May 23, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
415 
into practice, the productiveness of the land would be enormously 
increased. I know of farmers, not to say gardeners, possessing 
this knowledge who have, by acting on it, been saving money all 
through the agricultural depression, and one of them lives in 
Nottinghamshire. It is as essential for the occupier of the smallest 
allotment to have that knowledge as for the best gardener or 
largest farmer. 
I am quite certain that all who are assembled here do not know 
of a fact that is well worth knowing, and when it is stated it may 
surprise some, and possibly cause others to doubt if I am not 
making a mistake. It is a positive fact that I am going to narrate, 
and well worth remembering. This is the fact. Fully 90 per cent, 
of the food of all the crops you grow in your gardens is supplied 
by the air under favourable conditions in the form of rain and 
gases ; but the remaining 10 per cent., or really less, small though 
iit be, is of enormous importance. The reason why crops will not 
thrive in water-logged land is because it is sealed against the air. 
When the water passes down freely air follows. Nothing can 
prevent it when the surface is open, because it is forced down at a 
(pressure of 15 lbs. to each square inch, and when the air is 'warm, 
■•and the earth moist this warm moist air makes crops grow rapidly. 
A familiar example may be adduced. You all know, or ought to 
(know, that hoeing the ground on warm sunny days in spring makes 
Cabbages, Lettuces, and other crops grow apace. It is easy to see 
the progress they make from day to day. The earth is naturally 
moist at this season, however dry it may be on the surface by the 
(action of the sun. By hoeing, the warm air resting on and floating 
(above the surface is admitted to the moisture below, the roots move 
more quickly in consequence, appropriating the food supplied, with 
-that already stored in the larder—the earth. 
The Use of the Hoe. 
When a man knows why a thing should be done he does it more 
willingly. You are now aware why growth follows the hoe in the 
spring. Perhaps I may point out a very practical and valuable 
lesson from the use of the hoe. It is a regular custom of the expert 
London market gardeners to keep men constantly hoeing at this 
season of the year amongst their early Cabbage and Lettuce crops. 
They do not do this for the purpose of destroying weed^ for there 
is often not a weed to be seen. They hoe to admit the air, the 
warm air ; and the man who does this has his crops in the market 
■say a week before he who does not. And w'hat do you think this 
week means ? It means an added profit of £20 or £30 an acre. 
The first crops placed in the market may realise £60 or £70 per 
acre ; those a week later, when the glut comes, not half the money. 
The experience of every year proves the truth of these statements. 
If the old adage about the early bird catching the worm is true in 
(anything it is in being first in the market with garden produce, 
and nothing will whip on the crops like the hoe on cry warm 
days in spring. They may be further assisted, no doubt, with 
a stimulant, but the hoe is the cultivator’s best friend when 
crops are advancing to maturity. 
(To be continued.) 
ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Scientific Committee. —May 14th.—Present: Dr. M. T. Masters 
*in the chair, Messrs. McLachlan and Wilson, Drs. Scott and Mueller, 
;and Rev. G. Henslow (Hon. Sec.). 
Death of Prof. Reichenbach. —Dr. Masters called the attention of 
the Committee to the sad and somewhat sudden death of this eminent 
Professor, and alluded to the great loss which the scientific and 
gardening worlds had sustained by it. He w’as born in 1823, and had 
<been the Director of the Botanic Gardens, Hamburg, since 1863. 
Malformed Danhsia. —Dr. Masters reported upon the specimen exhi¬ 
bited at the last meeting which he had received from Baron von Mueller. 
It appeared to consist of a mass of very small branches and leaves 
situate below the inflorescence, and covered with fine brown hairs. 
It was impossible to discover the cause, though some injury by 
insects in an early stage appeared to be most probable, when the 
plant was at rest ; so that a supernumerary set of organs were thrown 
out in aid of transpiration, which probably was in excess in con¬ 
sequence of the hypertrophied condition of the plant in the region in 
•question. 
Peach with scale insects (?).—A specimen badly infected with some 
insect closely resembling the mealy bug, was received from Somerset. 
Hr. McLachlan undertook to examine and report further upon it. 
Winter moth, protection against. —Mr. Wilson observed that the 
plan recommended in the Agricultural Gazette of October 15th, 1888, 
of making a ring of cart grease and Stockholm tar round the bases of 
fruit trees, though very effectual in catching large quantities of wing¬ 
less females, had not prevented them from attacking the trees altogether, 
as the leaves on certain trees thus treated (as described at the Scientific 
Committee on January 15th, 1889), were all going at the present 
date. 
Skimmia Fort unci (Mast).—Dr. Masters exhibited a dried specimen 
of this hermaphrodite species, received from the Tchang Mountains, 
which completely corroborated the results of his investigations into the 
history of the Skimmias of our gardens—viz., that it was first intro¬ 
duced by Mr. Fortune from the nursery gardens of China ; while the 
true S. japonica is a Japanese plant, and always dioecious ; the “ forms ” 
oblata and fragrans being of the latter plant. Hybrids between the two 
species are mostly, if not always, bisexual. 
Photographs from Madeira. —Dr. Masters exhibited several photo¬ 
graphs of plants from this island, including one of Phytolacca dioica, as 
a large tree with a massive base of confluent roots, the usual form of 
this plant in Europe being a herb. 
WRIGHTIA ZEYLANICA. 
In the Water Lily house at the Royal Botanic Society's Gardens, 
Regents Park, a plant of Wrightia zeylanica trained to the roof is 
flowering abundantly, as it does every year, and though but little known 
it is better worth a place in stoves or similar warm houses than many of 
their present occupants, it is a member of the same family as the 
Vincas, the Allamandas, the Oleanders, and the Tabernsemontanas, and 
to the last-named the flowers bear some resemblance. These are pure 
white, the corolla five-lobcd, with a peculiar irregularly cut corona-like 
appendage at the base of the lobes, such as is seen in other related 
plants. .The general form of the flowers and leaves is shown is fig. 67. 
Wrightia zeylanica, as already stated, requires a stove temperature, and 
being of loose habit, though not a climbing plant strictly speaking, 
it succeeds best trained to the roof of a house. A compost of turfy 
