November 20, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
457 
firstly as a most telling and handsome variety for the exhibition table, 
and secondly (and which is perhaps of first importance) for its superior 
table qualities when cooked. Mr. Abbott is still (November 10th) freely 
gathering from it for his employer’s table.—W. K. W. 
[The clusters received are extremely fine, and the green pods of 
remarkable substance.] 
ERANTHEMUM COOPER!. 
I SEND you sprays of a plant to show, not only how pretty the flowers 
are, but particularly to show that they can be produced freely at this 
season of the year as well as in summer. The plants have been grown in 
a pit with Bouvardias, generously treated, and the shoots pinched till 
September, then by placing them in a cool stove the present satisfactory 
results followed. The flowers are not gaudy, but chaste, and are admired 
and I shall be glad if any readers, to whose “verdict” I am left, will 
prove that the injunction, “never to give liquid manure when the soil is 
dry,” and plants “ drooping with drought ” is unsound. If, as your cor¬ 
respondent suggests, it is the common practice of farmers and gardeners 
to give liquid manure under those circumstances, I can only say it is 
high time that still more paragraphs were written against a practice so 
faulty, for it is first wasteful, then dangerous, as before the soil, which is 
so dry as to cause the plants to droop, can be made properly moist, 
quantities of the rich liquid must necessarily pass through it and be lost; 
while if it continues to be poured in until they can drink their fill, say 
of “ guano water of the ordinary strength,” they will most certainly take 
more than is good for them ; and. Chrysanthemums for instance, will be 
injured. _ 
I HAVE recently come across confirmatory evidence on this point, and 
quite independently too, of anything that has been said in this contro- 
Fig. 75.— Eranthemum Cooperi. 
on account of their dissimilarity from all others at this period of the year. 
—J. B. Mason. 
THOUGHTS ON CURRENT TOPICS. 
Although my paragraphs are admittedly too many for “ Non- 
Believer,” it would scarcely be respectful to him if I failed to give a 
moment’s thought to his valedictory note an page 412. In the little con¬ 
troversy that was raised it must not be forgotten that he was the accuser, 
and I was placed on my defence. It was clearly the duty of him to 
prove his accusation, and to demonstrate that it is safe, economical, and 
beneficial, therefore sound practice, to “give liquid manure when the soil 
is dry,” and the plants “ drooping with drought.” Since he could adduce 
no evidence in support of that strange proposition he adroitly jumps on 
the horse that I provided him with, and, like Tennyson’s “ Northern 
Farmer,” “canters, and canters away.” 
I ADiERE to every word that I said on the subject under discussion. 
versy. In opening a new and interesting book on the Chrysanthemum 
by Mr. F. W. Burbidge, I find in chapter vi., pp. 29-30, the following :— 
“ When manure water is applied it is essential that the soil be thoroughly 
moist beforehand. If the earth is in any way dry always give a soaking 
of pure water before the manure water be applied. It then becomes 
equally diffused throughout the ball of earth within the pot, and every 
rootlet is fed, and none are injured, as might otherwise be the case 
if watered with crude manure water when the earth was in a dry 
state.” 
That is emphatic and precise enough for anything. I could not have 
founded my remarks on that paragraph, for they were printed before it 
saw the light; and Mr. Burbidge could not have founded his remarks on 
mine, because his work must have been in the press when my paragraph 
was written. If “ Non-Believer ” disputes the truth of my teaching he 
must also dispute the accuracy of Mr. Burbidge, who, if I remember 
rightly, proved his competency a few years ago as a practical and sci¬ 
entific horticulturist by winning a certificate in the severe examinations 
of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Society of Arts. The advice 
