October 2, 1890. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
297 
their application. There are two conditions which must not be 
overlooked—viz., in their burning. Bakeries or brick ovens reduce 
the wood to a perfect ash, or nearly so, a similar result attending 
the thorough combustion of woody or vegetable matter on a hard 
floor or earth, whereby the whole by “ stirring up ” is reduced to 
ash. This is a kind of the greatest value, and there is this 
about this ash—viz., it must be kept dry, but if left to get 
soaked with rain a semi-lye is formed, and the potash 
vanishes correspondingly with the saturation. It is very 
useful for dusting over Peas, seedling or young vegetable 
crops of all kinds in the morning or evening whilst their leaves 
are damp as a-safeguard against slugs and birds, besides value as 
manure. It is, however, one of the best fertilisers for every 
description of crop. I have mostly a store of this substance, and 
whenever seeds are sown, whether on the flat or in drills, give the 
ground a good dusting before covering with soil. I do not think 
there is a crop of any kind grown in gardens to which I have not 
applied this form of wood ashes, and invariably with beneficial 
results. All plants like it, as might be expected, as all soils con¬ 
tain potash, lime, and soda, therefore enter into the construction 
of plants. Of course, elements may be in a soil without plants 
making use of them, but those are as essential to plants as the 
il staff of life ” is to man. They are not delicacies, but their every¬ 
day necessities. For fruit trees they are invaluable. If farmers 
would take care of the ashes resulting from their wood fires, and 
scatter them about their orchards, the moss would disappear 
from the grass, and the fruit trees would outgrow their gum 
and canker, especially if the precaution were taken to keep the 
ashes dry and take care of the blood when hogs are slaughtered, 
which mixed with the ashes is perhaps the most powerful of all 
manures for fruit trees, with an equal quantity of superphosphate 
added, though it is first-rate without. Gardeners are requested to 
give it a trial on Yines. A good handful per square yard will serve 
the Yines better than a foot thickness of stable manure, and both 
substances are let waste or expend themselves on a luxurious 
growth of Nettles. Figs like it, and all fruits, applying it some 
little time in advance of growth, for what is passed into the tree 
will pass into the fruit, and the more they have the more 
chlorophyll they will store on condition that the foliage has full 
exposure to light and air, and is not prevented assimilating the 
food elements for lack of ventilation. The more potash in the 
fruit with corresponding lime and phosphorus the larger it will 
grow, and the characteristic malic, citric, and other acid will come, 
with pectose in due course, and the colour of Grapes will be as is 
the chlorophyll stored. A peck per square yard (30^ square yards) 
is a suitable application, distributing evenly, and the fresher the 
ashes are the better, or they must, as before stated, be kept 
dry ; but even then they lose value through the affinity of lime for 
water, therefore keep as dry as possible. 
There is another property of wood ashes which must not be 
overlooked—viz., their value for applying to over-rich soils. Some 
3oils—they are not very common in gardens nowadays—have so 
much manure that they do not produce crops correspondingly, in 
fact they become sour and unprofitable, the crops clubbing, grub¬ 
bing, mildewing, and doing everything bad. The soil also becomes 
cold. A dressing of wood ashes corrects the sourness—more, it 
supplies the essential elements needed by the plants to harden their 
cell wall, balance or counteract the flushing tendency of the organic 
matter, whereby the plants are given stamina and staying power ; 
in a word, usefulness. Dust ashes are not so good, however, as 
those that are rough, containing more carbon— i.e., charcoal. 
Coarse wood ashes are generally any garbage—coarse weeds, 
remnants of vegetable crop, with enough wood or clippings and 
pruning to ensure their combustion, a slow process, whereby there 
is a considerable amount of charred matter, wood being converted 
into charcoal of a sort. These ashes and charred refuse are valuable 
for applying to heavy soil, as they contain a considerable amount 
of silica and lime with lessened proportions of potash and soda, 
although they may contain more when the leaves of vegetables are 
consumed than is present in the ashes of thoroughlv consumed 
wood, as twigs and leaves contain more potash and soda than 
wood, and less lime. This charred material may be used at double 
the quantity when there is not much earth mixed with or holding 
it before burning, but when there is much earth it may be used in 
four times the quantity of the fine ash with very beneficial 
results on stiff soils, and to light does good, only the rougher 
parts are best taken out by passing it through a half-inch sieve. 
In this state the ashes may be used on light soils in the same propor¬ 
tions as for heavy soil. I like to have a good heap of the ashes at 
hand, particularly when the soil is stiff, having it damp for 
covering seeds with after sqwing. I use it for everything sown in 
the way of vegetables, covering those on the flat with a similar 
thickness the seeds would otherwise be of soil, and fill the drills 
level where those are drawn. It serves to keep vermin from the 
germinating seeds and their underground stems, also from their stems 
above ground, as no predatory slug cares to travel over it, and 
insures immunity from weeds to a great extent, especially as re¬ 
gards drills. It entails some trouble, but it is of a kind that pays, 
at least I found it difficult to get anything upon a stiff soil 
before I took to this plan. There are other ashes, but I do not 
think gardeners are troubled with more than the two kinds 
mentioned, therefore they are passed.—G. Abbey. 
Ye have had some fine new Roses sent out within the last three 
years, the majority of them of British raising, and they seem to increase 
not only in quantity but also in quality as time goes on. Two belonging 
to 1887, which ought to be remembered as the Mrs. John Laing year, 
are only now becoming known, and these are Germaine Caillot, H.P., 
and L’ldfiale, N. The former is a very fine show Rose, but will never 
be extensively cultivated, as it is one of the worst of growers, of the 
dwarf robust type. A maiden plant makes a shoot of 6 or 7 inches, and 
then produces its fine bloom. What are you to do ? If you cut it to 
show you must take very nearly the whole plant, and thus very much 
weaken it for the future ; and if you leave it it will not make more 
than two or three weakly autumn shoots with poor flowers. The first 
bloom is very good, but is the game worth the candle ? 
In L’ld^ale, N., we have a strong grower, quite capable of climbing 
a wall. I have been a little disappointed with the flowers, which seem 
to resent any rain ; but if “ caught right,” and especially if shown in 
a bunch or in company with W. A. Richardson, it is very attractive. It 
seems much more vigorous than its popular buttonhole rival, and I 
think is more likely to help it by contrast than to weaken it by rivalry. 
The year 1888 was not strong in H.P.’s. Monsieur Trievor seems a 
good deal like Comtesse d’Oxford, but I have only seen a few blooms. 
Sir Rowland Hill is a lovely colour, most distinct, effective, and useful. 
I have not yet succeeded in getting really strong growth or large blooms 
from it, and it is weak in centre and a bad laster. A midland rosarian 
told me he had found it revert to Charles Lefebvre, but it has not done 
so with me. Ernest Metz, T., redeemed the year in the Tea classes ; a 
fine large well-shaped, and lovely flower, a good grower withal, and I 
have been surprised to see it shown so seldom during the past seasom. 
It is sure to come to the fore as the stock increases. 
I wish Messrs. Dickson had not sent out Lady Castlereagh, T. As 
seen with me it certainly spoils their most excellent record, generally 
coming with a green eye, and as flat as a pancake when it does not, 
1889 was also stronger in Teas than in H.P.’s. 
The two good French Roses of the year, Gustave Piganeau, a very 
large strong growing red H.P., and Augustine Guinoisseau, a nearly 
white La France, I have had no experience with, but I have had Messrs. 
Dickson’s two H.P.’s. Of these, Lady Arthur Hill, a seedling from 
Beauty of Waltham, is of excellent quality and form ; the colour is 
charming, and though I should have liked it a little larger it is as good 
in that respect as the seed parent. James Brownlow is quite big 
enough, and not so coarse as I expected from its parentage, Marquise 
de Castellane and Paul Neyron ; the wood and foliage are very similar to 
the latter Rose, but it has been a very bad bloomer with me, the 
majority of the shoots coming blind. 
Three very fine Tea Roses were sent out this year, of these Cleopatra 
is grand. I saw some magnificent blooms at Mr. B. Cant’s in June, and 
feel confident that this Rose will make its mark. It cannot be called a 
vigorous grower, but it will “ answer to treatment ” as doctors say, and 
do best I expect as a standard. This and Ernest Metz will, I have no 
doubt, be reckoned among our best Teas. Mrs. James Wilson is a very 
pretty Tea with good and most distinct growth ; the flowers are like 
pale, very delicate Marie Van Houtte in colour, with good pointed 
centres, and though not of the largest size it is quite good enough to 
show among other Teas. 
Souvenir de S. A. Prince has well maintained its reputation in every 
way as the best white sport of Souvenir d’un Ami. I had one this 
year, at least a Souvenir d’un Ami of mine produced white flowers 
throughout the season, one of which I took up to the Crystal Palace to 
show to Mr. Prince, but they were not quite pure in colour. 
This year, 1890, two Roses from Messrs. Dickson seem likely to be 
heard of in future. My plants of these varieties have not bloomed, but 
I saw one flower of Jeannie Dickson at Birmingham, and believe it to be 
very good, and I heartily hope that T. W. Girdlestone will prove 
worthy of the name it bears. 
And 1891 will surely be a noteworthy year ; there are the three 
Roses shown at the Crystal Palace—Salamander, Mrs. Paul and Cap¬ 
tain Hayward—on which I have no further criticisms to offer ; Bruce 
Findlay’at Manchester, Mrs. Arthur Wilson from Madame Luizet, and, 
above all, Margaret Dickson at Birmingham. Its parentage simply 
describes the latter Rose, a cross between Lady Mary Fitzwilliam and 
