June 14, 1883. ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
487 
be placed on shelves near the glass, where they will be cool 
and have plenty of air. They will continue growing, and 
should by no means be stinted for water, as is advised by some 
writers. Of course as the days shorten less water is required 
as a natural consequence, but this does not mean that the soil 
is to be allowed to get dry, for the roots are very active during 
the autumn months, and should be encouraged. Soon after the 
turn of the year—say the middle of January—the plants should 
be shifted into their blooming pots. The single plants may be 
otted into 5 or 6-inch pots, and the others into 7 or 8-inch, 
f they can be placed for about ten da}^s in a moist atmo¬ 
sphere—an early vinery or Peach house—it will be an advan¬ 
tage to them. The plants make rapid progress during February 
and March. They should be regularly attended to with water, 
and when the pots are well filled with roots should be assisted 
with a little weak liquid manure twice a week. 
By the end of the latter month the plants will be showing 
blooms, when they must be staked and tied. Stakes should be 
used as sparingly as possible. One or two to each plant is 
generally sufficient, the other shoots being looped together for 
support, something after the style of tying Phoenocomas and 
hardwooded Heaths for exhibition. Keep the plants as close 
to the glass as possible till they come into bloom. They will 
be cooler and require less labour in watering if turned out into 
frames or cold pits early in May, from which they can be 
transferred to the conservatory as they come into bloom. 
Old Plants .—These are generally considered useless as far 
as blooming the following season is concerned. One plant last 
year bloomed so freely that we had a difficulty in getting suffi¬ 
cient for this year’s stock. I was thus induced to save a few 
old plants to furnish cuttings. These were allowed to become 
dry at the roots, cut hard back, and after giving the wounds 
time to heal to prevent bleeding, were placed in a brisk heat. 
They were afterwards placed outdoors with the others and had 
the same treatment, except that they were shifted when they 
were housed for the winter into pots a size larger. These have 
furnished us with abundance of cuttings, and—more than we 
expected—a fair sprinkling of bloom. 
The Ivalosanthes is hardier than some of our bedding plants. 
Some of the above-mentioned plants were outdoors in the open 
till the 12th of November, and endured 3° of frost without 
showing the least signs of having been injured. It is, in fact, 
one of those plants that may very easily be “ killed with kind¬ 
ness.”— R. Inglis. 
P.S.—Since writing the above I have thought of sending 
you a small plant to show you that Ivalosanthes make 
useful little plants in twelve months without pinching, as 
I have recommended. The plant has not been shifted since 
July last, which accounts for its rather rusty foliage—the pot, 
a 5-inch, being altogether too small for the size of the plant. 
It shows, however, that they can be grown in pots of a con¬ 
venient size for fitting into vases for house decoration, and 
that they are less stiff when not pinched. A friend informs 
me that he places his plants in saucers of water, which they 
seem to enjoy when root-bound.—R. I. 
[The plant in question is a handsome little pyramid. It is 
in a 5-inch pot, 19 inches high from the surface of the soil, 
21 inches in diameter at the base, bears twenty-four trusses of 
very bright flowers, and has been admirably grown.] 
SCIENCE IN CULTIVATION. 
Farmyard manure in combination with artificial manure is 
the best form of fertiliser for all crops—best for its economy, 
its certainty, and its decided superiority to either farmyard 
manure or artificial manure alone. This is the clear and 
unmistakeable teaching of recent experiments, marking an 
era in the progress of scientific cultivation, the importance of 
which can hardly be over-estimated, for the remarkable results 
attending its intelligent application upon the land points to a 
bright future both to the market gardener and farmer. In this 
sense it is of national importance, and must eventually be 
turned to account for the benefit of all. Market gardeners 
will probably be first to avail themselves of it, for their wits 
are sharpened by high rents and frequent contact with keen 
men of business ; but farmers are slower generally to adopt 
new ideas, persistently following tracks beaten hard and wide 
by their forefathers, down which many an honest man has 
recently gone to bankruptcy. But it is not the seasons alone, 
neither is it the soil, but its cultivators that are often at fault. 
Ville’s assertion that the portion of fertility which human 
industry has to furnish to the earth is not more than 3 percent., 
though not quite correct, is sufficiently so to show how simple, 
sure, and easy our work is under the guiding hand of science. 
Here let me say, that while conceding that the French chemist’s 
book is very French in its general tone, yet it is undoubtedly 
worth careful perusal, for apart from any little puffs of national 
vanity, there is much good sense and careful reasoning, afford¬ 
ing ample matter for thought, and much that may usefully be 
compared with the deductions of our own and German chemists. 
By farmyard manure is meant all that gardeners generally 
obtain from pigstye, cowshed, or stable. The trials of manure 
by the Sussex Association for the Improvement of Agriculture 
by Science in the hot dry summer of 1881 affords some remark¬ 
able results, one of which was the decided superiority of the 
crop when artificial manure was accompanied with farmyard 
manure. According to Professor Jamieson, this was owing in 
a considerable degree to the fact that 20 tons of farmyard 
manure contain 16 tons of water—no unimportant matter in a 
dry season. Twenty tons of farmyard manure contain over 
3 tons of organic matter, which, besides retaining moisture, 
affords protection and space congenial to the growth of tender 
root fibrils, and what is of even greater importance generally, 
is that farmyard manure contains all the ingredients essential 
to plants, and notably it contains potash and sulphate, both 
indispensable to the successful culture of root crops, and both 
of which one of the trial plots proved deficient in, notwith¬ 
standing Ville's sweeping assertion that all soil contains a 
superabundance of sulphur. 
Some years ago there was a discussion in the pages of the 
Journal as to the most suitable condition of farmyard manure 
when applied to the land, and it was stroDgly asserted that 
undecayed manure was best, or, at any rate, that it contained 
the same elements of fertility as decayed manure, and might 
therefore be placed upon the land at any time with greater 
facility and less expense. This teaching, though not decidedly 
erroneous, was certainly loose and faulty. Wherever practi¬ 
cable, it is better to retain the manure in large heaps till 
spring, and then to apply it to the soil when it is in course of 
preparation for cropping. For example, in the culture of field 
Potatoes, which usually follow Oats, the land is cleared of 
stubble and weeds as soon as possible after harvest, and is 
then ploughed and so left for the winter. In spring, as soon 
as the land is dry enough to bear carts, the manure is carted 
upon it at the rate of thirty single horse cartloads per acre, 
which is probably equivalent to 20 tons. It is at once 
spread and ploughed in somewhat deeply, and when the 
newly ploughed soil is sufficiently dry—which is sometimes 
not till April—it is stirred lightly by a horse hoe and harrows, 
the drills drawn, and artificial manure scattered thickly along 
them at the rate of 4 cwt. per acre. The Potatoes are then 
put in the drills and the soil drawn over them, so that they 
may be said to be enveloped in artificial manure, much of 
which, however, inevitably falls upon the entire surface as it 
is scattered, and so comes to be tolerably well mixed with the 
soil by the time the roots make way through it. By way of 
experiment I have reversed this method for Mangold Wurtzel 
this year, sowing the artificial manure broadcast over the 
surface before the soil was stirred, afterwards making deep 
furrows in which farmyard manure was put, the soil turned 
back upon it, pressed, drilled, and the seed sown immediately 
above it ; but in no case is manure of any kind put upon the 
land till spring. 
Apart from all commercial considerations, this is a matter 
of importance to all owners of gardens, and it is hoped that 
good service will be done both to gardeners and their employers 
by calling particular attention to it. But too often many an 
earnest willing worker spends his strength in vain efforts to 
produce good crops with an insufficient supply of manure. Let 
me assure the employers of such good men and true that they 
would be well repaid for a moderate judicious outlay upon 
artificial manure to add to that obtained from the animals 
r~EH. 
