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348 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ April 26,1 ess. 
three months only. We find the old Ashleaf Kidney, Schoolmaster, 
Fortyfold, Snowflake, and Champions the best liked. This is about 
the best Potato locality I am acquainted with, even in the most 
adverse season. In the home farm about 6 acres are grown annu¬ 
ally, principally Champions, and they turn out from 10 tons in a bad 
season to 12 tons in a good season. They are planted in drills about 
28 inches apart and 14 inches between the sets. In the line of manure 
they receive about 2^ cwts. of bonedust, 2£ cwts. guano, and half 
farmyard manure to the acre.— Thomas Ryan, Gardener to Eat l 
Annesley, Castlewellan. 
Galway. —1. As early in the season as the weather permits. Janu¬ 
ary, February, or early in March. *Veitch’s Ashleaf Kidney. Soil. 
■—Light sandy loam. 3. As early in the season as the weather per¬ 
mits—January, February, or early in March. *Champion, Magnum 
Bonum, and Schoolmaster. Soil.—Mostly reclaimed bog land for the 
Champions, which do well. High-lying loamy soil for Magnum 
Bonums, otherwise they would not be eatable. Manures and Appli¬ 
cation.—Half farmyard manure only partly decayed, and half guano 
with superphosphate mixed. General Culture.—Ashleaf Kidneys are 
planted whole, 2 feet apart in the drills and 1 foot from set to set, in 
ground manured for the previous crop, with a small shovelful of 
burnt ashes and leaf mould over each set. Champions are planted 
3 feet apart and 18 inches between the sets ; the manure spread in 
bottom of the drills and the artificial manure dusted over the sets, 
which are cut, but not too small, and planted and covered, but not 
too heavily at first. They afterwards receive two earthings and 
yield heavy crops. Magnum Bonum is the best spring Potato with 
us.— James Garnier, Kylemore Castle. 
Kildare. —1. February. Ashleaf. Soil.—Medium. 2. Coldstream. 
3. March. Yictoria, Magnum Bonum, *Champion. General Culture. 
—The land is ploughed and the Potatoes planted in drills 3 feet apart, 
10 inches in the drill: Champions, 12 inches. Manure is placed over 
the sets. The ground is grubbed three times, and the Potatoes earthed- 
up as early as possible. Farmyard manure is employed.— J. Ander¬ 
son, Paimerstown, Straffan. 
King’s County. —1. From the middle to the end of February, 
weather and condition of soil being favourable. * Ashleaf Yeitch’s 
Improved, *Beauty of Hebron, Snowflake, and *Early Rose. Soil.— 
Medium. 2. Middle of March. *Yorkshire Hero, *Scboolmaster, Dal- 
rnahoy, and *Porter’s Excelsior. Soil.—Heavy clay subsoil. 3. End of 
March. *Magnum Bonum, Paterson’s Yictoria, and *Scotch Cham¬ 
pion. Manures and Application.—I have tried different methods of 
applying manure, and have invariably found the most satisfactory 
results from ground which received a good dressing of stable manure 
in the autumn, it being then thrown into rough ridges until planting 
time arrives, the soil here being wet and heavy. General Culture.— 
Defer planting until the ground is in a proper condition to receive 
the tubers, allowing plenty of room. Overcrowding is a great evil 
in the culture of the Potato. I do not earth up my Potatoes in the 
ordinary way, but when the stems are about G or 7 inches high I 
have the ground between the rows forked over, and only slightly 
inclined against the stems on each side as the work proceeds. The 
space between the rows of early varieties is then covered 2 or 3 inches 
deep with short grass mowings.—I. J. Hart, Birr Castle Gardens. 
REVIEW OF BOOK. 
Artificial Manures. Georges Ville. London: Longman & Co* 
This, the second edition of a work famous in France and America) 
but less known in this country, is a series of lectures delivered at 
Vincennes some years ago by M. Georges Ville, and embodies the 
results of that gentleman’s experiments at the place named. The 
work is characteristically French—that is to say, unbounded en¬ 
thusiasm appears on every page. It has been said that nothing 
worth having can be gained without enthusiasm. This may be so 
far true, but when it acts like a runaway horse it is apt to take its 
victims too far, and this, especially in experimental science, has 
serious drawbacks. Possibly our prejudices may influence us, but 
an idea has taken possession of us that the pre-eminently English 
quality of the power to plod, plod on over mountains of difficulty, 
no matter how steep the path, and over quagmires however 
treacherous, is less apt to mislead either the plodder or his disciples. 
M. Ville thinks that though artificial manures are more extensively 
used in England, Frenchmen are better acquainted with their action. 
Taking Ville himself as an authority on the s'ate of knowledge 
among French cultivators of the soil, we think our countrymen 
will stand a comparison with favourable results. Indeed, one 
cannot unbiassedly read through the enormous amount of collected 
information of experiments in scientific agriculture by Messrs. 
Lawes and Gilbert alone, to say nothing of other earnest workers, 
without feeling that it is indeed the English who know far most 
on the very subject Ville imagines us to be not well informed ; 
and we may add that the knowledge gained on our side the Channel 
is of a real, solid, if of a somewhat doubting kind, and not a will-o’- 
the-wisp born of enthusiasm, which, we may say frankly, is very 
characteristic of the book before us. 
M. Ville is the friend of the farmer. This is apparent in the very 
preface. There is a table inserted there to show that farmers pay 
12.?. per cwt. for manure, the materials of which cost no more than 
6.?. 5^d., and which farmers might have for 7s. 2d. it they would 
form themselves into co-operative societies or mutual supply associa¬ 
tions. Manufacturers will thank neither M. Ville nor us for the 
idea, but it is certainly a good one, and well worth considering. 
The author (against the world) is fully convinced of the power of 
certain plants—the Sugarcane and members of the Leguminosae for 
instance—to assimilate the free nitrogen of the air. This is proved 
by logic instead of by scientific tests. We are shown that certain 
crops contain much more nitrogen than is applied to them ; that the 
nitric acid and ammonia supplied from the air cannot account for 
more than a fraction of the increase, and are asked to consider this 
as proof that the increase has been assimilated from the air in the 
form of free nitrogen. This is enthusiasm and not science. "W e 
can discover nothing to show that M. Ville has considered it neces¬ 
sary to ascertain whether the nitrogen always present in the organic 
remains of every soil has suffered diminution. Had this been done 
we imagine that even M. Ville himself would have doubted. 
Our author is n it, it appears from the following, quite sure of his 
own assertion. He proposes that £100,000, internationally collected, 
should be offered a3 a prize for a method of converting the free 
nitrogen of the air into an assimilable compound, and offers to head 
the list with £40. Very good. But if Peas, Beans, Clover, Lucerne, 
&c., already do so, and for nothing—nay, give us the richest of foods 
besides, the problem has been solved! Why then the £100,000 ? 
Ammonia sulphate at Id. per lb., we are told, means cheap bread 
and cheap meat; but if Clover and Beans assimilate free nitrogen, 
wiy not cheap meat now? If such feeding secures manure rich in 
nitrogen and the Clover remains furnish more, why not cheap bread 
now? These questions M. Ville would have some difficulty in 
answering. 
It is when theories are left behind for what actual experiments 
have proved that the teachings of Ville become of value as the 
common property of mankind. Experimenting at Vincennes with 
chemical manures, it was found that a liberal application of mineral 
manures on a soil unusually deficient in the mineral food of plants, 
without nitrogenous manures gave 18 bushels per acre. With no 
manure at all the yield was only 12. When nitrogenous manure 
alone was given 22 bushels was the result; but when the two were 
combined, 504 bushels was the amount of grain per acre. This 
experiment is illustrated with a diagram which shows at a glance 
even more decidedly than figures do the difference between the 
samples. 
In another experiment at Champagne 32 tons of manure gave 
14 bushels, but what Ville calls normal manure gave 36. On a 
sandy soil, which without manure at all gave only 2f bushels, and 
with 16 tons of farmyard manure 8§, chemical manure gave 31 
bushels per acre. An instance is given when in Italy on poor land 
a large quantity^ of manure gave from 9 to 11 bushels, but Ville’s 
mixture gave from 274 to 33 bushels per acre. Almost all of these 
experiments have been made on land of a poor description; but, 
unfortunately, most of the land in England, as well as in France, 
appears to be in this condition. On richer soils equally striking 
results need not be looked for, but, taking the land as a whole, there 
is reason in the assertion that the proper use of chemical manures 
would render England and France independent of America. Start¬ 
ling though such an assertion may appear, it is less so when we 
consider that millions of acres are idle, or afford a scanty pasturage 
only, and yet are capable of raising good crops by the aid of manure, 
and that more than one-half our land yields only half what it 
might, and even the be ,t seldom a full crop. 
Tables are profusely given showing that perfect manure must 
contain nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash, and lime, and when any 
of these are left out the crop suffers. Not only Wheat, but all 
other farm and many garden crops have been experimented on, and 
the same tale is told by all. It is shown, however, that the 
Legumines are not benefited by manurial applications, and Sugar¬ 
cane but slightly so. Chemical manures raised the latter crop from 
24 cwts. to 23 tons ! 
We are tempted to linger over the work, and to quote largely. 
As the work has been put into an English dress our duty to our 
readers is done by indicating the nature of the book, by warning 
them against some theories in it not sufficiently supported by 
evidence, and to the results of practical experiments. It would be 
well were all cultivators to procure this work and to study it care¬ 
fully. It would be better still if it were studied in the light of 
what has been discovered by others. It is not al ways necessary to 
include lime as M. Ville insists, for on thousands of acres lime is 
already abundant. Moreover, it may be obtained in a cheaper form 
