July 26, 1863 
67 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
stone in order to make it clean does not take up very much 
time, but this would require to be repeated very frequently, 
and soft stone in a very few years would be greatly worn. 
Try this stone-rubbing system on material of a very hard or 
flinty nature, and it requires a lengthened period of time to 
thoroughly reduce the stone until it is as clean as when new. 
This, too, if worked at as well as the scrubbing system, will 
prove an operation that will not only waste time but prove 
exhausting and laborious. 
It must not be understood that I am an advocate for green 
and dirty curbstones and floors in the houses or about the 
grounds; on the contrary, I delight in seeing them as clean 
as the day they were new. This can, as I hope to show, be 
safely and readily accomplished with a minimum of labour and 
cost in comparison to the system too frequently employed in 
gardens for cleaning stonework. 
Chloride of lime, if judiciously used, may be employed 
to clean stonework in houses where the most delicate plants or 
fruits are gi’own without the slightest injury. On the other 
hand, if the inexperienced are allowed to use it carelessly much 
damage to both fruits and plants may result. I have always 
found when injury to any particular plant has resulted from its 
use that the cause has been traceable to negligence on the part 
of those entrusted to carry out the operation. Even with young 
men that have never used it — all that have come here never 
having used it before—one or two lessons are ample in initiating 
them. The careless should have a certain quantity mixed for 
them to. cover a certain quantity of stonework. A very little 
of the lime mixed in a pail with water will clean the whole 
flags and curbs in a house of good size. When applied with an 
old hand or hair broom the floor should have the appearance 
as if a quantity of milk had been brushed over it, a little 
stronger if the floor or stones are very green. After being 
applied it should be continually moved about the flags by 
means of the old brush by which it was applied—scrubbing 
is not necessary—until the chloride of lime forms a froth, which 
it will soon do, and when in this state the work of removing 
the green is rapidly going on. It should be allowed to remain 
upon the floor about ten minutes after it reaches this stage, and 
can then be well washed off, when the flags will be thoroughly 
clean. 
Some attention is needed in washing it off, for if not well 
done the stonework assumes a white appearance, which is not 
the case when well washed. The chloride of lime, whether 
employed indoors or out, should never be allowed to dry upon 
the stones or flags, or some hard scrubbing will be necessary to 
remove it. 
When employed indoors it is decidedly safer to use it during 
early, morning, at night, or on dull days, as it is then less liable 
to injure anything than when the sun is shining with force upon 
the house. From the time the lime is first laid upon the floor 
the house should be well ventilated. In applying the lime 
attention is needed that it is not splashed upon the doors or 
other paint in the house, as it destroys the paint and turns it 
a rusty colour that no amount of washing afterwards will remove. 
The only objection that can be urged against its use for the 
purpose indicated is the odour, or “ disagreeable smell,’’ that 
some call it, that is left for a short time in the house after 
its use. It will smell for a few days, but it is by no means 
disagreeable; in fact, is not half so objectionable as the smell 
arising from applications of strong liquid manure that are so 
liberally poured upon Vine and Peach borders in many gardens 
However, if the odour arising from the lime is objectionable, 
and. the house requires cleaning while the family is at home, 
spirits of salts may be used. This is more expensive, but will, 
as far as my experience goes, injure nothing, will clear off every 
particle of green, and leave no offensive smell. It should be 
diluted with water, the quantity entirely depending upon the 
strength of the acid. I have frequently used this when the 
family has been here, but in spite of the slight smell arising 
from the chloride of lime we most decidedly prefer it. The 
last-mentioned, if used with care, is an easy, inexpensive, and 
effectual plan of thoroughly cleaning floors formed with flags 
and other stonework in the garden and grounds.—W. Bardney. 
The Golden Apple.— Mr. Ronald McLeod, Mount Troodos, Cyprus, 
writes to a daily contemporary as follows :—“ It will, I think, be a sub¬ 
ject of interest to know that the identification of the fruit which in the 
Old Testament and in ancient Greek writings is called the ‘ Golden 
Apple ’ has become possible. ‘The three Golden Apples given by Venus 
to Meilanion, whereby he won the race with Atalanta, were plucked, it is 
said, either from the Garden of the Hesperides or from an orchard in 
Cyprus.’ Any proof helping to establish the identification of this fruit 
will come naturally with greater weight from Cyprus, the home of 
Aphrodite. In Cyprus at the present day in early summer almost every 
garden has trees laden with ‘ ta chrysomela,’ ‘Golden Apples,’and the 
bazaars of the towns are filled with the fragrant fruit. The modern 
Greek name for the Apricot is ‘to Berykokkon,’ but the Cypriote still 
calls it by the ancient name ‘to chrysomelo,’ since he knows no other, 
thus carrying the mind back to the distant past when Cyprus was the 
Garden of the Eastern Mediterranean, and fit to be the favourite resi¬ 
dence of the Goddess of Beauty. The ‘ Golden Apple ’ of the Book of 
Proverbs is also, doubtless, the Apricot. The references in the Old 
Testament apply, in all respects, to this fruit tree alone. It has been 
abundantly cultivated in Palestine from early times ; its foliage forms a 
‘ delightful shade,’ and is bright and pale like ‘ pictures of silver,’ while 
it bears ‘Apples of Gold’ of ‘ fragrant smell ’ and ‘ sweet to the taste.’ 
Dr. Clarke says that the Apricot tree appears to be indigenous to Cyprus. 
If this be so, the ‘ Apples of Gold ’ of Proverbs xxv. 2 are certainly 
Apricots. If, on the other hand, as is also asserted, the Apricot is a 
native of Armenia, then both the tree and probably its name were thence 
introduced at some early period into Cyprus. When the constant inter¬ 
course of Cyprus with the Eastern mainland in all ages is borne in mind, 
together with the fact of the particular commercial dealings which 
existed between the Israelites and the Phoenicians at a time when Cyprus 
was largely colonised by the latter, and when, for a while, it owned 
allegiance to Hiram, King of Tyre, there is the strongest probability for 
the assumption that the fruit which the Greek afterwards called the 
‘ Golden Apple ’ is identical with that which in King Solomon’s time was 
known by the same name ; and that both names were derived from a 
common source.” 
GARDEN CHEMISTRY—PHOSPHATES. 
( Continued from page 55.) 
Some guanos, though containing little nitrogen, are especially rich 
in phosphates. Those from Mejillones contain as much as 71 per 
cent., and make the best of superphosphates or dissolved guanos. 
Dissolved Peruvian guano is one of the most active artificial manures 
in existence, as it contains ammonia (nitrogen equal to) 12 per 
cent, and phosphoric anhydride equal to 22 per cent, of tricalcic 
diphosphate. 
In recent years a more than usually active phosphate has been 
before the public under the name of “ fimus,” which is manufactured 
from the sewage of the midland counties by what is known as “ Scott’s 
process.” It is “ an ammoniacal phosphate of magnesia,” but contains 
potash and other fertilising matter in addition. At Erster Ardross, 
applied to Turnips, it gave 27 per cent, over the next best crop pro¬ 
duced by other combinations of phosphoric anhydride and nitrogen, 
the next best being from a mixture of undissolved coprolites, bone 
ash, and ammonic sulphate ; although in the latter case twice as much 
phosphoric anhydride was given as in the case of “fimus,” the 
nitrogen in each case being the same. In other cases on different 
subjects its effects have proved equally striking ; and when a quick 
return is desired it will doubtless prove a useful manure. 
Among numerous experiments with dissolved pitted against 
undissolved phosphates, the balance of results are in favour of 
dissolving not only mineral phosphates but even bones. But most 
of these experiments have had reference to the current crop alone. 
In farming practice, so long as the law does not provide for “ unex¬ 
hausted improvements,” this is perhaps enough ; but in the case of the 
garden, when in the hands of the proprietor, or even in the case of 
market gardeners who are generally protected by leases, it is doubtful 
if the use of soluble phosphates is at all to be recommended. Garden 
soils have a dissolving power over such that enables the plants grown 
to use the applied phosphates soon enough. Then phosphates are by 
no means liable to loss ; and though the current crop leave an unused 
residue, it will be taken up by a succeeding one. Dissolved cost one- 
third more than undissolved phosphates, and often have a hurtful 
power on soils already containing acids. Of course this can be pre¬ 
vented by the use of lime, or by precipitating the soluble phosphate 
by adding bone dust. Still it may be doubted if in gardens even 
mineral phosphates are the better by being dissolved. Moreover, in 
the case of fruit borders something lasting is of positive benefit, and 
in such tricalcic and monocalcic phosphates alike speedily assume the 
same form—the bicalcic. True enough, phosphates, soluble in water, 
can be much more thoroughly diffused through the body of the soil, 
and a given quantity will present a greater surface than will an equal 
quantity of even impalpable powder produced by mechanical means. 
No grinding can produce an equal state of fineness with what chemical 
means can ; but then the same money will buy more of the ground 
phosphate, and the distribution difficulty is no difficulty compared 
with what it is with the farmer who is tenant at will or near the end 
of his lease. 
But Mr. Jamieson’s experiments make it doubtful if dissolved 
phosphates are really so superior after all. In Aberdeenshire it was 
found that a mixture of steamed bone flour and coprolite producer 1 , 
in two instances out of five, results identical with the same substances 
rendered soluble ; in two cases the results were inferior, but only 
