November 24, 1887. ] 
445 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER 
friend to tlie farmer and gardener as this. It would be utterly impossible 
-to describe, in a short paper like this, the many ways in which it assists 
■us. I will just mention four. First, by supplying the lime that plants 
require as part of their food. Secondly, by combining with acids in the 
soil so as to remove the sourness therefrom. Thirdly, by turning the 
manure and vegetable matter into plant food ; and fourth, by acting on 
the mineral matter in the soil so as to fit it for entering into the roots 
of plants. Someone may say, “ I have limed my land"once, so that it 
does not require it again. ’ Ho is wrong for three reasons—because the 
crops remove a portion of it, because it sinks into the lower soil out 
cf reach of spade or plough, and because the rains wash it away and 
dissolve it out of the soil. Where soil already contains sufficient 
lime it is waste of time and money to apply it. Have we a light 
sandy soil to contend with 2 Then lime in a mild state will make it 
fiimer, and consolidate it. Or is our soil a heavy clay, then quicklime 
will open it up and make it easier to work. Have we an old garden 
where the soil is.full of manure, then lime will turn the manure into 
plant food and give us luxuriant crops. 
There is a manure we can all readily obtain, I allude to the sewage 
and waste water from our own houses. I suppose there is as much 
manure going down our rivers continually as would support the whole 
population if put on the land, while enormous sums are spent in the 
purchase of guano, bones, &c., to replace what we actually throw away. 
Hot only are our rivers thus converted into open sewers, but the loss to 
+i n . a *' 10n a mounts to many millions annually. Kow, even supposing 
.that it cost the nation the full value of this manure to collect and dis¬ 
tribute it on the land, the nation would still be.the gainer to an enormous 
extent, as there is a very great difference between paying away money 
as wages and throwing it into the sea. However, as far as we personally 
are concerned, all we need do is to procure an earth closet, or other 
eimilar contrivance, or a tank somewhere in the garden, and this done 
we immediately come into possession of a quantity of most valuable 
manure free of cost. To give an idea of how green crops relish S 3 wage, 
Mr. Hope of Barking has produced ten crops of Bye Grass, of 0°to 
10 tons each, in a single year. 
Another very valuable manure we have free of cost is the waste 
vegetable matter in our gardens — cabbage stalks, grass clippings, Potato 
tops, and similar stuff. These should be buried at once in the ground, 
where they immediately begin to decay, and in so doing yield up a 
quantity of carbonic acid and other matters so necessary in a soil. 
Never burn any kind of vegetable matter except wood and weeds, and 
not these latter except they have run to seed. The objection of burying 
wood in the soil is that it is apt to produce fungus, when it becomes 
difficult to get rid of it. 
Good farmyard manure may be safely applied to any kind of soil, 
but for those which are light and sandy, cow manure is preferable, as it 
retains water foi a much greater length of time, while horse manure is 
more applicable to heavy cold land for the very opposite reason, because 
it heats quickly.and so dries and warms the soil. The sooner manure is 
buried in the soil the better, provided the land is retentive or heavy : on 
light soils where the rains quickly wash the essence of the manure away 
it should be applied only a short time before the crops require it. 
1 may say that the presence of lime in a soil assists very much to fix 
and hold the manure therein until the crops require it. Where we have 
to keep or hold over the manure we should take care that the rains that 
fall are not allowed to soak through the heap and thus convey away the 
best and most valuable constituents of it. This may be prevented by 
having the heap under a shed, or nearly as well, by making the heap in 
the shape of a ridge, off which the rain will run without penetrating 
into the interior. 
Bones are one of the most valuable manures we possess. Where we 
plant a Rose or shrub to stand for some years a handful or two of half¬ 
inch bones will assist it for a considerable time. Where we grow vege¬ 
tables too, a good dressing of bone sawings will not be lost. Where we 
wish to assist an old plant or shrub, or a plant in a pot where it is not 
possible to repot it, few things are better than a top-dressing of dissolved 
bones. Mineral phosphate is now procured in various parts of the 
world, and when ground into fine powder is very similar in its action to 
bones, while at the same time it is very much cheaper. 
Fish manure is. said to be rich in phosphates and ammonia, and as 
potash is added, it should be a very valuable manure. I spoke of 
ammonia as being valued at £100 per ton. This material exists in the 
atmosphere in the form of nitrogen, the latter forming four-fifths of the 
air we breathe. Water readily absorbs it, and this is one reason why the 
rain is so much more refreshing to plant life than any artificial water¬ 
ing. Ammonia is produced largely during the decomposition of animal 
or vegetable refuse ; it is then absorbed by water, in which state plants 
can take it up by means of their roots. It acts principally as a stimu¬ 
lant, in this way enabling plants to which it is applied to absorb and 
make use of the other manures which may be within reach to a greater 
extent than would otherwise be the case. It has been found that where 
■ammonia has been intelligently applied to crops it has produced a luxu¬ 
riant growth and a proportionately greater return. The ammonia is for 
the most part contained in the liquid parts of the droppings of animals, 
which are very often unfortunately allowed to run to waste. Ammonia 
can be had in various forms—as nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, 
■carbonate of ammonia, and nitrate of potash ; but perhaps the easiest 
way to procure it is to obtain fresh horse droppings from the stables and 
place them in water. If used in any of the forms first mentioned it 
must be handled with care, as it is extremely easy to do a pound’s worth 
of damage with sixpenny worth of ammonia. Remember that a small 
quantity applied at intervals is better and safer than more put on at 
one time ; indeed this is the case with all manures, an even constant 
supply of plant food being far better for plants than a feast followed 
by. a famine, or something like it. Soot is a very valuable manure, 
principally because it contains ammonia. 
Ib conclusion, if we wish to got the full value’from the soil, while at 
the same time retaining it in its most fertile state, we must keep two 
points in view first, we must by our method of working it, digging 
deep, draining, and getting the air down into it, make use of and set 
free all the mineral matters and manures present therein ; and second, 
we must take care to add to it whatever it is deficient in, whether it be 
clay lime, or anything else. If we do this, and keep on persevering, we 
must eventually succeed. Lord Lytton in one of his plays says, “ In 
the bright lexicon of youth there is no such word as fail.” We cannot 
all be young again ; we cannot all be, perhaps, as successful as we wish. 
‘ u 13 not . irl mortals to command success,” but there is nothin^ to 
prevent their deserving it. 
GRAPES FOR QUALITY. 
I SHOULD like to ask some of your correspondents to devote a 
chapter to the best flavoured Grapes, black and white. Those who 
grow for quality have fewer varieties to select from of good ap¬ 
pearance to show or supply the table than those who do the same 
with Grapes of good appearance, but not of the highest quality. 
At most of the September shows we see plenty of thick skinned 
showy Grapes making up collections, most of them easily grown 
sorts. I see it hinted in your last week’s issue of something good 
likely to come in the way of a Black Muscat. I hope it will°be the 
case, as we have not one yet with a vigorous constitution and easily 
finished. No one can say Muscat Hamburgh has a good constitution. 
Some writers advise inarching it, and others say it does no good 
that way. I have inarched it this year on Muscat of Alexandria, 
and the wood is thicker and the eyes more prominent than on its 
own roots. I have done the same with Mrs. P;nce with the same 
result. The latter is much more easily managed than the former, 
although it is as seldom seen quite black. As to the relative position 
of the two while growing, my experience leads me to the conclusion 
that Mrs. Pince does well with Muscat treatment, while Muscat 
Hamburgh does best in a cooler house, which means do not force it 
hard. By this treatment I had the bunches this year of 3 lbs. 
weight and perfectly black. White Frontignan is scarcely ever 
mentioned in these days of large-berried sorts. Will someone take 
it up and some others of the best flavour until we have a second 
Muscat of Alexandria ?—T. S. 
JUDGING HAND BOUQUETS. 
At nearly every horticultural show a class is provided for hand 
bouquets. When well represented they are a very pleasing feature of 
the show, and take a good share of the attention of the lady visitors. A 
hand bouquet of medium size, good shape, and a pleasing combination 
of colours lightly arranged, is, in my opinion, spoiled if the Fern fronds 
are merely placed among the flowers after arrival at the show. How¬ 
ever elegant a bouquet of this description may appear, I think it ought 
to be passed by the judges, and preference given to others more firmly 
made, even if they are not quite as elegant in appearance. I have seen 
bouquets made in this flimsy manner receive prizes at shows in prefer¬ 
ence to others well and firmly made. Surely the judges had not ex¬ 
amined them all very closely, or they would have seen the faultv manner 
in which the bouquets were made. Such a bouquet is of no use to a 
lady, for unless she carried it in one position she would soon find that 
the greenery which gave it such a dainty appearance was vanishing bit 
by bit. If a gardener sent in a bouquet to the lady made in the way I 
have described, I fancy he would be requested to construct the next on 
a different principle. I will here give a few rules from an article 
written on hand bouquets by Mr. J. Robson, which appeared in the 
Journal of March 23rd, 1871. He says :— 
I. —A hand bouquet must be made so as to be easily carried in all 
positions in the hand without any of its parts being disarranged when 
it is turned upside down, and to prove this the judge to be at liberty 
to swing it sharply about in all directions in his hand, and if it will 
not bear this ordeal reject it. 
II. —The bouquet to be shown without any paper or other guard or 
bordering except that of flower or foliage, the handle also not to be too 
thick for reasons given in rule 1. 
III. —No flower having a disagreeable smell to be used for a hand 
bouquet; where such exists the bouquet to be disqualified. 
IV. —The quality of the flowt-rs used—■*>., their rarity not to be 
taken into consideration unless the arrangement be equally good or 
better than where common ones are used. 
V. —No bouquet to be exhibited under a glass shade unless all are 
provided with this appendage, but the exhibitor may be allowed to 
keep one over his bouquet until requested to remove it prior to judging, 
not afterwards. 
VI. —Dried and Everlasting Flowers not to be mixed with fresh ones, 
and the same may be said of foliage. 
VII. —Flowers may be mounted on wire or other substance, but too 
