June 21,1894. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
^89 
thermometer and barometer. Seeing the coming danger, all hands 
within reach were summoned at 10 P M., and working with a will 
till the dawn of day. Two acres of Strawberries were covered 
with litter, also an equal breadth of early Potatoes, with every¬ 
thing else in jeopardy that it was possible to protect, and thus for 
an outlay of £3 in overtime produce was saved to the value of 
£100 at least, and probably a great deal more—a good night’s 
work. Some Potatoes that could not be covered were levelled 
to the ground, and exposed blossoms of Strawberries were ruined. 
NATURALISING FLOWERS. 
Increasing needs of an ever increasing population are by 
force of circumstances bringing into prominence the resources of 
the soil. Divulgence of light by scientific teaching and practical 
demonstration appears to mark a new era in English history. 
Happy is the nation, whilst reposing in its strength, able to pay 
attention to the arts of peace, for “ Peace hath her victories no less 
renowned than War.” The changed and ever changing conditions 
of life bring in their train new demands, and cause the luxuries 
of a past generation to become necessaries of the present. A 
sign of the times in the new order of things is the results 
already obtained by energy and perseverance rightly directed 
by skilled teachers. But who will measure the extent or calculate 
the benefits of those refining influences which are inseparably 
connected with horticultural teaching ? Some persons, by a 
straining of mental vision, can perhaps in the future see England 
as one vast garden. Others may see farther, and anticipate a 
time when the good work will be carried into Ireland. May it 
be so ; there is room. 
I feel constrained in these thoughts on our wild flowers to 
approach the subject by this allusion to that horticultural teaching, 
and to those far reaching influences which must indirectly, yet I 
think not less surely, result from it ; otherwise I may be set down 
as a visionary. To say that our food supply is a matter of the 
first importance is but a truism. High pressure of modern life, 
forcing us to keep pace with the times, no longer tolerates a 
haphazard system of culture. This higher education must tend to 
a love of the beautiful in Nature ; then that becomes in some 
degree also a necessary to us, with the accompanying desire to 
preserve, not to destroy ; to add to, not to diminish what is for the 
gratification of all. 
In a general survey of our native flora, no invidious comparisons 
need be drawn with the luxuriance of tropical growth and its 
gorgeous inflorescense. Geology shows that our country has also 
had a richer growth in prehistoric times. Our concern is with 
what we have now, how to keep it, and by such means as may 
present themselves add to the beauty of what we may venture to 
describe as Nature’s garden. 
The serious objection to any practical philanthrophic views 
lovers of Nature may have is that passion for possession investing 
the plant-hunter so fatal to the more rare or interesting of our 
British plants. The light of the Press has of late been brought to 
bear on these dark deeds, and as exposing an evil paves the way for 
a remedy some means may thus be found to the desired end. We 
may at least hope that by spreading the light of advanced horti¬ 
cultural knowledge, a love and interest in our wild flowers may be 
inculcated which will afford them protection. Moral suasion may 
do more than the magic circle of an Act of Parliament, could such 
be drawn around them. Love is a more powerful agent than fear, 
although it has been recorded that an amateur kept his hardy 
fernery inviolate by an ominous notice of “ Trespassers beware ! 
Polypodiums and Scolopendriums are set here.” 
Prompted by love, and undeterred by fear, need we, may I ask, 
be quite so jealous of keeping all within the garden walls ? “ Stone 
walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage,” at least in this 
case they need not. May not some of these children of Nature of 
the Romany type be allowed to go into the world outside and 
roam at their own sweet will, to grow and blow unattended, yet 
admired and enjoyed by all ? As an initial step in this direction I 
would suggest that any spare seeds might be devoted to the 
purpose. In most gardens, large or small, the annual sweepings of 
the seed cupboard would provide a bag of “ mixum gatherum,” 
and an occasional walk abroad would give facility to sow a few on 
this sunny bank, or that bare stretch of ground ; by the wayside, 
on the hillside, or wherever our peregrinations lead us. An Utopian 
idea I fear is the comment, or what our Transatlantic cousins call 
a little too previous. The latter may be yet, I think, worthy of 
consideration to him “ Who in the love of Nature holds communion 
with her visible forms.” 
I must acknowledge these thoughts have arisen from a few 
remarks dropped by a young gardening friend, who told me his 
chief had been sowing certain seeds on a certain hill. What 
they were I do not remember, nor if the weight was founds or 
ounces, but 1 thought the idea was a peculiarly happy one. 
Henceforth my little surplus stock shall go forth into the outer 
world to do or die, and perchance I may from a few stray sowings 
reap the pleasure of seeing some Snapdragons, Forget-me-nots, 
Sweet Williams, and others so well able to multiply and replenish 
without our aid, blooming in the locality. 
Having gone thus far I venture to proceed, and suggest that a 
few basketfuls or barrowloads of the trimmings and weedings out 
of those ubiquitous plants of our borders, plants suggesting 
suitability by their superabundant growth, might too be trundled 
out to Nature’s domain and roughly planted. This Utopian 
gardening might not prove an all-round success, but in the 
survival of the fittest will some additions be made to natural 
floriculture. 
Perhaps the day will come (it may not be distant) when the 
rising generation will be taught in our schools to love and cherish 
wild flowers, and also taught that a frond, a flower, or a spray are 
to be the only tribute levied from Nature’s garden, where, as wild 
children of the universal mother, they are happy, fair, and free, a 
condition not attainable with these plants under prim culture. 
—E. K., Dublin, 
ECONOMICAL MANURING. 
Much interesting and instructive information has been conveyed 
in several articles which have appeared in the discussion on the 
“ Nutrition of Roots.” Is it not time that some practical 
deductions be elicited, in order that the subject introduced by 
Mr. Raillem may be of substantial service to cultivators ? The 
gist of the matter from the cultivator’s point of view appears to be 
this. Mr. Raillem implies, but has not said, that the best way of 
supporting crops is to bury the manure deeply, say 2 feet, or a 
foot under the roots of whatever may be planted above it, and rely 
on the virtues of the manure being brought up to the roots in and 
by the rising moisture. If that is the best form of manuring 
it means in his view that there must be less waste of plant 
nutriment than if the manure, or some of it, were applied nearer 
or on the surface, according to Nature’s method of replenishing 
the earth. 
On the contrary, “ A. D.,” who is almost the only writer who 
has given a practical “ turn” to the discussion on root nutrition, is 
clearly in favour of surface manuring, which he says, is “ practically 
most successful,” going on to remark “and a long way more useful 
than scientific arguments.” That is, perhaps hardly, I will not say a 
fair, but a full, way of putting the case, for surely some at least of 
the scientific arguers are workers as well. Let us then be shown 
the real usefulness of their scientific knowledge as represented in 
the methods they adopt as founded on such knowledge. 
It is of no use arguing on the truism that moisture rises through 
the soil any more than it sinks through it. The real question 
is this Does the rising moisture bring up more plant food from 
deeply buried manure for imbibition by roots than is carried down 
to them by the rains from manuriaf applications on or in the 
upper layer of soil ? Mr. Raillem seems to believe in the manure 
burying theory even if carried out to a depth of 4 feet, or why 
the reference, as illustrative of its soundness, to the bulb-growing 
in Holland ? I do not know that all the manure, even for 
growing Dutch bulbs, is buried so deeply, and should be inclined 
to doubt it. However, your correspondent appears to think it i.«, 
and that it is the right method for crops generally in this country ; 
at least I have not noticed his advancing any exception, or in fact 
anything whatever to the contrary. 
It will hardly be disputed that the best method of enriching 
the soil is that which entails the least cost in material and applica¬ 
tion, and which also involves the least waste in nutritive elements. 
If Mr. Raillem will accept that definition I shall be inclined to 
take sides with “ A. D.” if he will say that burying all the manure 
that may be used even 2 feet from the surface and trusting to the 
rising moisture to bring its virtues to the roots of plants and crops 
is not the best but the worst system that can be adopted, because 
the most laborious and wasteful. 
I have observed that one of your correspondents does not 
like pseudonyms, but that is, perhaps, only when writers who 
use them are opposed to his views. I hope Mr. Raillem is not 
so particular, but will have regard to arguments only, whether 
as founded on science or practice or both, and this being so he 
will not mind what 7 ior)i de plume is used in this case, so it may as 
well be—N aillem. 
