[ Jana 23. lt$7. 
502 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
friends condemn the dribbling system, it is infinitely better for out¬ 
door tilings than severe duckings of cold well water ; and we have 
been sometimes grieved to see the poor cottager watering his plants 
as he would a lime heap, by bucketsful at a time, while his plants 
were absolutely perishing before him. 
In concluding this article on planting, we must not omit to enter 
our protest against another practice we have seen adopted, which is, 
puddling the plants, by drawing their roots through a substance of 
clayey mud, made as thick as batter, aiid planting them with what 
adhered to them ; this was bad, because the sealed-up condition 
that the rootlets were in is sadly against their after ramifying for 
food ; while the only benefit, if it even be one, is, that they perhaps 
do not flag so much at the precise moment ; but this is dearly 
bought by the difficulties it places in the plant’s way afterwards.— 
R. J. N. _ • 
ROSE-GROWING FOR BEGINNERS. 
(Continued from page 457.) 
LIQUID MANURES AND STIMULANTS. 
After the beginner has reaped his first crop of Roses, if he 
still intend to persevere and improve the quality of his flowers— 
and I suppose most folk like to go on improving—he will begin to 
make inquiries how he can best effect his object. Provided he has 
plenty of air and light, and his drainage has been attended to, the 
only means of doing this, as far as I know, is by the use of lime, 
manures, and stimulants. I am not going to enter into any long 
and tedious explanation of these matters ; what I have to say will, 
I think, be to the point. 
LIME. 
What will this do for us ? 
Applied to heavy clays, it lightens them and makes them easier 
to work. 
Applied to light, poor soils (in the form of chalk), it stiffens 
and consolidates them. 
It neutralises and removes noxious matters from the soil, and 
promotes the decomposition of all organic matters therein. 
It combines with and holds manures in soils. 
It improves barren sands. 
It prevents disease, and ripens crops at an earlier date. 
It kills seeds of weeds and fungi, and in pastures destroys weeds 
and worthless grasses, while forming and encouraging the growth of 
sweet and nutritious herbage. 
It destroys moss, grubs, snails, &c. 
It liberates the mineral matter in the soil. 
It supplies to the plant ingredients indispensable to fertility. 
But remember— 
Lime exhausts the land. 
Lime gives two crops instead of one, but when the land is 
exhausted it ceases to act. 
These facts should be sufficient to satisfy most people as to the 
advantages of lime, so I will pass on to say in what state we should 
apply it to the different kinds of soil. 
On clay lands, or such as are boggy, marshy, or peaty, or contain 
a quantity of inert vegetable matter, quicklime will do most good. 
The more freshly slaked, the more powerful the result. It should 
be applied when the land is fallow', and manure should not be 
allowed to come in contact with it. 
On light sandy soils quicklime, is not advisable ; here it burns 
up the vegetable matter too quickly,.And renders the land in a 
short time poorer than before. For this kind of land chalk is most 
suitable, but quicklime can be turned' into something very like 
chalk—viz., carbonate of lime, by exposure to the weather ; it loses 
all its caustic properties by absorbing water and carbon from the 
atmosphere, and is then in a suitable; state for applying to light 
soils. It may be put on in this state at any time. 
Soil should not contain less than 3 per cent, of lime, wffiile it is 
not considered any advantage to add more than from 6 to 10 
per cent. To add 1 per cent of lime to any soil 12 inches deep, w r e 
should require 1G tons per acre, so that to give 3 per cent. w r e 
should have to apply 48 tons. As s.oil containing as much as 
38 per cent, of chalk or carbonate of lime has produced good crops, 
I do not think we need have much fear of overdoing it. 
One of the best plans of applying lime to land in cultivation is 
in the form of compost; that is, when it has been thrown together 
for some time — the longer the better—with soil, weeds, road 
scrapings, &c., and left to amalgamate! This mixture, when old, 
may be applied at any time without danger to plants, and possesses 
this advantage over lime laid up alone to become slaked, that it has 
already undergone some chemical changes that are favourable to 
plant life. 
Where our operations are extensive supplying the neces¬ 
sary lime to our land becomes a serious consideration. The 
cheapest plan I know is to procure gas Thne in quantity, and 
when the roads and ditches are cleaned, to get in an equal quantity 
of these scrapings, and mix the two together. This, after being 
allowed to stand for one .or two years, forms a most enriching, 
compost for any soil. 
Where w r e grow Roses for exhibition our aim is to enable our 
plants to get the whole benefit of the manure in a very short time ; 
this being our object, we have to turn all the manure into plant 
food. We may do this by the application of quicklime and common 
salt ; the quicklime may be added to the soil first, and then watered 
in with water in which the salt has been dissolved. Salt should not 
be applied stronger than at the rate of 2 cwt. per acre. (This 
operation should only be carried out at a time w r hen the Roses are 
in full growth.) 
To ascertain if a soil contain lime, a little of it should be put 
into a glass vessel and strong vinegar poured on. If the liquid boil 
or effervesce, this shows that lime is present. 
Where land contains already a sufficiency of lime, it will be a 
waste of time and money to add more, and although all plants 
contain a certain proportion of lime, still lime itself is more of a 
stimulant than a manure, as it acts mostly in preparing other 
manures for the plant, and removing or neutralising noxious 
matters in the soil. It is said to be the basis of all good 
husbandry. 
As lime turns all the manure in soil into plant-food, most 
people will understand that when the plant-food is exhausted,, 
more manure must be added to the soil—a water mill cannot work 
without water to turn the wheel, neither can lime work except it 
has something to work on. 
MANURES. 
There are three kinds of manure — vegetable, animal, and 
mineral. Vegetable manure consists of grass, hay, Potato tops, &c., 
but the most valuable form, and that most used by gardeners, is 
turf, or the roots of the grasses and other plants, this being the 
basis of the material used in potting Roses. Peat, bog stuff, and 
swamp mud are also vegetable manure ; the two latter are useful 
on sandy or light land. 
Animal manures are blood, bones, the excrement of animals, 
night soil, and bodies and refuse of fish. Blood is generally sold in 
a dry state, and is said to be a powerful manure. Bones crushed or 
ground to powder, or dissolved in acid, form an excellent manure. 
For permanent effect they are best put in as half-inch bones, but 
where we wish them to act quickly it is better to have them 
dissolved. . ; 
The droppings of animals, otherwise farmyard manure, is the 
mainstay of the Rose grower. For light soils cow manure is best, 
as it holds the moisture much longer than any other. Horse 
manure is more valuable than that of the cow, and is preferable 
for strong soils. Night soil is a very sti’ong manure, and should be 
mixed with its own bulk of soil, and be a'lowed to lie for at least 
three months before being applied to Roses ; then, as a top-dressing, 
it is excellent ; if mixed with coai’se ashes the land is better without 
it. Guano is usually such rubbish that I consider it a waste of 
money to purchase it. 
Mineral manures are principally mineral phosphate, nitrate of 
soda, sulphate of ammonia, soot, and lime. The last I have already 
spoken of. Mineral phosphate is now supposed by the authorities 
to be more valuable, cost for cost, than dissolved bones. It may be 
had either dissolved or in a natural state ; dissolved, it acts quickly; 
undissolved, more slowly. 
House sewage is a very valuable manure for dry lands, but on 
heavy ill-drained soils only the solid parts can be applied, which are 
the least valuable. 
In the present state of ignorance in which we stand as regards 
the component parts of Roses, the safest plan to follow is to use 
farmyard manure principally ; the artificials must be looked upon 
simply as auxiliary to this. . 
The three principal elements that are removed from soils by 
plants are phosphates, nitrates, and potash. All these three 
elements, and many others, are contained in farmyard manure, and 
they are not present in such quantities or in such forms as to be 
injurious to plant life. In using artificial manures many people 
lose sight of the fact that 100 lbs. of ordinary farmyard manure 
contains about 75 lbs. of water ; the phosphates amount to less 
than half a pound ; the ammonia to about three-quarters of a 
pound, and the potash to less than 1 lb. In applying artificials 
alone we should be guided by a calculation of the quantities of the 
aforesaid phosphates, &c* contained in the weight of farmyard 
manure we are in the habit of applying, and not go much beyond 
them. 
Bones, applied in excess, are apt, on dry soils, or in dry seasons, 
do burn plants exposed to their influence. The cheapest way to 
apply potash is to dress the land with clay. This applies only to 
