30 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Renewing, from page 4, our consideration of the horti¬ 
cultural uses of Carbonate of Ammonia, we may com¬ 
mence hy laying down this general rule :— Never apply 
an ammoniacal or other stimulating manure to the roots 
of plants except when they are growing strongly. We 
include all liquid manures within this rule, and to apply 
such manures to the wounded roots of newly-planted 
vegetables, or to sickly plants already sinking beneath 
the ordinary stimulus of light, is so contrary to common 
sense, to say nothing of universal experience, that it 
only requires to he pointed out to he appreciated. 
We quite agree with Mr. Beaton in his dread of re 
commending the use of any salt (and carbonate of am¬ 
monia is one in chemical classification), because we 
have witnessed such fatal consequences from their igno¬ 
rant and thoughtless employment. Thus, we once knew 
a man who planted his potatoes hy aid of the dibble, 
and who abused us for not explaining that the salt we 
recommended was not to he put into the holes along 
with the sets! 
All saline manures require to he used with the greatest 
caution, and in a very diluted, or weakened, form. Thus 
carbonate of ammonia should never he used stronger 
than half an ounce to a gallon of water. If gas ammo¬ 
niacal liquor is used, a pint of it to a gallon of water is 
a good proportion. Tims weakened it is a powerful 
manure, and may be applied at any time to all growing 
plants cultivated for their leaves; hut to those cultivated 
for their flowers or fruit, not untif after the appearance 
of the blossom buds. 
We need only remind our readers, to enforce the im¬ 
portance of carbonate of ammonia as a manure, that all 
the dungs they employ are rich, that is, a small quantity 
is efficacious, just in proportion to the abundance of 
ammonia they contain. Guano, night soil, fatting pigs’ 
and pigeons’ dung, are powerful, and abound in am¬ 
monia, just in the order we have enumerated them. 
We have seen the carbonate of ammonia employed, 
greatly to the increase of their vigour and productive¬ 
ness, upon cabbages, rhubarb, and asparagus. Of its 
effects on other crops we have the following evidence:— 
Mr. Paynter, of Bos Kenna, in Cornwall, lias given the 
result of an experiment made with the water on a piece of 
barley land :— 
“ A quarter of an acre was taken in the middle of a field 
of rather close soil in a granite district. The land was of 
average quality. The gas water was distributed over the 
quarter acre hy a contrivance resembling that of a common 
watering-cart, and at the rate of about 400 gallons to the 
acre. About a week before seed-time, the rest of the field 
was manured in the usual way. The difference both in 
colour and rigour of the barley plant was so strikingly in 
favour of the part manured hy the gas water, that persons 
passing within view of the field almost invariably came to 
inquire about the cause. The yield also w r as superior, as well 
as the after pasture —the field having been laid down with 
the barley.” 
The London Horticultural Society instituted experiments 
upon manures for the improvement of lawns, and the con¬ 
clusion arrived at was extremely in favour of gas liquor, when 
compared with other manures.— ( Johnson's Gardener’s Alma¬ 
nack.) 
The following are the results of experiments made hy 
Mr. Wilson, of Largs (county of Ayr), in 1841, and commu¬ 
nicated by him to the Philosophical Society in Glasgow. A 
piece of three-years-old pasture, of uniform quality, was 
[October 17. 
divided into ten lots of twenty perches each, old Scotch mea¬ 
sure, which, being treated as follows, produced respectively 
the quantities of well-made hay marked opposite each. The 
value of each application was the same, viz., 5s., or at the 
rate of £2 per acre. All were applied at the same time, viz., 
April loth, and the grass cut and made into hay in July fol¬ 
lowing :— 
Lot 
Produce 
per Lot. 
lbs. 
Rate 
per Acre, 
lbs. 
Increase 
per Acre, 
lbs. 
1 
Left untouched . 
420 
3360 
2 
2$ barrels of quicklime added 
602 
4816 
1456 
3 
20 cwt. of lime from Gas Works .. 
651 
5208 
1848 
4 
4£ cwt. of wood charcoal powder 
665 
5320 
i 960 
5 
2 bushels of bone-dust. 
693 
5544 
2184 
6 
18 lbs. of nitrate of potash. 
742 
5936 
2576 
7 
20 lbs. of nitrate of soda . 
784 
6272 
2912 
8 
2$ bolls (10 bushels) of soot. 
819 
6552 
3192 
9 
28 lbs. of sulphate of ammonia .. 
874 
6776 
3416 
10 
_ 
100 galls, of ammoniacal liquor from Gas 
Works at 5° of Tweeddell’s hydrom. 
915 
7662 
4200 
Concurrent testimony with this is given hy a gentleman 
residing in Monmouthshire, who says— 
“ In the beginning of April I watered half a clay-land 
meadow, of five acres, with ammoniacal liquor, diluted with 
five times the quantity of clear pond water. In three days, 
I perceived that all the moss, and many of the finer blades 
of grass, close to the ground, were destroyed. The hulk of 
the herbage, however, appeared to he unaffected; hut in a 
week’s time there was a decided improvement in the portion 
manured; and, from that time to this, there has been an 
increased quantity and a very improved quality of grass. Its 
colour is darker than the other. Any stock prefer grazing 
on that side of the meadow. In the last week in May, I 
mixed one part ammoniacal liquor with ten of liquid manure 
from an open cesspool, which receives all the rain-water and 
drainage from my fold and dwelling-house, and watered the 
half of a second meadow. The effect is extraordinary, the 
herbage is much improved and thickened, the colour a 
healthy dark green, and the growth materially accelerated. 
There is double the quantity as compared with the unma¬ 
nured portion. The cattle, sheep, and horses, prefer the 
former. Had my cesspool been a covered one, I think one 
part to ten would have been too strong ; but I am this week 
building an enclosed tank, and intend making other experi¬ 
ments.”—( Gardener's Chronicle, 1842 and 1843.) 
Nor are these the only witnesses to the same purpose, for 
Mr. Cotton, of Hildersliam Hall, near Cambridge, lias also 
found it highly beneficial to grass; and another gentleman, 
in Dorsetshire, who tried gas liquor on his meadow, states, 
that “ It was applied in May, and wherever the water-cart 
passed with the ammoniacal liquor, its course could be traced 
by the darker green of the grass.” 
The carbonate of ammonia is also useful to the culti¬ 
vator in other ways than when applied to the roots of 
plants. Thus, it offers also to the farmer and the gar¬ 
dener a powerful remedy against one of their greatest 
enemies, the louse or green-fly (Aphis), which attacks 
their pea, bean, and other crops so destructively. I 
have found it equally effective in destroying the black 
louse (Aphis cerasi), which is occasionally so injurious 
to the Morello cherry. Dr. Lindley states (Gardener's 
Chronicle, 1843, page 477), that it has lately been ascer¬ 
tained hy Mr. George Gordon, the Superintendent of 
the Hardy Department in the Garden of the Horticul¬ 
tural Society, that the ammoniacal liquor of the gas 
works, diluted with water, is a certain remedy for the 
green-fly, which has been so unusually abundant during 
the present year. He has found that although gas 
water in its undiluted state burns foliage whenever it 
touches it, yet that plants do not suffer from it when 
considerably weakened with water, 
i It appears that when the London gas liquor is mixed 
