December 8 , 1881 .] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
513 
years ago, consisting of a rough Briar or two and bound round 
top and bottom with wire. I have just renewed mine which had 
been on three years, and I found the trees which had previously 
been mutilated and bruised fast closing over. 
Bullfinches should now be caught before they attack the fruit 
buds. I may be excused from repeating this advice, which I 
advocated last autumn, and 1 do not remember to have seen any 
grumbling since. I hope others were as successful as myself, as 
I caught about thirty, and my buds were almost untouched. One 
bullfinch only appeared to have been left, which, over a district, 
could be tolerated. The last I heard of any of the birds was that 
a pair were transported to Canada, and were there considered 
worth about 5 dols., or about £1 sterling. Would that they had 
many at the price, and that our gardeners could have the pro¬ 
ceeds of the sales.—J. Hiam. 
[The Apple above referred to is no doubt a local variety, and 
excellent for culinary purposes. The Pear is, we believe, the 
Muirfowl’s Egg, an old Scotch Pear, hardy and productive as 
standards.—E d.] 
THE UTILISATION OF SEWAGE. 
“ Your letters in the Journal of Horticulture have interested me 
very much. You say the application of house sewage is still an 
unsolved problem. Has it not been partly solved by the earth 
closet system ? Any good work on agricultural science would 
make some reference to ‘double silicates,’— i.c., to clay, and its 
power of combining with other fertilising matters. In the small 
town from whence I write nearly every inhabitant adopts the earth 
closet system, but it is evidently not understood by many who 
use it, and it is consequently not so effective as it might be. The 
idea with many seems to be that any earth or ashes will do to use 
in these closets, whereas nothing has the proper chemical effect 
except a clay of some kind. Of this a small quantity, dried and 
pulverised, is most effective in forming the desired chemical com¬ 
bination, whereas any other material must be used in much greater 
quantity, and then it is only a ‘ smothering ’ and not a deodor¬ 
ising process. I believe kainite has been made practically useful 
in a similar manner— i.c., sprinkling it on floors of stables, dung- 
heaps, &c. Please make what use you like of this, as 1 should like 
to see some remarks from you on the subject.” 
The above communication we received through the Editor from 
“ a teacher of a class in the principles of agriculture in connection 
with the Science and Art Department.” The writer wishes to see 
some remarks by us on the subject, but, as a matter of fact, we 
have very little practical acquaintance with any earth closet 
system. However, there cannot be any doubt but that the 
problem of how to utilise the present wasted sewage must be 
solved, if solved at all, on the lines indicated in the above letter. 
And such a system carried out properly ought to pay. For 
manures practically the same we annually spend enormous sums ; 
for w r ater to carry away the sewage an enormous amount of 
wealth has been thrown away, and worse, for not only is water 
and sewage alike lost, but rivers are polluted, and volumes of 
deadly gases generated, ready, wherever admitted, to produce 
serious diseases. 
There is no reason why a single sixpence should be sent out of 
the country for manures ; for that which is produced at home, if 
utilised, would be more than sufficient to double our piesent crop 
and maintain our fields, even the poorest of them, in a state of 
fertility. Within twenty miles of the second city of the empire 
farmers reap crops hardly half of what they ought, just for want 
of what makes one of the most beautiful rivers in the country a 
sink of evil smells. After the drain on our resources for foreign 
manures and foreign grain tells a little harder on our commerce 
and our agriculture, possibly w T e may reform ; at present there is 
an idea abroad that we can well afford to waste as we now do. 
At the close of the paper in which appears the sentence referred 
to in the above letter, we mentioned that trees stunted through 
poverty were benefited in a remarkable manner by an application 
of sewage. It may be of use to some of your readers to give a few 
more remarks in regard to that particular way of applying it. We 
intended saying something on its use in the vegetable garden by- 
and-by, but having said this much it may be not out of place to 
say what value we put upon it in the present place. 
Our soil here is peculiar. It is naturally not over 4 inches 
deep, and under that there is a rusty impenetrable subsoil. Being 
60 thin, it is, of course, very poor. Trees planted on such soil, 
where the grass is allowed to grow, make no progress, for the 
grass takes possession at once of the whole available food supply. 
It took us two years to find this out after we had planted belts 
for shelter round this place. After finding it out, how to remedy 
it took us another year to solve. Near us there are large foun¬ 
dries, and in these there are closets conducted on the earth prin¬ 
ciple. For earth, waste sand from the moulding boxes is used in 
no stinted quantities. This we found we could have for the 
carting. A score or so of cartloads were spread over a portion of 
the plantations and would have dressed the whole. This was in 
winter. But our employer promptly stopped the proceedings on 
the scoie that a plague would be raised. In spring the grass soon 
covered the dressing, and the trees so treated grew away at once. 
Next year they made a surprising growth, and as neither smell 
nor plague followed we had orders to dress the whole of the 
ground. The results are eminently satisfactory, and for those 
who may have trees starving, which are wished to grow up for 
shelter quickly, we here mention this. 
We recently saw a gardener lifting an avenue of Limes which 
had made no progress, though apparently on fairly good soil. The 
ground was being trenched deeply, and very liberally mixed with 
ordinary town manure—i.c., street sweepings. This by the boat¬ 
load—a canal passes near—was very cheap, and the trees treated 
to it, hitherto stunted and starving, are now beautiful specimens, 
growing rapidly and rooting securely. Those whose trees are not 
growing a9 they would like, and who are near enough towns to 
secure such manure as we have named at reasonable rates, would 
do well to try either or both the above modes of producing such 
growth as will gladden their eyes ; and those who are planting, or 
are about to plant, trees in small or new places, where a rapid 
growth is sure to be a desideratum, had better take the hint. 
Stable-yard manure is much too expensive in many places for 
such a purpose, and in many districts, indeed, cannot be had - r 
but there are other natural manures besides that, and sometimes 
one is none the worse for being reminded of the fact. 
For the vegetable ground it is also valuable, especially on poor 
thin soils, or when other manure is scarce. All the Cabbage tribe 
thrive on it exceedingly, and for Rhubarb nothing comes near it. 
On ground intended for Cabbages, Brussels Sprout9, Cauliflowers, 
&c., it is best spread out on the surface and allowed to be bleached 
in by the rain. It is thus better diffused through the soil than 
when dug-m at once, and if the soil has been previously dug all 
that is needed in spring is a light fork-over. The roots at once 
reach their food, and the result is excellent.— Single-handed. 
AREAS OF GLASS STRUCTURES. 
With reference to your correspondent’s comments upon the 
remarks in my lecture at the Crystal Palace, as reported on page 
473 of the Journal of Horticulture, had the whole of the remarks 
been published, which was 
naturally impossible, it 
would have been found that 
my statement that “ with 
the same width aDd the 
same pitch a span and a 
lean-to roof contain the 
same area ” referred most 
clearly to superficial mea¬ 
surement only, as illustrated 
by the annexed figure, in 
which a lean-to, a span, a 
three-span, and a ridge-and- 
furrow house of the same length, width, and pitch of roof, each 
contains precisely the same superficial roof area. See also pages 
49 and 50 of my work “ Horticultural Buildings.” Cubical con¬ 
tents, the measurements relating thereto, and their uses were duly 
made prominent in another part of the lectures.—F. A. Fawkes, 
Lecturer at the Crystal Palace School of Gardening. 
DENDROBIUM PIERARDII. 
The above-named plant does not produce flowers at all equal 
to many other Orchids, not even equal to old D. nobile, but there 
is hardly one more easily grown or more profusely floriferous. 
More than that, it may be grown in any plant stove and occupies 
no stage room, for if it is hung near the glass in a basket will 
produce a fine display of pretty flowers. These are its recom¬ 
mendations, and as it has never been recommended, so far as we 
are aware, in these pages, we venture to do so. 
An engineer on board a steamer secured our plants when in 
Calcutta, and they arrived along with a barrelful of others mostly 
useless. Being rather crowded we put the plants two, each 
with three or four breaks—into mahogany baskets (mahogany does 
not decay readily, and can be had anywhere), 5 inches square 
and deep, in a mixture of half charcoal, half sphagnum. In due 
time the plants commenced growing, and we kept the baskets 
damp, and were rewarded with pseudo-bulbs quite as stout and 
