74 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
July 26,1894. 
the type or in the state nighest Nature, while disease is rifest in 
the oldest and highest cultivated. This is a very ancient fact. 
The cultivated Rose is subject to mildew, rust, and insects to a 
far greater extent than the Dog Rose ; couch grass withstands 
rust and mildew attacks better than cereals grown for fodder or 
food. What does all this mean? Forcing! Cultivation, inter¬ 
fering with Nature by deep stirring, mixing of earths, sustaining 
and increasing the soil’s fertility by the application of manures- 
The result is that certain crops are accelerated and increased, while 
others are absolutely surfeited—that is, they sicken and fall a prey 
to parasites. Then there comes a change of crops, called rotation, 
and a change from vegetable or animal manures to mineral, termed 
chemical or artificial. All this is dated from the dawn of history. 
The ancient Romans used lime as a manure for fruit trees ; nitre 
was known in the time of Jeremiah, and it all amounts to this : 
Cultivation must be conducted on the laws governing Nature, or 
departure therefrom will result in disease, and that proportionate 
to the extent of their disobservance. 
Our French friends cultivated Peaches successfully long before 
us, and we some time in advance of our kinsmen across the Atlantic. 
Strange, but no less true, yellows made great havoc in American 
Peach orchards before its presence was recognised in this country, 
and scarcely was known in France. Yet there is nothing singular 
about these facts when we come to examine them closely. France 
is the home of chemical manures, England of “ muck,” and 
America of ashes. Chlorosis has been, to a great extent, prevented 
by a judicious use of animal and mineral manures in France, 
so that the same districts are as famous for Peaches as before the 
advent of the malady, and the French cultivators have proved that 
virgin soil is not an absolute necessity in Peach culture. With 
them it is only a matter of so much solid manure at intervals to 
supply the needed humus, and of chemical substances so applied 
as to keep the soil sweet and sustain the requisite fertility of the 
ground for the benefit of the trees, their health, and production 
of profitable crops. In this country it is the abundant “ muck.” 
If Grapes shank we are advised to cover the soil several inches 
thick with fresh cow manure because the soil is light and the 
Grapes shank for lack of support. In the case of Peaches it is 
always the cry—Lift the trees, lay the roots in fresh soil near the 
surface. It is the virgin loam from parks and pastures that has 
staved off yellows in England, but everything comes to an end ; 
many cannot now procure fresh loam every time the Peach trees 
in some places go wrong, and it is there where they have the yellows 
most. Some, however, defy yellows by the use of chemical 
manures along with applications of organic matter. Peach trees 
grown in pots are occasionally afflicted with chlorosis, but if the 
cultivator is wide awake he takes advantage of the first signs of 
paleness in the leaves, and gives a sprinkling of Thomas’phosphate 
soot, superphosphate, and other mineral substances, and the trees 
soon put on a shining green colour. Those doing this are chiefly 
growers for sale. They know nothing about virgin loam, and 
care less, for it is with them a question of manufacturing a quantity 
of the best goods out of the commonest and readiest material. 
In America everybody considers wood ashes the best manure for 
fruits, but it does not save their Peach trees from the yellows.— 
G. Abbey. 
(To be continued.) 
ONIONS—SCARES AND THEIR LESSONS. 
The crop of Onions this year promises to be a most remarkable 
one. Probably breadths either of autumn or spring-sown have 
rarely looked better than now. The odd fact in relation to Onions 
is that only last year we were all at our wit's end seeking for and 
advising remedies of all descriptions for the maggot, and there was 
a sort of belief abroad that unless these remedies were found the 
days of spring-sown Onions were over, the crop doomed, the 
maggot reigning triumphant. The present condition of things 
shows us most clearly the folly of getting up a scare because for 
a season or two appearances seem to be against us. The most 
deadly of garden pests probably is the Potato fungus, and yet it 
has no terror for us now. It was not so long since that it was 
gravely proposed to enact a special Act of Parliament to keep out 
the Potato beetle. The beetle, however, like the scare, was a fraud. 
The phylloxera was to destroy our Vines, but the insect proved 
to be chiefly an entomological curiosity ; and as to the Vine fungus, 
or Oidium Tuckeri, it simply disappeared all at once, and gives 
very little trouble to anyone. The chief object these sort of pests 
serve seems to be to frighten poor gardeners out of their wits for 
a few years, then to die away, satisfied with what alarm they have 
caused. 
I was exceedingly struck with what Mr. Davis of Manresa 
House Gardens told me recently with respect to his wonderful and 
giant Hamburgh Vine. Taking hold of the loose skin or bark of a 
branch he said, “ You see I never strip the bark of my Vine,” and 
I added, “What is your experience of ailments in relation to it?” 
and he said, “ Just none at all. I have never had any trouble what¬ 
ever with pests of any sort. That is, too, an experience of over 
thirty years.” Is it not after all the case that many of these alarms 
and complaints started are circulated without sufflcient reason ? It 
is because I think so that I have gone a little wide of my original 
subject to draw attention to this fact, and I venture to think that 
if we heard rather less in the future about pests and enemies to 
garden crops we should get along quite as well, and have much less 
frequent cause for alarm. 
The present condition of the Onion crop is a case in point, 
and shows us that after all Nature is as ready with her antidotes 
as she is with her banes. The Onion maggot is a defunct creature 
for this season, at least, simply because Nature has drowned it. 
Last year we had so much of warmth and sunshine that all the moth 
tribe, human and insect, enjoyed it immensely, and as a result the 
Onion moth was exceedingly active. It laid its eggs in myriads, and 
its creeping progeny was terribly destructive. The same warmth, 
which made life so enjoyable for the moths, also checked vegetable 
growth, and the two things operated to the detriment of our 
Onions. Still, humanity grumbled greatly over the heat and 
drought, so that this year, by way of equipoise, there has been a 
reverse state of things—just so much of rain as last year we 
had of drought, and as a consequence splendid growth of Onions 
and the extermination of the maggot, and yet humanity is not 
happy. 
The moral of this maggot scare is that we should, whenever it 
crops up again, keep our heads cool. Still farther, as remedy not 
fly to quack medicines, but to drown the pest with cold water 
artificially furnished, just as Nature did the deed so thoroughly 
for us this spring. "Two good results would follow from that 
action—killing the insects and causing the Onion breadths to grow 
with increased vigour, so that the plants would soon be out of 
harm’s way did a few belated maggots still live. 
Now we hear of fear lest the moisture that still falls occasionally 
should prevent the swelling of the bulbs and cause too much top 
growth. There is no reason to be alarmed on that head. Still, 
common prudence renders it desirable to perform the usual practice 
of bending down the tops, first gently pressing the necks to make 
them supple or yielding, rather earlier than is usual, as the check 
thus given to the ascent of sap will materially help to swell the 
bulbs. 
So far as I have seen, however, I have found ample reason to 
believe that about the end of September there will be found not 
only a wonderful crop of Onions, but also, where duly thinned or 
otherwise planted for that purpose, some of the finest and heaviest 
bulbs ever seen. Where the soil was in the spring made very firm 
there are already seen much better results in the formation of 
bulbs than is the case where the soil was left untrodden and is 
light and loose. No doubt in every case so much of heavy rain 
has settled the soil down, but the hardening before the sowing is 
always good practice, as in the case of a hot dry season it checks 
maggot development, and in a wet season checks coarse top-growth. 
We have few vegetable crops that are more profitable, and with 
good culture, more productive, than is the Onion when bulbs are 
fully matured.—A. D. 
THE NUTRITION OF ROOTS. 
I HOPE the discussion on the above subject is not exhausted* 
What is more, I trust the matter has not exhausted the writers or 
readers of the Journal of Horticulture. 
Cannot some scientific reader state for the benefit of others 
what food is taken from the soil by the plant; how the plant takes 
it into its system; what changes it undergoes, if any, before it 
reaches the leaves, or what functions it performs ; what changes it 
undergoes in the leaf, and what are the compounds formed there ; 
what becomes of the plant food, and of the matter objectionable 
