October 22, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
351 
extravagant systems of manufacturing nitrogenous manures. Open 
yards are nitrogen wasters; covered sheds save much nitrogenous 
matter. One ton of the latter has fertilising value equal to 3 tons of 
the former. Farmers recognise these facts and limit cattle feeding to 
absolute necessity as regards doing so, with a view to the manufacture 
of open yard manure. They consume as much as the climate will allow 
of fodder on the ground, and they show their abhorrence of carting 
manure, and at the same time their appreciation of nitrogenous manures 
by producing them directly on the fields and eating the crops on the 
ground, or as green manure ploughing them into the soil. This is a very 
old-fashioned plan as regards Mustard and Rape, which, however, can 
produce no nitrogenous manure. When eaten on the ground they act in 
two ways. 1, The fodder is transformed into nitrogenous elements for 
the support of the succeeding crop : 2, The deep rooting of these plants 
bring up fresh supplies of potash and phosphoric acid. Therefore the 
Mustard and Rape when eaten on has a twofold effect—namely, 
manures the soil with nitrogenous and potassic and phosphoric elements. 
Ploughing them in as green manures yields very little nitrogen, but 
provides potash and phosphoric acid. Without these elements in 
sufficient quantity it is ineffective to manure nitrogen-requiring plants 
as cereals, Potatoes, and Turnips with nitrates and ammoniacal salts, 
for a soil deficient in phosphoric acid and potash will make a poor 
display in the crops by application of nitrate of soda. By ploughing 
in Mustard or Rape the ground is put in a condition to make the most 
of nitrate of soda. 
On the other hand, Clover, &c., sown into the green cereal crop 
develop into green manure plants amid the cereal stubble, and these 
take nitrogen from the atmosphere, and ploughed into the soil in late 
autumn or early spring decompose, and supply nutriment for a suc¬ 
ceeding crop of Potatoes or Turnips, also cereals. This is better than a 
useless crop of Grasses and weeds allowed to encumber the preceding 
cereal crop, for they, like Mustard and Rape, have little nitrogenous 
value, and, unlike them, are too void of nutrition to be eaten by 
animals, therefore not transformable into nitrogenous manure. But 
the cereal crop suffers little by Clover sown into it, and animals eat it 
into the quick, and they put on flesh by the process, whilst they dress 
the ground with nitrogenous manure. More than that, the ground is 
kept in cleaner condition. Thus, by employing plants that assimilate 
nitrogen the cereal crop is not impoverished, but the succeeding crop 
benefits to the extent of the nitrogen taken from the atmosphere and 
put into the soil either as green manure but preferably as nitrogenous 
manure, resultant of eating on by sheep. 
Sowing winter Vetches, or Vetches and Peas after harvest, merely 
grubbing up the stubble and sowing with as little delay as possible 
secures a good plant before winter, and by ploughing this into the land 
in spring the future crop of Turnips or Potatoes receive a good supply of 
nutriment by the decomposition of the Vetches and Peas. That is one 
way and good, but there is another and better—namely, to pen sheep on 
the land, give them the bulk of the Tares as fodder, and let them eat the 
rest on the ground so as to manure the whole ground evenly, affording 
them a daily supply of cake or Mangolds, and the ground is in capable 
heart as regards nitrogenous substances for affording nutriment to a 
crop of Turnips. There is yet another plan, that is, to take the Vetches 
off the ground and rob the land for the sake of cash, which is a sheer 
waste of nitrogen, inasmuch as its equivalent in manure is not returned 
to the soil. Still the Vetch stubble and roots has enriched the soil to 
the extent of the nitrogen, those parts have implanted in them by that 
part extracting it from the atmosphere, and it is in the roots and stubble 
of Vetches and all leguminaceous plants that nitrogen extracted from 
the atmosphere is chiefly stored. 
These are some of the lessons we have gleaned from a close observa¬ 
tion of agricultural practice. The fields are open to inspection by every 
one who cares to look over the hedges separating them from our 
highways and lane3, and from the crops and the methods of culture 
pursued all may draw lessons alike interesting, instructive, and useful, 
especially if the observer has made himself acquainted with the rudi¬ 
ments of agricultural chemistry, which will better enable him to 
acquire knowledge and understand the crops to which everyone owes 
existence. 
To the gardener these remarks may seem of little importance ; but 
we feel that a majority will agree with us that it is of the greatest 
importance that the plants we cultivate on empirical lines should be 
understood from a scientific standpoint. For many years we grew Peas 
on a south border for early supplies, and followed them with Brassicas 
that came off the ground in time for sowing with Peas in autumn or 
spring. This rotation of two dissimilar crops in a season on the same 
ground succeeded well enough with a dressing of manure annually ; but 
we were then unacquainted with the facts that Science has since taught 
us that Peas are nitrogen gatherers, and Brassicas nitrogen consumers. 
Since being made acquainted with the principles of plant nutrition we 
have sought for plants in other orders that were or appeared nitrogen 
gatherers, and we are obliged to admit with very indifferent results. 
The only ones upon which we have been able to fix with any degree of 
certainty are Cucumbers and Melons in Cucurbitaceae, and Gardenias 
in Rubiaceae. These—Cucumbers, Melons, and Gardenias—are liable 
to a sickness corresponding to, if not identical with, Clover sickness— 
namely, attacks of eelworm, Tylenclius (Vibrio) devastatrix. The roots 
of these plants, under certain conditions of soil ingredients, form nitro- 
genic nodules ; but these have no connection with the minute organisms 
which, as shown by Mr. Warington of the Rothamsted laboratory, trans¬ 
form ammonia into available plant food—namely, one organism by 
oxidation converting ammonia in the soil into nitrites, and the other 
by a similar process changes nitrites to nitrates, the latter containing 
a larger proportion of oxygen than the former. The root nodules are 
simply due, as far as we can make out, to the plants gathering nitrogen 
from the atmosphere and assimilating it in the plant it becomes stored 
by some unexplained process in the root nodules. We have noticed 
similar nodules on sickly Ixoras, also in Burchellia capensis; and not 
infrequently these plants become gouty in the stem next the soil or 
collar, and they fall a prey to eelworm. Some other plants have a 
tendency to form nitrogenic nodules on the roots when grown in peat 
which they do not exhibit when grown in loam, especially where lime 
prevails to the extent of 5 to 10 per cent. 
There is another point — namely, leguminaceous plants seem to 
assimilate most atmospheric nitrogen where the soil i 3 calcareous, 
and least where it is of a vegetable nature. If we lime vegetable 
soils, or those rich in humus, Peas thrive amazingly, by which we 
assume the minute organisms are called into activity, and converting 
the lime into nitrate, the Peas are supplied with that substance. 
But the question arises, Do Vines, Peaches, and other fruit trees- 
grown under glass extract nitrogen from atmospheric air ? We believe 
the root nodule test to be infallible, and they do occasionally occur on 
the roots of Vines and fruit trees grown on Plum stocks. We have no 
desire to see them on any tree3 under our care, for the simple reason 
that they are a certain indication of indifferent health. 
We have used liquid manure during many years for sprinkling the 
floors and other available surfaces of plant and fruit houses, and always 
considered there was advantage in the plan. We saw more chlorophyll 
in the leaves, the Grapes assumed a deeper purple or b’ack and richer 
amber, and the Peaches and other fruits grew larger and brighter in 
colour, and we believed it worth while to practise it because it imparted 
health to the plants and fruit trees, and enhanced, as we considered, the 
quantity and quality of their crops. Alas ! we did not then know the 
difference between atmospheric nitrogen and atmospheric ammonia. 
The latter obtains in the air to the extent of one part in one million, but 
atmospheric nitrogen forms 79T9 volumes to 20 81 volumes of oxygen, 
or by weight atmospheric air consists of 2301 parts of oxygen to 
7699 of nitrogen, and these exist—not as a chemical compound, but as a 
mechanical mixture. Where, then, is the ammonia vapour doctrine ? The 
Romans believed in it 2000 years ago, and we still practise it, because 
experience has proved that plants never thrive so well as where gases are 
being given out by decomposing matter in presence of a due supply of 
atmospheric air. What favours healthy growth in plants requiring 
artificial heat so well as that generated by sweet fermenting materials? 
Some ammonia is being constantly evaporated, and unless excessively 
present in the atmosphere does not injure, but rather contributes to 
health and growth, and certainly is inimical to red spider and other 
insect pests. Of its properties as a source of nitrogen to plants we 
know absolutely nothing, yet it cannot supply nitrogen in anything like 
the quantity essential for the swelling and perfecting of profitable crops 
of fruit, and unless fruit trees and all plants are supplied with potash 
and phosphoric acid they will make very poor returns for a bounteous 
supply of nitrogenous manures, with the nitrogen of the air thrown into 
the same scale.—G. Abbey. 
The fine hot weather of the second week in September found me in 
Oxfordshire ; and the warm sun suggesting Tea Roses, and Oxford Mr. 
Prince, I determined on an expedition to hunt him up, though of course 
it was too late to see the flowers in proper form. All I knew of his 
whereabouts was that it was necessary to drive from Oxford, and accord¬ 
ingly I went by an early train one pleasant morning to that ancient seat 
of learning in the company of a young gentleman of the University, who 
strongly urged me, if any riding or driving was to be done, to secure the 
services of a certain quadruped named Brown Sam. The narrated 
exploits of that noble animal, however, caused me to fight shy of him, 
and after some inquiries I was fortunate enough to secure a capital little 
fast-trotting pony and trap for a moderate sum for the day from the 
King’s Arms. I almost regretted afterwards, as we got on so well, that 
I had not tried to visit Mr. Mattock at Headington the same day. Ten 
miles, I was told, was the distance to Mr. Prince’s grounds at Long- 
worth, and as I rattled along over the splendid granite roads, I wondered 
over two things : first, why North Berks and also North Oxfordshire 
are always so much later with their harvest than the midland or eastern 
counties, and whether it is because the farmers in those parts have a 
queer habit of sending one man, or a man and a boy, armed with reap¬ 
hooks, into 12 or 15 acres of Barley ; and secondly, how tremendously 
handicapped a man must be in showing Rose3 ali over England when 
he is ten miles from a first-class station, and seven from the nearest 
small one. My little steed made light of the distance, and though 
I stopped for a while at Kingston Bagpuse, the next village to Long- 
worth, to see my old friend the huntsman of the old Berks, and to 
admire the horses and hounds about to begin the campaign at five next 
