192 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
I JlOTjfl 9i 1890. 
cases of this nature, exceptions will occur.— William Paul, Paul's 
Kurseries, Waltham Cross, Jltrts. 
SPINACH. 
Where Spinach is wanted all the year round it requires some 
attention to have an unbroken supply. The two periods which 
are the most likely to see a scarcity being during winter or early 
spring, and in early autumn or late summer. The winter and 
spring season can only be bridged over by means of one or two 
large sowings, and the warm season by small sowings made at short 
intervals. I do not know whether the having a somewhat light soil 
to deal with has anything to do with it, but the fact remains that 
this is one of the most troublesome of all vegetables, and my 
experience shows that it is necessary to divide its cultivation into 
two fairly well defined sections, the first for the summer and 
autumn supply, and the second for winter and spring. 
The earliest sowings present no difficulty. A few dozen yards 
in lines made every ten days, beginning with the first suitable 
weather in February, secures an ample supply to come in the 
beginning of May and before the autumn sown crop is fairly over. 
About the end of May the fresh sowings need special attention, 
and right on througn the summer months extra care is needed. 
If there is time for the work shallow trenches should be made 
wide enough to get two rows in at 10 inches apart. In the bottom 
of the trench a thickness of 4 inches of decaying manure should 
be placed, 3 inches of soil above that, then the seed, and another 
3 inches of soil, leaving a hollow of about a couple of inches below 
the general level. If weather be dry the bottom of the trench 
should be watered before placing in the manure, and the soil on 
which the seed rests must be mcistened before sowing, though it 
is not necessary to moisten the top layer. The seed very soon 
germinates, and if the plants are 4 to 6 inches apart that will be 
quite close enough. Whenever drooping is noticed water must 
be run down the middle of the trench ; it need not be much, only 
sufficient to moisten the manure. This treatment gives medium¬ 
sized leaves and staves off flowering. 
The winter supply is .sown on soil which has been cropped with 
second early Potatoes, and the seed is sown from the beginning of 
August until the beginning of September. In some seasons the 
earlier sowings do better than the latest, in others it is just the 
reverse ; but all sowings made during the period between these 
dates do well. No dung is given to the crop, as richness of soil 
at this season is not wanted, but rather a short firm growth. The 
young plants should be thinned from 6 to 9 inches apart, and 
the rows must be at least 12 inches the one from the other. In¬ 
stead of rows a few dozen yards long in the aggregate the winter 
crop must be of some magnitude. Where constant pickings, say 
from three to five a week, are made all through the winter it 
requires a good quantity of plants to bridge over the season of non¬ 
production of foliage, 25 to 30 square poles not being too much. 
In picking only a few leaves should be taken off a plant at one 
time, and these well developed. When growth sets in on the 
return of spring a slight dressing of nitre will be found of great 
benefit in quickening growth. The crop can, of course, be partially 
destroyed when leaf production sets in vigorously, and the entire 
crop should be off the ground before the flowering stems make 
progress, as at this stage Spinach becomes an exhausting crop. As 
to the best variety to grow, and where one has to give “ substitutes ” 
the go-by, there is something in a variety slow to rush into flower. 
The most promising I have tried, and I have tried every variety 
I have seen offered, is one named “ Paresseux de Catillon.” This, 
the common round-leaved for spring and winter, the prickly seeded 
for the latter season, and the monstrous Yiroflay, are the varieties 
I am growing this year.—B. 
TREATMENT OF MANURES. 
Mr. Bishop’s treatment of artificial manures is rancorous ; he 
never omits an opportunity of abusing them, and never assigns any 
substantial reason for so doing. He says that while with most 
artificial manures some fail, home manure is sure to suit the soil 
in its district (implying, I suppose, that out of its district it might 
not be so suitable). He appears to have been much struck at seeing 
an artificial manure manufacturer dressing his land with farmyard 
manure. I should have been equally struck if the manufacturer 
had not utilised his home manure. No one disputes the value of 
farmyard manure, hut that is no reason for abusing another 
manure as good or batter. Mr. Bishop goes on to say that in his 
opinion more disease has been created amongst vegetation by 
artificial manures than we are aware of, but gives no justification 
or explanation of this mysterious charge. In the opinion of many 
gardeners, and others equally well informed, insects are created by 
those dull, heavy days when they knowingly inform us there is a 
blight in the air, and subsequently with great satisfaction to them¬ 
selves prove their statements by showing the presence of the-insects- 
on the various plants. To me it appears that the two opinions are- 
of equal value. 
All manures sold as artificial are not suitably compocmdfed for 
the several crops for which they are intended; some are not genuine- 
and others are used unskilfully. In such cases failores may be 
expected. 
Much ignorance prevails both as to the nature and the proper 
application of artificial manure. There are some who are so- 
ignorant as to suppose that because a very small quantity of 
manure produces a beneficial effect therefore a much larger 
quantity will give a much better result. Others imagine that 
because such manures as superphosphate of lime, sulphate of 
ammonia, or nitrate of soda are under certain circumstances most- 
powerful fertilisers they are equally so under all. A plant is a 
complex structure of many materials, all of which are indispen¬ 
sable and very rarely interchangeable (in certain plants, principally 
those which grow in proximity to the sea potash takes the place of 
soda when they are cultivated inland). The principal materials- 
which specially require the attention of the cultivator are phos¬ 
phorus, potash, and lime, together with nitrogen. The other- 
materials not less indispensable are usually present in sufficient, 
quantities in ordinary soil. 
The most fertile soil contains but a limited quantity of these- 
materials, and each successive crop reduces that quantity until the 
time arrives when sufficient of one or more of them is no longer 
present, then manure becomes necessary ; but it is useless to supply 
superphosphate if there be not sufficient potash, or nitrogen if one 
or more of the other materials be absent, consequently many have 
failed with artificial manures through omitting to supply the- 
deficiencies of the materials necessary to perfect the structure of 
the plant. If only one constituent of a plant be absent from the- 
soil, though a full supply of all the others be present, the plant 
will not thrive or even grow. This explains many failures 
attributed to artificial manure, which are in reality not due to the 
manure, but to the ignorance of those who apply it.— ^Edmuni>- 
Tonks. _ 
NOTES ON EARLY ENGLISH HORTICULTURE. 
(^Continued from page 41.') 
London and Wise, chief gardeners during what might be called: 
the Dutch era in our country, left their impress on many establish¬ 
ments besides their own, for their services were much sought after 
by the patrons of horticulture, yet their style was only temporary. 
Addison, greatly charmed by some changes Wise had made in the- 
old part of Kensington Gardens, where he transformed a series of 
gravel pits into winding and terrace walks, compared him to an 
epic poet. Certainly bis poetry did not long continue in fashion,, 
the formality of the arrangement of gardens under this r%ime had 
a quaintness and oddity about it, but it was too artificial to be-^ 
pleasing. Perhaps Blenheim Gardens, as they, till about sixty 
years ago, presented one of the best examples of planning done by 
this firm. The principal flower garden was a copy of one at 
Versailles ; a lake or large pond occupied the centre, and it was- 
surrounded by circular paths, with shorter ones connecting these. 
Wanstead House, Essex, once notable as the residence of Wellesley 
Long Pole, was another place laid out by London and Wise, anct 
its park was considered a fair sample of their arrangement of 
avenues and shrubberies. 
Hampton Court grounds were placed by William III. in the 
hands of these gardeners for re-arrangement; they are supposed to- 
have planted its labyrinth or maze, though some think this of 
older date, and formed terraces in the privy or private garden^ 
cutting and disfiguring also many of the evergreens which had been 
introduced by Stuart gardeners. They constructed pits in the- 
kitchen garden for the production of early vegetables by earth 
heat, then a common practice. One device of the gardening of 
that age was certainly a good one ; this was the placing here and 
there what were known as “ prospect towers,” not usually carried to 
any great height, but structures with seats, so far elevated that a. 
garden or path could be viewed in a different aspect from what 
they present at the ordinary level of the eye. It was when the 
taste for the Dutch style was fast dying out that Dr. Blackwell, 
possibly a pupil of Wise’s, an Aberdeen man, of somewhat versa¬ 
tile geniu«, engaged to lay out the grounds of Canons, near 
Edgware, where the wealthy Duke of Chandos built a mansion in 
1712 (though some have conjectured that the work was chiefly done 
by the architect James, of Greenwich, who may have studied 
horticulture, as he translated Le Blond’s book on agriculture). 
