94 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 4, 1886. 
But is there such a superabundance of supply, when we come to tne 
matter of the highest requirements as to the food for these crops ? Is there 
a sufficiency of a supply of such kinds of food as will, in the general run of 
garden and fruit culture, gives the surest results? Is not the gardeners 
call always for more stable manures ? and is the call of the fruit grower 
any less loud ? One naturally asks, Why is this so ? when there are, elsewhere 
at least, immense if not inexhaustible quantities of the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash, that are reckoned as so important plant nutrients, all to be 
had for the purchasing, and under so great competition that they ought to be 
had for as low rates as they can be sold for, paying fair profits. _ They can 
be had also in every form of combination, and every degree of assimilability, 
and in any desired mixture ; and, further, to save the farmer or the gardener 
the trouble of studying out for himself the kind of combination that his 
crop needs, mixtures are offered to him, ready made up, for each crop. 
Abundant as these supplies are, they do not seem fully to answer the 
purpose; for I doubt if the demand for animal manures is any less urgent 
now than it was before commercial manures became the important articles 
of trade that they now are. Yet, in agricultural operations, superphosphates, 
bone meal, nitrate of soda, and the like have, in some few cases, been made 
to take the place entirely of stable manure, with profit. 
Perhaps you have heard the history of Mr. Prout’s farm in England. 
Mr. Prout bought this farm in 1861; it comprised four hundred and fifty 
acres, and its cultivation in the manner to be described was, therefore, no 
small plot experiment. It was, when taken in hand, in a low condition of 
fertility; the owner asked the aid of the eminent agricultural chemist of 
England, the late Dr. Yoelcker, as to the best way to bring the farm into 
good condition again. The advice was to dress it well with stable manure. 
After doing this with unsatisfactory results for two years application was 
again made to the chemist, who told the owner to use more stable manure ; 
he said he could not afford it; then the chemist visited the farm again, 
examined it carefully, and suggested the use of commercial fertilisers after 
a certain plan. Tne plan was followed, and bone dust, superphosphate, 
dissolved guano, and nitrate of soda were the only manures used from that 
time on. The crops—clover, hay, grain, straw, and everything—were all 
sold standing ; only an insignificant quantity of manure was made, the 
cultivation being almost entirely by steam. This system has now been 
carried on for more than twenty years. The estate cost the purchaser in 
the beginning, 74,500 dols.; enough more was spent upon it in improvements 
to make the total cost about 100,000 dols. The annual clear profits have 
been, on an average, about 4500 dols.; and it was estimated that the farm 
could be sold, eight years after it was taken, for twice what it had cost. 
Last fall the crops were reported as looking well, and the system was spoken 
of as continuing to succeed, although with the qualification that some 
fallows had been found necessary. 
This is not the only instance on record of this kind of farming. Other 
cases have been reported where the system has been followed for forty years, 
in Germany. I give these few details in regard to this one instance merely 
to show what can be done with commercial manures when intelligently 
used—to show that they do contain all the food required by crops—and 
that, with their assistance only, a farm can be brought up from a low condi¬ 
tion to a higher one, and held there for a series of years ; and no one can 
show that what is true of farm crops should not be true of garden and fiuit 
crops as well—if not to the same extent, yet to a large extent. They feed 
on the same kinds of soil, and in the same manner, and require the same 
nutrients in general; and the same particular nutrients that are specially 
important for farm crops are, so far as we know, specia’ly important for 
garden and fruit crops; the proportions required may be different, but 
perhaps not more so than they are even for diff-r.nt farm crops; the same 
mixture of nitrogen compounds, phosphates, and potash salts will not answer 
equally well for Wheat and Potatoes, nor even for Wheat and for corn, 
which are more nearly alike than Wheat and Potatoes. 
What are the obstacles in the way of the more extensive use of commer¬ 
cial fertilisers in the garden and fruit orchard, and of less dependence on the 
products of the city and village stables ? In answering this question we 
naturally ask, first, what does stable manure contain that is not supplied in 
commercial fertilisers ? 
The valuation of a commercial fertiliser in the trade is based, as you 
know, on the quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash that it 
contains—some fertilisers containing only one of these nutrients, others 
two, and others all three of them. There is no question that in respect to 
just these nutrients we can meet the wants of any crop better by supplying 
commercial fertilisers than we can by stable manure, if there is any differ¬ 
ence between the two as to efficiency. But, besides these, the crop must 
find in the soil, supplied from some source, lime, magnesia, sulphuric acid 
in the form of sulphates, of which plaster is one, a very little iron, possibly 
chlorides, of which common salt is one, and, perhaps, silica. Every super¬ 
phosphate contains an abundance of lime and of sulphuric acid. The 
muriate of potash, brought from Germany, is a chloride, and contains 
chlorine. Of iron every soil has an abundance, many thousand times more 
than any crop needs ; and the same is true of silica; of magnesia there is 
enough t.o be had in the German kainite. But as to all of these nutrients 
last mentioned—sulphate, chloride, silica, iron, and magnesia—there is no 
proof that the average soil is not abundantly rich in them for the production 
of good crops. Hence it is that we are justified in charging all the cost of 
a commercial manure to, and expecting to get our money back from, its 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash ; the rest of the ingredients must be 
thrown in gratis, as of no value generally, although there may be cases 
where one or another of them may be of some service. All of these matters 
the stable manure also contains in abundance. 
So far no one can claim anything for the stable manure that is not 
supplied by the commercial fertiliser. The only respect in which the two 
materials are distinctly unlike is this: the stable manure is composed 
largely of dead vegetable and animal matters in process of decay ; the 
product of this decay is the humus or vegetable mould of the soil. About 
one-fifth of ordinary stable manure is made of this vegetable and animal 
matter, while not over six to eight thousandths is potash, five to six 
thousandths nitrogen, and three thousandths phosphoric acid. Of nitrate 
of soda, so much mentioned as a very useful fertiliser for its nitrogen, one- 
sixth is this nitrogen. Of a good superphosphate, as this fertiliser averages 
in this country, about one-eighth is phosphoric acid ; and if one desires it, 
and is willing to pay for it, he can have a superphosphate with one-third its 
weight of phosphoric acid ; of a German muriate of potash from a third to a 
half maj- be potash. But in all these materials there is no vegetable matter, 
and little or no animal matter. 
Here, then, is a clear distinction between the two kinds of manure, the 
stable and the artificial; the stable manure has its few thousandths of 
nitrogen, of phosphoric acid, and of potash, and its one-fifth of decaying 
vegetable and animal matter; the commercial manure only its few thou¬ 
sandths or even less of animal matter, and its proportions of nitrogen, 
phosphoric acid, and potash counted by eighths to thirds. About three- 
fourths of the stable manure is only water, however; expel this, and get a 
manure as dry as commercial manures ordinarily are, and the comparison 
between the two will be more just and no less striking ; we shall then see 
that four-fifths of this dry manure is decaying vegetable and animal matter, 
about one-fourtieth is potash, one-eightieth phosphoric acid, and one-fiftieth 
nitrogen. 
Can any way be now shown in which this striking difference between 
the two kinds of manure may account for the greater measure of success 
that is attained in general with the stable manure ? 
(To be continued.) 
PROPAGATING FICUS ELASTICA. 
For usefulness and durability the Indiarubber Plant has become 
indispensable. Floral decorators and furnishers have long known the 
value of this plant with its bold foliage, which it retains even when sub¬ 
jected to long-continued hardships. It is rarely seen in a sickly state, 
whether it be in the window of the drawing-room, the greenhouse or 
conservatory, or the stove, and its requirements are so simple that any¬ 
one may succeed with it. Is it, then, to be wondered at that so many are 
desirous of possessing such an accommodating plant ? When once pur¬ 
chased it is easily managed, and further, should it become dusty or dirty 
it may be cleaned in a few minutes. 
It may be readily increased by means of cuttings, but when suitable 
cuttings are to be had the process is a very simple one. The two chief 
points to be secured are plump and prominent eyes and matured wood ; if 
you have not these the chances are that the eyes will remain dormant for 
a considerable time. By way of verifying these statements I may turn 
to the fact that some years ago, before I was as well acquainted with the 
plant as now, I used to put in every piece that I could find, with the 
result that the soft immature wood seldom produced good plants ; the 
cuttings would root in the usual way and remain for months without 
starting. These were ultimately thrown away, for the simple reason that 
they would not pay for room and attention. From this time I always 
endeavoured to insert only firm wood with prominent eyes, and I was 
invariably rewarded with a good batch of plants. The following is the 
method I now employ in the propagation of this plant. 
Presuming a certain number of plants are destined for propagation, 
no matter whether they are plants with single stems or whether they are 
old stools and composed of several leads, I head them all back—in other 
words, take a good cutting of the leading shoot from each and, inserting 
them in single pots in sandy loam, plunge them in a bottom heat of 75° 
or thereabouts. This operation should be performed early in January and 
the old plants allowed to remain. T n about three weeks from the time 
they were beheaded the auxiliary buds will begin to swell (of course the 
time will vary in proportion t> the temperature in which the plants are 
growing), then it is that the bud may safely be removed, for at this stage 
they root readily and are soon in active growth. The plants may be cut 
into single eyes, leaving a leaf with each. As soon as detached from the 
old plant I thrust the cuttings into some dry silver sand, which stays 
considerably the flow of the milky sap which exudes from the cut ends. 
The cuttings may now be potted into 2^-inoh pots, using loam and peat 
in equal parts, making it rather sandy ; press firmly, and in some cases it 
will be necessary to employ one or two small crocks to keep the cutting 
in its place, and owing to the naturally short-jointed cuttings, two small 
sticks in an upright position shoul 1 be used ; secure the leaf loosely 
between these and there is no further fear of its removal. Plunge them 
in the propagating frame in the bjttom heat referred to above, when in 
from fourteen to twenty-one days the majority will have formed roots, 
and may be seen on the surface of the soil. If they receive a thorough 
watering at first they will not require another for a week or more. 
There is one other point, of only minor importance probably, and that 
is the splitting in halves of the larger pieces of wood ; but having tried 
both ways I have failed to notice any benefit from splitting the stems, the 
main points being, as I have before stated, firm wood and plump eyes. 
When growth has fairly begun they should be removed from the bottom 
heat to a cool place near the glass, when a steady short-jointed growth 
may be secured, and as soon as fit give them a shift in 5-inch pots, and 
by the end of the season plants from 20 to 30 inches high may be had, 
adapting throughout the growing season the cool treatment, which will 
insure sturdy vigorous plants, well furnished to the pot with their broad 
handsome foliage.—J. H. E. 
BRIEF NOTES AT PARK PLACE, HENLEY-ON-THAMES. 
A very agreeable hour was spent in a visit to these gardens, the 
residence of J. Noble, Esq. ; and, though it was a wintry day, I found 
plenty that was interesting, respecting which the following brief and 
imperfect notes are submitted. The plant houses form an important 
feature, and in one of the first we entered, a compartment filled with cool 
Orchids, where Cattleya intermedia, Masdevallia tovarense, Odonto- 
glossum, Uro-Skinneri, amongst others, are in flower. In the following 
