406 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November 8, 18&3. 
and I have no doubt they will do equally well outside with the liberal 
treatment your correspondent has so fully described. Ours average 
8 inches high with about three or four stout stems to each; and 
some of the blooms, which are of various colours from deep scarlet down 
to almost pure white, measure as much as 4^ inches across. 
As they become more known and their cultivation better understood 
I have no doubt they will become popular bedding plants, and deservedly 
so too. —J. Richardson, Calcerton Hall, Notts. 
NOTES FROM THE RIDDINGS. 
Biddings House, the residence of T. H. Oakes, Esq., is three-quarters 
of a mile from Pye Bridge station, and in a district abounding in coal 
pits and ironworks, therefore it is hardly the place we should go to in 
order to see high-class gardening in all its branches, but there it is 
nevertheless ; plants, fruit, and vegetables are all grown in great quantity 
and of high quality. 
The ornamental grounds, though not extensive, are neatly laid out 
and well kept, the principal feature being the fine collection of specimen 
Hollies, which are regularly pruned and cared for. In one part of the 
grounds is a semi-octagonal-sbaped conservatory built many years ago, 
the beginning of the present large extent of glass, the roof of which is 
covered with Lapageria alba and L. rubra, bearing at the present time 
some hundreds of their lovely flowers. Adjoining the mansion is a 
beautiful structure in two divisions containing fine specimen Palms and 
Ferns, one of the latter (Cibotium spectabile) being one of the finest 
plants in the country. In close proximity is a good plant of Dicksonia 
Youngii. At the opposite end and in the cool division are several very 
healthy and fine examples of those much-neglected thougn strikingly 
handsome plants, Beaucarneas and Dasylirions. Leaving a block of 
houses on our left, consisting of two early vineries and two other houses 
filled with well-budded Azaleas and specimen Lapagerias and Bougain¬ 
villeas that are now resting after doing duty at some of the leading 
horticultural exhibitions, we proceed to another part of the grounds, and 
enter a block of houses consisting of a beautiful and well-furnished 
winter garden, Orchid house, Ixora and Croton house, two hip-roofed 
Peach houses, span-roofed Palm house and stove, two propagating pits, &c. 
To give a detailed account of the contents of all this glass would occupy 
too much space, but suffice it to say that all the occupants are clean and 
in the most robust health. 
Some distance from the house and grounds, and in another part of the 
village, is a wal!ed-in garden filled with glass structures devoted to the 
culture of Grapes, Peaches, Pines, Melons, and Strawberries, and one 
large span-roofed house is filled with specimen New Holland plants and 
gigantic Kalosanthes. Ericas in variety are 3 to 5 feet in diameter, 
and with foliage to the rim of the pots. Genetyllis and Dracophyllums 
are similar. This house alone is well worth a journey to see, so well 
trained and cultivated are its occupants. 
The Peach trees have borne excellent crops of fruit, and are now 
ripening good fruiting wood carrying clean and healthy foliage. The 
late vineries contain heavy crops of well-finished fruit of all varieties 
except Gros Colman ; this variety rarely finishes well in late houses, but 
treated as a midseason Grape it generally colours well, as is here exempli¬ 
fied in an earlier house where, it is finished equally as well as a well- 
finished Lady Downe’s; indeed I have never seen Gros Colman carrying 
so much bloom before. Muscats, Alicantes, Lady Downe’s, Trebbianos, 
and Madresfield Courts are all well grown by Mr. Ward, as has been 
frequently testified in various parts of the country during the past three 
or four years. A span-roofed Strawberry house in two divisions is at 
present occupied by French Beans of sturdy habit; these will produce 
their fruit up to Christmas, when the Strawberries will take their place. 
There are several other span-roofed houses for forcing Cucumbers all the 
year round, and Melons in their season, good crops of both being produced 
every year. Tomatoes are grown in great quantities, as there is a great 
demand for them at the Riddings. Trentham Fillbasket and American 
Trophy are the kinds relied on, but Fillbasket appears to be much the 
best of the two both in flavour and cropping qualities. Pines, which are 
now rarely grown in private gardens, are extensively and well grown by 
Mr. Ward. Queens and Smooth Cayennesappearing to be the favourites. 
The kitchen garden is about half a mile from the house, and in 
another direction, without elaborate walls and walks, but in high cultiva¬ 
tion, as is evidenced by everything it contains ; whether it be two-year-old 
Asparagus or Potatoes, Cauliflowers or Celery, dwarf Roses or dwarf 
Apple trees, the produce is abundant aDd good. Mr. Ward relies on 
Celery Major Clarke, and speaks very highly of Potato Suttons’ Prize- 
taker and Suttons’ King Cauliflower, but thinks that for general use the 
Walcheren Cauliflower is not easily surpassed.—J. U. S. 
GARDEN CHEMISTRY. 
BURNING SOILS. 
The advantages of burning heavy clayey soil have long been known, 
although it has not been so much practised, especially in gardens, as it 
might have been with every advantage. By properly burning clay 
and carefully mixing it with the staple, soil may be changed from ? 
half-sterile, ill to-work, cold, wet condition to one exactly the 
reverse. 
Burnt clay acts mechanically, and it is in order that adhesive 
soils may be opened that gardeners burn them. But burning clay so 
alters it chemically that it has often been substituted by farmers for 
manure in numerous cases with no small amount of success. Sixty 
years ago Major-General Alexander Beatson wrote a book entitled 
“ A New System of Cultivation without Lime, or Dung, or Summer 
Fallow,” and, according to the account given, burnt clay and thorough 
pulverisation enabled him to raise better crops than his neighbours, 
who employed all of them. A dressing of burnt Oxford clay enabled 
Mr. Pusey to increase his Wheat crop from 37^ to 45J bushels per 
acre, and Mr. C. Randall mentions the great benefits derived from 
burning clay—benefits which continued unabated for twenty years 
after the operation. 
Dr. Voelcker found that while unburnt clay only gave 0269 of 
soluble potash, the same burnt gave 0 941. The decomposition of 
rocks by cultivation, frost, application of manure and chemical agents, 
all tend to liberate potash, but slowly ; burning does so rapidly. 
Much of the potash in most soils exists in the form of silicate, which 
is insoluble in water, and not readily attacked by garden plants, 
though grasses and cereals have a greater power of attacking them. 
In the process of burning any lime present is converted into caustic 
lime, which attacks potassic silicate and decomposes it, calcic silicate 
being formed and potash being set free. Burning also alters the iron 
in most soils to a more soluble form. When it is present to an 
injurious extent this is no small advantage, as much is then easily 
removed by the water passing through. Any soluble phosphates 
present are rendered insoluble. This has been considered an 
unfavourable result of burning, an opinion which must be modified 
in the face of Mr. Jamieson’s experiments, and which should never 
have obtained credence in the face of the fact that clay soil after 
burning is more fertile than before. This increased fertility is largely 
due to a greater amount of available potash, a fact that indicates the 
desirability' - of using potash more frequently than is the case. 
Burning dispels the nitrogen which may be present as well as any 
organic matter, but the porosity gained, and the greater absorptive 
power of the friable clay, far more than counterbalance such loss, the 
more especially as in such soils as are most benefited by burning the 
organic matter present containing the nitrogen is very rarely of much 
use other than mechanical. Because of this absorptive power burnt, 
clay is a capital deodoriser, and for mixing with sewage and similar 
matter is of extreme value. 
Wherever fuel can be had the burning of clay is a simple matter 
The way we have usually seen adopted in gardens is to trench over 
the piece to be operated upon, laying as much clay from the subsoil 
over the good earth as it is intended to burn. Sometimes the surface 
soil itself is burnt ; but it is a pity to burn the only soil fit for 
forming a proper staple, and, when properly done, the under soil is 
nearly as good. It is apt to burn into brick-like masses, but this 
may be avoided with care. The clay should only be baked or charred, 
not burnt as bricks are. 
Having the piece trenched and the fuel in proper condition, a 
fire should be started in the middle. Some care is needed in building 
the fire properly. If wood is used it ought to be cut in regular lengths, 
and split so that it may burn readily. If coal be used dross is best, 
as lumps are very apt to burn too fiercely and burn the clay into 
ballast, unless special care can be taken. But wood is to be preferred. 
The fuel should be built pyramid fashion, broad at base and narrow 
at the top. The centre should be of twigs readily ignitable, and the 
outside of stout pieces capable of supporting spadefuls of clay laid 
against them in the way that earth is heaped against a Potato pit. 
After the fire is fairly going the clay should be la'd spade thick all 
over the pyramid or ridge. If it is dry at all it will speedily become 
hot and the fire will break through in all directions. This should ho 
prevented by heaping on more clay until the fire within declines, 
when the heap should be pulled to pieces, more fuel added, and clay 
again, until enough has been secured or the stock of fuel exhausted. 
If fuel enough can be secured it may be well to do the whole garden 
at once, but even when only a small quantity now and again can be 
got much improvement may be worked piecemeal. Fruit-tree borders, 
flower beds, and other particular spots may be done first, and the 
body of the garden attacked as material can be secured. Primings, 
Cabbage stumps, old Pea sticks, and similar rubbish if kept dry are all 
fit for the purpose on a small scale. 
There can be no room for doubting that burning is at once the 
cheapest and most effectual way of improving tenacious clays when 
ordinary opening material is not at hand. So much does it improve 
such, and so much have we been struck with the alteration from 
almost unworkable clays into which roots could hardly penetrate or 
rain pass, to excellent friable soil, that we would not hesitate to 
make Vine borders out of the toughest agricultural clay, with nothing 
else, if we only had fuel to char part of it, and borders, too, not 
deficient in a single thing necessary. But there is no garden crop 
that may not be benefited by it. 
In addition to clays, peats are frequently benefited by burning, 
and the ashes resulting from charred peat are often found excellent 
applications to almost an}' kind of soil, but especially heavy ones. 
•The tough turf that forms on poor moorland is also often burned, 
