano, but in the latter case a few weeks before will be amply 
sufficient. Better still, a little of the manure treated with sul¬ 
phate of potash and laid up a couple of months at least before 
the soil is used would prove of great benefit. For strong¬ 
growing annuals, such as Balsams and the many coarse-growing 
plants used under the name of subtropicals, no better matter 
can be employed than night soil; but this must be thoroughly 
mixed with the soil and kept one year to prepare. Soil so en¬ 
riched will cause such plants to grow very luxuriantly, but it 
is not suitable for plants which have to remain years in the 
pots. Soot mixed with soil in small quantities is often em¬ 
ployed beneficially. It has a deterrent effect on worms, which 
should never be suffered in pots, and owes its manurial value 
chiefly to the ammonia distilled from the burning coal. It is 
generally present as a sulphite, the sulphurous acid in its com¬ 
position being also manufactured from the sulphur found in 
most coal. 
As long as soil is only partially occupied with roots, and so 
still presenting in ts exhausted body sufficient plant food, 
liquid manure should not be applied. Amateurs and beginners 
often make a mistake in this. Soil is a capital deodoriser, as 
it fixes any ammonia or other manurial matters passed through 
it by water. Soil thus treated becomes destructively rich, for 
it must never be forgotten that excessive supplies of manure 
are poisonous. This state of matters is rather common, to 
judge from the answers in the correspondents’columns. One 
golden rule applies : Never give liquid manure till you are cer¬ 
tain the soil in the pots is full of roots, and that the plants are 
really in want of more food, and then give it in very small 
quantities. Plants take very little out of the soil altogether ; 
much more is washed out by the waterings. 
Top-dressings are often better, especially in unskilled hands, 
than applications of liquid manure. Animal droppings, ordi¬ 
nary manure, or specially prepared manure, mixed with their 
own bulk of soil, form good top-dressings for most plants in 
pots. Standen’s or Clay's fertilisers are also very good, as well 
as other advertised preparations, but only small quantities of 
such must be used at a time. 
Liquid manure may be made from stable drainings, but the 
water should just be tainted with such. No better liquid can 
be given than water tainted with sewage. When used so weak 
as this it may be given every time water is applied to plants of 
which the roots crowd their pots Never give even the weakest 
liquid manure to dry soil. Such soil, instead of passing off 
the surplus as soil will that is beginning to become dry, will ab¬ 
sorb the salts, &c., till those are present in quantity sufficient 
to prove destructive. A plant which is in soil healthily moist 
will take up what it wants. One flaccid for want of water 
will absorb any soluble matter, even to its own repletion and 
destruction, if applied in water. Never, then, give liquid ma¬ 
nure to plants actually suffering from an insufficient supply of 
water ; better still, never allow your plants to reach that stage. 
Stable drainings, sewage, and other such liquids as guano 
water, are often objected to on account of their disagreeable 
smell ; indeed, their use is proscribed in most conservatories 
which open into the dwelling-house, and in many which do not. 
This difficulty is best overcome by employing inodorous top- 
dressings to plants, the roots of which fill their pots and can¬ 
not find food enough to keep them growing healthily ; but 
liquid manures which are odourless may also be employed. 
Soot water made and applied as described in the correspon¬ 
dents' columns in the Journal for Feb. 23rd may be applied ; 
I have already pointed out in what sense and how far it is a 
manure. Many soluble inodorous manures are sold which are 
very suitable ; but they are, without exception, excessively 
high-priced. Sulphate of ammonia sparingly applied will for 
a time maintain a vigorous growth, but it is only the ammonia 
that causes this. Nitrate of soda is equally valuable, its value 
depending on the nitric acid. These are often used in much 
too large quantities ; a teaspoonful to a gallon is ample for 
root-bound specimens of Fuchsias, Chrysanthemums, Zonal 
Pelargoniums, &c., while for more slowly growing plants it 
should be applied weaker. Nitrate of potash is even better, 
but more costly than either. From three times a week in the 
growing season to once when growth is less is often enough. 
These should be dissolved in the water a good while before 
being used, so that the water may become of the same tempe¬ 
rature as the air of the house in which the plants to which it is 
to be applied are growing. Mixing nitrate of soda with water 
reduces its temperature very much—a fact that may be taken 
advantage of ; it may serve on an occasion as a substitute for 
ice. I once had the curiosity to plunge a thermometer in a 
canful of water in which water at 72° had been mixed with 
nitrate of soda, and it speedily sank to about 40°. At this 
temperature it might be good for cooling summer beverages, 
but most decidedly unsuited for stove plants. 
Liquid manures which are suitable for plants in pots are also 
suitable for plants out of doors, only less-refined matters may 
be employed. In showery weather it will be enough to sprinkle 
such substances as I have named on the surface of the soil, 
when dry liquid manure will be more appropriate and doubly 
beneficial. 
In the vicinity of towns the rain that descends is generally 
so charged with ammonia that it forms a liquid manure of no 
mean value; indeed quite enough to furnish enough (in some 
instances more) to supply the plants generally grown in pots 
with at least all the nitrogen they need. This is especially 
the case if the water wffiich falls is collected from sooty roofs ; 
indeed such water, even in the country, contains an appreciable 
amount of ammonia, sulphuric, nitric acid, &c. In some dis- 
