May 30, 1889. J 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
437 
face. This may be taken as a good watering, and will sink to the 
roots. Frequent sprinklings, moistening the soil above them only, 
are worse than useless—injurious, as I will explain further on. 
Another important hint, the significance of which is not fully 
appreciated even by all gardeners, may be usefully given. Never 
give liquid manure to plants and crops when they are drooping 
through drought at the roots. Much of it is wasted then, rushing 
through the fissures, for dry soil cannot seize upon and hold the 
manurial matter the liquid contains. Therefore, when the ground 
is dry, hence contracted, leaving fissures, give a heavy supply of 
pure water for swelling it and closing those fissures, then follow 
with the liquid food. In that way the greatest possible good will 
be done with the least possible waste occurring. Do this work in 
the evening. Giving either water or liquid manure, as a rule, on 
bright mornings in summer is a gigantic mistake. There may be 
exceptions, as there are in most things. For instance, we some¬ 
times have to light the gas in London in the day when fogs prevail, 
and it is useful then, but as a rule it is much better to illuminate 
at night. So with watering gardens in summer ; the evening is by 
far the best time, for if water is given in the morning the sun 
commences drawing it out again by evaporation, and with it the 
earth warmth, for evaporation is always accompanied by cold. 
I will endeavour to press this point by something worth remem¬ 
bering. If a pint of water is evaporated from 100 lbs. of soil the 
land is left 10° colder than it would be if the water passed away by 
filtration, and it has been computed that the heat thus lost per 
acre is equal to the combustion of 12 cwt. of coal. What a lesson 
that teaches of the necessity of draining water-logged land, and 
also for preventing the evaporation which follows after making a 
practice of watering gardens on the morning of bright hot days. 
We want the moisture kept in the soil for supporting the crops, 
not drawn out of it for distribution in the atmosphere. 
Just a word on conserving moisture. When the ground dries 
it shrinks, and if the surface is hard and smooth, chinks of various 
sizes form, some of them visible enough, but most of them not 
apparent. Yet they exist, and the water rushes out of them into 
the air in the form of invisible vapour ; but if the surface is kept 
dusty by constantly moving it with the hoe these fissures are 
prevented and the moisture is retained. There may be an inch or 
two of dust as dry as snuff, but below this non-conductive covering 
there is moisture. One of the greatest of English rosarians attributes 
his success in winning prizes largely to the use of the hoe in keeping 
moisture in the earth. He would perhaps prefer to cover it with 
manure, but that would be rather costly when dealing with 50 to 100 
acres of Roses, and ha manages to win prizes all over the kingdom 
without having recourse to that practice, good as it may be in 
itself. 
In the foregoing remarks I have endeavoured to go to the root 
of gardening, and to point out in a plain way the principles that 
govern the cultivation of every kind of crop ; and though I have 
told how valuable chemical manures are when rightly used, I 
advise that stable manure be used as well when it can be obtained 
of good quality. It is more useful in new than in old gardens, 
and these latter, the soil of which has become black by years of 
manuring, may often be greatly improved by a dressing of lime, a 
bushel being spread on and lightly pointed into 20 square yards of 
surface. Lime should never be dug in deeply, as it sinks of itself 
and sets at liberty the dormant gases which are sealed in old 
gardens, and these, when in action, benefit the crops. Solid 
manure produces black mould—humus—and this absorbs moisture, 
fixes ammonia, and is in other respects beneficial in soil where enough 
of it does not already exist. It is steadily produced by decaying 
turf, and I think a good deal of this has been dug into many of the 
recently made Nottingham gardens. 
Digging. 
The mention of digging reminds me that I promised to say 
something about it. A few words will suffice. I have seen a new 
book published for amateurs. They are told to take out a trench 
2 feet wide and deep, then to turn into the bottom of this trench 
the top spit of the next 2 feet in breadth, and from below this to 
dig out a foot of the fresh subsoil and place it on the other, and so 
proceed till there is a foot in thickness of this bottom soil, which 
has been buried for centuries, all over the piece, the best soil being 
then a foot under the worst. This is dangerous teaching. I have 
seen £80 spent in trenching a piece of land in that way, and more 
than that expended in manure for making the bad soil grow some¬ 
thing ; but no good crops were had till the whole piece was 
trenched over again, and then the cost incurred was twice as much 
as the freehold was worth. That is not finding gold by deep 
digging, but squandering it, and there are thousands of similar 
examples on a smaller scale of doing what is really important work 
wrongly. 
The right way is to so dig a trench that only a little of the fresh 
subsoil—an inch or so—is mixed with the better surface soil, break¬ 
ing up the subsoil and leaving it at the bottom of the trench ; and 
if it can be covered with vegetable refuse of any kind (except deep¬ 
rooting weeds), green or decayed, the bad soil will be made better, 
and more of it can be turned up at the next digging. By breaking 
up the subsoil the air enters, and with it fertilising matter from the 
layer above, and so by degrees a greater mass of sound good soil is 
obtained, the larder for containing plant food is enlarged, and a 
much greater amount of produce can be grown accordingly. That 
is digging deep but digging prudently. In the London market 
gardens the soil is uniformly good to the depth of 2 to 3 feet, and 
by liberal manuring and close cropping the occupiers are able to 
pay rents of £10 to £15 per acre, and obtain a good return on their 
outlay, enterprise, and skill. 
Never dig ground when it is frozen, covered with snow, or when 
the surface treads into a puddle. It would be better to pay a man 
for resting than for working under these conditions, for digging in 
ice of necessity lowers the temperature of the soil, and trampling 
on it when wet squeezes out the air. When the work is done with 
the greatest ease and comfort to the workman it is done the most 
efficiently, and it can be done better and easier with forks than 
spades in heavy soil. Light porous soils should not be manured 
and dug in the autumn, or the winter rains will wash out the 
nutriment, and the larder will be comparatively bare by the 
summer. 
Another word on manure. Do not, as a rule, bury it deeply ; 
or at least have some not far from the surface, so that the roots 
can quickly reach the food it contains. Its virtues are being con¬ 
tinually washed down, and if deep at the first they are driven 
down deeper from and not to the roots of the plants and crops they 
are intended to support. 
(To be continued.) 
CALANTHE?. 
The earliest potted Calanthes should now be showing signs of 
vigorous growth, and the roots will have commenced to freely enter 
the new soil. These must be watered with the utmost care. W hen 
these plants are in full growth and have abundance of active roots 
they require liberal supplies of water. In their present condition 
serious consequences will follow the application of too much water.. 
The soil should be kept as near as possible in an intermediate 
state, the roots will then enter it freely and robust growth will 
follow. If, on the other hand, the soil is kept too wet the foliage 
will become spotted, and the pseudo-bulbs decrease in size. The 
inexperienced more frequently fail by saturating the soil in the 
early stages of growth than by employing an unsuitable compost, 
or subjecting the plants to an unsuitable temperature. If water is 
sparingly given at first and gradually increased as the plants advance 
in growth they will make satisfactory progress. 
A SUITABLE POSITION. 
Where the plants are arranged upon shelves or open lattice 
stages of wood more water is given to maintain moisture about the 
plants than is good for them. No plant does really well when the 
position it occupies is such that water has to be constantly given. 
Wherever practicable allow the pots to stand on a moisture-holding 
base where damping between the pots can be frequently practised. 
For some years we have resorted to a system of plunging the pots 
to their rims in cocoa-nut fibre refuse, which assists wonderfully in 
keeping the soil in a moderately moist condition without recourse 
to frequent waterings. If the pots are plunged, the atmosphere 
close, warm, and moist, very little water will be needed before 
roots are freely produced. It is necessary to shade the plants 
from bright sunshine. 
SYRINGING. 
This may be practised, but should be done carefully, merely 
dewing the plants lightly early in the morning when there is a 
prospect of a bright day. A too frequent use of the syringe often 
results in spotted foliage, because it brings about a too wet con¬ 
dition of the soil. If done lightly very little water will lodge in 
the young growth, and this will do no harm provided conditions are 
suitable for it to be evaporated daily. 
RETARDING. 
In many places the pseudo-bulbs are retarded with the object 
