October 15, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
327 
deep-lying plant food, the Clover having exhausted the available sources 
of supply. 
A judicious alternation of crops enables the cultivator to so operate 
on a soil as to make it produce profitable crops by economising its 
resources ; stirring and weathering it improves through the fertilising 
effects of a rotation. It is feasible to produce maximum crops of any 
kind on the same ground year after year, but it proves easier and more 
economical to alternate crops. This as regards the mineral as well as 
nitrogenous substances. In a four-course rotation, say, Roots, Barley, 
Clover, and Wheat, the principal mineral ingredients of the soil absorbed 
by the crops are potash, silica, and lime. “ 1, Turnips abstract, as shown 
by their ashes, 5012 per cent, of potash. 2, Barley, 55 03 per cent, of 
silica. 3, Clover, 56’00 per cent. lime. 4, Wheat, 64'9 per cent, of 
silica.” These data are those of Dr. Griffiths, and show that Turnips 
and other root crops, especially Potatoes, extract a large amount—53 80 
percent.—of potash from the soil, therefore full yields of these crops 
may only be had by the liberal use of farmyard manure and artificials 
that afford a supply of phosphoric acid as in superphosphates, and in the 
case of Potatoes potash. These substances are wholly derived from the 
soil, and the preceding Wheat crop only removes 1T67 per cent, of 
the potash from the soil, hence it is most economical to follow one crop 
requiring one element or more in less quantity than that by which it is 
followed. Wheat only takes 4 49 per cent, of phosphoric acid from the 
soil, though its grain ash contains 45'20 per cent., yet Turnips (ash) show 
16’41 per cent, of that substance, and Potatoes 15 - 63 per cent. ; conse¬ 
quently after a Wheat crop the soil is comparatively rich in potash, 
phosphoric, and sulphuric acids to what it is after a Turnip or other 
root crop, therefore the necessity in economic husbandry of a proper 
rotation of crops. 
This principle of rotation cannot well be followed in gardens, in 
fact the gardener grows no crop that corresponds to cereals, but culti¬ 
vates two descriptions of crops only, and in many respects only one— 
namely, the nitrogen consumers, hence gardeners use very much more 
stable and farmyard manure than farmers. Our views as to the use of 
manures have undergone considerable change of principles during the 
past few years. We have noted the fact that agricultural crops are of 
two kinds only, and we have studied them under a variety of soil, 
climate, and cultural conditions with a view to applying the principles 
of agricultural chemistry to horticultural subjects. We have given a 
resume of the late practice of farmers in which there is nothing that is 
not sound in theory, safe and economical in practice, for it must be 
distinctly understood that the farmer cannot manure all his land with 
ordinary farmyard manure, he not having, like the gardener, the run of 
the manure heap, which costs nothing, but out of the produce of the land 
he must manufacture enough manure to restore to the soil the substances 
abstracted by the crops, and it must be effected in such a way as to leave 
a margin of profit. This the farmer finds it impossible in practice by 
the ordinary, and until lately prevalent, methods of rotation and culture. 
The most the farmer can do is to keep his permanent pastures fertile by 
giving his stock more to eat than they are able to obtain in grass, for 
profitable farming demands an increase rather than a stationary fer¬ 
tility of the soil, and manufacture enough manure out of products of 
the arable portion of his lands as will prove sufficient to maintain 
fertility, and enable him to produce the essential hay and root crops. 
This he finds impossible, for there is always a loss in the shape of grain, 
Jiay, milk, and live stock, though the latter leaves behind it when cake 
is used in feeding its equivalent in manure, yearly taken off the soil. 
Whatever a crop takes from the soil without restoring to it an equivalent 
impoverishes it. This the farmer is well aware of, therefore we find 
him anxious to sell hay and straw, which have little manurial value, in 
order that he may buy the more important and far more valuable 
potassic and phosphoric elements his soil requires to enable him to 
cultivate his farm creditably and profitably. Experience has proved, 
as science had long shown, that the most a farmer can do in the way 
of manufacturing manure on his farm is to produce enough to manure 
the land he must necessarily keep under root crops. That being so it 
follows that the manure produced is inadequate to permanently main¬ 
tain the fertility of the whole farm, for it goes without saying that 
the soil’s fertility cannot remain unchanged unless all the ingredients 
of the crops are restored to the land.—G. Abbey. 
(To be continued.) 
VEGETABLES AT HIGHCLERE. 
In ’my opinion the description of these (page 303) does not, as is 
implied, denote Mr. Pope’s connection with his growing and showing. 
Turnips are said to be a favourite dish. I consider them one of the 
most difficult to obtain perfect. Mr. Pope had none in his collection at 
Edinburgh. It is remarked Cucumbers are appreciated during Sep¬ 
tember more than in the month preceding. How is this 1 The absence 
of Cucumbers in Mr. gPope’s collection at Edinburgh was greatly 
commented on, a rule being stated that the second list of prizes for 
collections of vegetables were not to contain “ Cucumbers or Tomatoes,” 
the inference being that the preceding collections should do so. It is 
said “ Parsnips in October and November are a strong dish.” Mr. 
Pope’s collection contained a dish of them on the 9th of September, 
which may find a parallel in anyone sending Lady Downe’s Grapes to 
the table in the month of July. Globe Artichokes are not a weighty 
dish. Anyone can cut a dish for a collection from the same plants year 
after year without further cultivation than placing a liberal quantity of 
manure round them once a year. Then “ Leeks are much more sought 
after now for exhibition than formerly was the case, when the blanched 
part was but a few inches long ; but now it is nothing uncommon to see 
Leeks with 1 foot of stem thoroughly blanched.” That is so. The great 
majority of those staged in the collections at Edinburgh were blanched 
more than 1 foot, and indicated having received the utmost attention ; 
but Mr. Pope’s were in curious contrast, to these, as they were not 
blanched more than 6 inches, and the place given them made more than 
one grower wonder.— Observer. 
Events of the Week. —To-day (Thursday) the annual dinner 
of the United Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society w r ill take 
place at the Cannon Street Hotel, E.C. George A. Dickson, Esq., of 
Chester, will take the chair at 5.30 p.m. Oa Tuesday, October 20th, 
the Fruit Show at Manchester will be opened, and a Conference will be 
held in conjunction with it on October 21st and 22nd, at noon each day. 
The sales for the current week by Messrs. Protheroe & Morris at Cheap- 
side include Dendrobium Phahenopsis var. Scnroederianum, and the old 
Cattleya labiata on Friday, October 16th ; a collection of Orchids from 
Old Park, Ventnor, on October 20th ; a large consignment of Kentia 
seeds, ion October 21st ; and nursery stock at Tunbridge Wells on 
October 22nd and 23rd. 
- We are pleased to learn that Dr. M. T. Masters of the 
Gardener*' Chronicle has been nominated an honorary member of 
the Dutch Horticultural and Botanical Society in recognition of his 
valuable services to botany and horticulture. 
- Jamaica International Exhibition, 1891.—Messrs. James 
Carter & Co. desire to state that they have been awarded the h'ghest 
prize (a gold medal) for their exhibits of English tested seeds, packed 
for the Tropics. The display abo comprised growing examples of some 
of the most beautiful varieties of English annuals, many of which 
originated upon Messrs. Carter’s Seed Farms in Essex. 
- The Eccles, Patricroft, Pendleton, and District 
Chrysanthemom Show, to be held at Eccles on November 13th 
and 14th, is, owing to a considerable increase in prizes expected by the 
Committee, to be one of the best in the north of England. 
- Chrysanthemum Shows. —As announced in our advertising 
columns, the seventh annual Show of the Portsmouth Society will be 
held in the Drill Hall, Landport, on November 4th, 5th, and 6th next, 
when over £200 will be offered in prizes. The Hon. Sec. is Mr. F. Power, 
26, Queen Street, Portsea. The Twickenham Society will also hold 
their annual Show in the Town Hall on November 17th and 18th, and 
schedules can be had from Mr. James T. G. Pugh. 
- Chrysanthemums in London. —We understand that the 
Chrysanthemum exhibition at Southwark Park will be opened on 
Saturday next, 17th inst., and will continue open daily to the public, 
10 A.M. till dusk during the season. The annual display at Finsbury 
Park was opened last Saturday, and will be at its best in a fortnight’s 
time. The Show of Chrysanthemums at Battersea Park will be opened 
to the public on Friday next, the 16th October, in the Frame Ground. 
- Marriage of Mr. L. G. Sutton.— We learn from the 
Reading Mercury that the marriage of Mr. Leonard Goodhart Sutton, 
youngest son of Mr. Martin Hope Sutton, and partner in the firm of 
Sutton & Sons, with Miss Mary Charlotte Annie Seaton, daughter of 
Colonel Seaton, Madras Staff Corps, of Salween, Beckenham, Kent, was 
solemnised at Christ Church, Beckenham, on Wednesday, September 
30th, in the presence of a large congregation composed almost entirely 
of the friends of the contracting parties. The church was beautifully 
decorated with Palms and flowers for the occasion, and the ceremony 
was performed by the Rev. S. H. Soole, M.A., Vicar of Greyfriars Church, 
Reading, brother-in-law of the bridegroom, assisted by the Rev. 
A. Valpy, M.A., rector of Standford Dingley, near Reading, the bride¬ 
groom being attended by his brother, the Rev, Claude H. Sutton, M.A, 
as best man. 
