882 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ October 27, 1882. 
possess the power of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere in a very 
small degree ; forinstance, “lOOOlbs. of sand exposed twel ve hours at night 
absorbed only 1 £ lb. of water, while the same quantity of loam absorbed 
20 lbs.” This is not all, for the rains that fall upon such soils are not 
retained for any length of time to be a permanent benefit to the plants 
or crop, as they pass away beyond the reach of the roots too rapidly. 
The importance of increasing the absorbing power of these soils is there¬ 
fore apparent. - 
Soils of the nature we are considering have little or no power or 
holding or fixing the fertilising ingredients of manure. This difficulty 
is overcome just in proportion as the absorbing power of the soil is 
increased. It is unnecessary to turn up these soils to the action ot the 
weather because they do not need exposure to break them up and render 
them lighter and easier to work in spring. I do not advise turning them 
up for the winter until they have been materially improved and the 
absorbing power of the soil increased. Mineral matters may be acte*. 
upon by the weather and rendered soluble, only to be carried away 
by heavy rains, which, instead of adding to the fertility, certainly 
decreases it. 
Sandy soils are quickly improved in both their chemical as well 
as their mechanical properties if good dressings of clay or marl can be 
spread upon the surface during the autumn and winter. These, when 
acted upon by rain,; ifrost, and thaws, crumble to a fine powder, and 
quickly improve the texture of the soil. If clay is to be thoroughly 
incorporated with the sand it must be reduced to a powder. Where 
abundance of clay is handy, 100 cardoads per acre would be none too 
much, and this quantity would change in a solitary season the character 
of the soil. If fruit trees are to succeed on sandy soils, at least 1 inch 
depth of clay should be exposed on the stations where the trees are to 
be planted, the intermediate spaces can be improved at a more gradual 
rate. Again, if sandy soils require lime,_ a liberal dressing of clay or 
marl is of more value than a good dressing of manure. We certainly 
prefer the clay on these soils in preference to manure, and should only 
supply just what was really necessary of the latter for the production of 
a crop. There can.be no doubt that when good marl is obtainable, and 
it contains say, 10 per cent, of lime, it is the best and safest method of 
adding lime to the. soil. Marls, as a rule, contain some silica in a 
soluble form and phosphoric acid. When these are present the value ot 
a dressing is certainly increased. 
Clays and marls are not, however, within the reach of all who have 
to deal with sandy soils, therefore other measures must be adopted. In 
gardens of any pretensions where light Boils have to be dealt with, the 
work of improvement can be rapid, because large heaps of vegetable 
refuse can be collected annually. The roots and stems of various plants, 
fallen leaves, the mowings of lawns, the edgings of walks, refuse from 
the potting shed, the surface material removed from Vine and other 
borders miked together, soon form a large and valuable heap for the 
improvement of sandy soils. Many are very limited in this respect, and 
have to fall back on more natural means for changing the character of 
these soils. It is wonderful even under these conditions how quimdy 
this can be accomplished, and fairly good crops produced. But to effect 
a thorough change it is the work of perseverance for years. Under these 
circumstances the only means to follow is to turn in every scrap of 
vegetable refuse that comes to hand, even the stems of Cabbage 
and Potato haulms. 
In addition to this, some quick-growing plant must be sown at once 
after a crop has been removed. Nothing is better than White Mustard. 
Turnips, Spinach, and Rape may be also employed. The first is the 
best, because it grows rapidly, and not only yields abundance of 
material for turning in, but once sown will grow without attention, 
and will smother all weeds. To sow Mustard thickly and keep it from 
seeding is a method that cannot well be ignored for cleaning a piece of 
foul land. Very often two crops of Mustard can be obtained for turning 
in on the same piece of ground where early crops have been grown. On 
land from which Potatoes are lifted during the close of August and 
early p >rt of September a crop of Mustard a foot or more in height can 
readily be produced. We have sown as late as the end of the month 
even in the north, and had a capital crop for turning in. If a crop has 
been grown strong and attained several feet in height, to prevent it 
seeding it can be chopped down and allowed to lie on the surface to 
decay until it can be dug in. Where only one crop is to be obtained it 
is better left on the surface than dug in too early. If manure is plen¬ 
tiful we should certainly manure freely even for Mustard, using the 
manure in a state that will afterwards be advised for light soils. The 
manurial ingredients would quickly be absorbed by the Mustard, and 
■stored up in its roots and stems to be rendered available the following 
season for the crop that occupies the ground. No loss would take place 
by this method of procedure ; on the contrary, the land would eventu¬ 
ally gain considerably. Plant food that might, through the soil being 
idle for a few months, be washed away would be stored up by this 
“ catch crop,” if we may use the term, for the succeeding one. Green 
crops that are sown early for digging in should, so far as practicable 
where early and moderately early cropping is needed the following 
season, be turned under before the winter. Decomposition is slow when 
the soil is of a low temperature. 
If the crop, whatever it may be, is to utilise the plant food placed in 
the soil in the form of manure it should be in the opposite condition to 
that applied to heavy clay s uls. It ought to be thoroughly fermented 
(decomposed) before it is applied. Care must also be taken not to 
apply the manure before it is time to sow the seeds or plant the crop. 
If the manure is applied some time before the ground is cropped, the 
same as would be perfectly safe on loams, the ready available plant food 
of the manure—such as the soluble salts of potash, soda, nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid, &c.—may be carried away by heavy rains altogether, or 
at least below the reach of the roots of the crop grown. No doubt con¬ 
siderable loss takes place under any circumstances—that cannot well be- 
avoided, but by care this loss can be minimised as much as possible. 
We have reaped the best of results when the manure has been applied 
at the same time as the crop, the ground having been previously dug: 
and the manure merely forked into the surface. 
Sandy soils are less expensive to work than heavy almost unwork¬ 
able clays are easier to improve. In the one case. material is needed to 
lighten it, and in the other the reverse. Material is required to increase 
the adhesive properties of sands, so as to give them the power of holding 
and fixing plant food, instead of allowing it to be washed away or 
escape in the form of gases.—W m. Bakdney. 
ANTI-BLIGHT AND THE POTATO DISEASE. 
The following report of some experiments with Messrs. Tait and 
Buchanan’s Anti-Blight powder has been sent to us for publication The 
Land Commission in Ireland last year made experiments with this 
powder, but with small success, as the proper implement for distributing 
it was not forthcoming at the time, and only hand-puffers could be used, 
entailing much labour and waste. Mr. W. A. Barnes, Westland, Kells, 
made a favourable report showing that two dressings of the powder gave 
an increase of sound tubers 31 per cent, over the undressed, while that 
which had received one dressing after the appearance of the disease 
an increase of 9£ per cent. Other experimenters found that they could 
not apply the powder properly with the machines supplied, and turned 
their attention to the Boullie Bourdelaise, distributed by the * Lclair 
sprayer, but from the report of the Irish Land Commission there was no 
satisfactory evidence of a cure by this treatment. The same report 
states that the powder would probably produce the best results it 
applied two or three times in small quantities. This can be done by 
the u-e of the Torpille knapsack, carrying enough of the powder to dress 
two acres (24 lbs). During the present season some fresh experiments are 
being made with the powder, of which as yet only two reports are to 
hand. One is from the Home Farm, Carlung, West Kilbride, where two 
roods were experimented on, the Potato planted being a fine variety of 
Maincrop from the Lot'nians. One rood dressed with Anti-Blight by the 
Torpille on three several occasions (June 9th, July 1st, and July 2otb), 
dug on 13th October, yielded :— 
Dressed. 
Tons. cwt. qr. 
262 good 
0 2 0 small 
Undressed. 
Tons. cwt. qr. 
2 4 3 good 
0 2 0 small 
2 6 3 
9 tons 7 cwt. 
2 8 2 
Produce per acre, 9 tons 14 cwt. 
Gain per acre, 7 cwt.; value, 21s. Cost <of Anti-Blight used in three 
dressings :— , 
s. d. 
9 lbs. to 1 rood ( = 36 I 03 . per acre), value . 7 9 
Labour for 1 acre (3 days, Is. per day). 3 0 
10 9 
m.B.—The time taken to dress 1 rood not more than hours, and 
easily done by a young boy or girl). The above half-acre showed no 
disease to speak of. A blighting wind about the end of July killed down 
the haulms completely, after which there was no growth ; otherwise a 
fourth and even a fifth dressing would have been given had disease 
shown itself. The other report is from a cottage garden at Fairlie, where 
^ pole was dressed three times by a Malbec bellows, during June ana 
July, dug 14th October, yielded :— . 
6 Tons. cwt. qr. lb. 
631 lbs. good, sound tubers—average per 
Here ... ••• ••• ••• ••• •" 
9 lbs. small and diseased tubers—average 
per acre . 1 5 ^ 1 
Percentage diseased, 12‘41. 
10 
0 16 
This ground has always been much infested by disease, but another 
patch of same variety thought to be more favourably situated, was left 
undressed, and yielded :— _ 
Tons. cwt. qr. lb. 
25 lbs. good, sound tubers—average per 
acre ... ... ... ••• ••• ••• 2 10 0 o 
50 lbs. diseased, bad tubers—average per acre 7 2 3 12 
Percentage diseased, 66'5. 
12 3 12 
The same blighting wind as described in the previous expenmen 
stripped the leaves and withered the haulms of all the Potatoes aroum 
the place, and Potatoes on all sides have been much diseased. We ave 
just seen results of a trial of the powder carried out by Mr. John bpeir. 
