THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
472 
It will lie seen, that one of my chief objects in thus 
handling this subject has been to draw a line between 
what are called organic, and the other inorganic, ma¬ 
nures; or, in the language of some, natural and artificial 
manures. By such a distinction, properly recognized, 
much economy will result, and about the propriety of eco¬ 
nomizing, with all our might, in the manure question, in 
these times, no man of sanity would doubt. It is not 
against the proper use of manures that a discerning 
public has raised its voice; it is the lurking jealousy, 
but too well founded, of a fearful amount of prodigality 
in by-gone days. Science has at least done thus much 
for us; it has shown us, that not in manures alone 
must success be sought in culture ; and that it is quite 
possible to throw away a high per centage off those we 
employ, through a misconception of the condition of the I 
soil, or of the character of the manure. 
There are numerous crops of the kitchen-garden, to ■ 
say nothing of the farm, which may be produced in 
superior style with a very moderate amount of manure, | 
and in the most economical way imaginable; but I 
much fear the practice I pursue will appear too simple j 
for some persons; he that as it may, the practice is of 
much importance. The crops I allude to are mainly of \ 
the shallow-rooting class, and, for the most part, things 
which do not remain above two or three months on the 
ground. I may here quote a few as in point, viz:— 
Lettuce, Spinach, Endive, Turnips, Horn Carrots, 
Radishes, Kidney Beans, Cress, Corn Salad, Chervil, &c. 
Most of these require a speedy stimulus, rather than 
such a depth and power of soil as we should deem 
necessary in July for a plantation of Spring Brocoli. j 
Now, to manure’' for them in the ordinary way, is to 
prepare, rather, for other and succeeding crops, than for 
the present one. I, for one, am of opinion, that a farmer 
or gardener is by no means in duty bound to manure 
for his grandsons; let them, I say, manure for them¬ 
selves. In other words, I do not call that the highest 
order of gardening or farming, which manures, “ hap-at- 
a-venture,” for three or four crops in succession; as I 
before observed, there is ever some portion of the 
manure in a soluble state, and, if not taken up by crops, 
must pass off during wet periods into the nearest ditch. 
Of course, there are some well-known rotations in farm¬ 
ing matters, well approved, by long experience, and in 
general adapted to some system, which, as a whole, 
cannot be compromised with impunity. Also, in 
gardens, some of our really experienced gardeners have 
points of this kind which I have not the temerity to 
impugn. But, where no special reason, founded on 
experience, exists, I say, that as a general rule, it will be 
best to apportion the manure, or compost, and culture, to 
the crop it is intended to produce. The only real 
exception that can be made to this practice, as far as I 
am aware, is this, that by the very frequent use of 
artificial composts to the partial exclusion of organic 
matter, such as the strawy materials in dung, &c., the 
soil is apt to become too fine, and averse to the free 
transmission of moisture, &c. 
By the help of tree-leaves, however, sawdust and 
weeds, slightly charred, I find that I can readily repair 
this damage. 
To come to the point, then, as to the carrying out such 
a practice by system; I say, let every one regularly char 
slightly all weeds, as I do, and collect the residue into a 
heap, in a conical form to exclude rain. Let saw¬ 
dust be added to it, as much in volume, or nearly so, as 
the charred material, the whole well turned and mixed ; 
and as the compost is required for any given crop, sow 
a little Peruvian guano on the portion to be used imme¬ 
diately, and some dried soot; half-a-gallon of the guano, 
and about a peck of soot, will suffice for a cart-load of 
the compost. I am this day (September 0) going to sow 
Turnips—the Dutch, on some narrow borders, by this 
September 19. 
mode, the ground undug. The fact is, they are fruit- 
tree borders, and may not be dug; and I find I can raise 
as neat and good-flavoured Turnips on the manuring of 
these as the field can produce. We merely draw a 
broad drill with the hoe flat, about three inches deep ; 
the compost is then covered in the drill by hand, and the 
seed on this compost. I have, this summer, produced as 
fine a crop of Kidney Potatoes by this compost as by a 
good dressing of manure; indeed, finer. Having two 
divisions of wall-bordering, facing the south, and wishing 
to obtain some nice early Ash leaved Kidneys for the 
cook, I manured one division, and used compost in the 
other, and the compost division was at the least equal 
to the manuring, though the cost could scarcely be 
a quarter as much. 
In many cases it will be found where the soil is not 
very solid and intractable, that a deep drill, with about 
an inch or so of this compost, will produce very re¬ 
spectable crops of such things as I have quoted here. 
As for Turnips, I never dare dig for them in the kitchen- 
garden ; they are even better in the drills here alluded to. 
It must not be supposed, that in this discursive view 
of the manure affair, I have settled the question, or left 
it in the most satisfactory shape; the matter has wide 
bearings, and will bear another chapiter or two, in due 
time. Let me hope to put other and longer heads to the 
consideration of this useful theme. R. Errington. 
PYRAMIDAL PELARGONIUMS. 
“ The constant dropping of water wears away the 
hardest stone,” but a far more beautiful process, by the 
constant action of water on very hard stones and rocks, 
has never, as far as I know, been the subject of an adage. 
I have often bathed in a natural vase, made by the rush¬ 
ing of torrents of water falling over the rocky bed of a 
river, and I have caught trout which were trapped in 
such vases—the sides and bottom of the vase being quite 
as smooth as the skin of a salmon; I have also urged the 
plan of having pyramidal plants of the different kinds 
of Geraniums, or Pelargoniuns, ever since I heard of it, 
without being aware that my appeals had made any 
impression till this very day; but it seems that the 
“ constant dropping,” or the rushing, has, at last, 
worn away the prejudice in favour of “ squat ” plants, 
and I am appealed to, at last, to smooth the process, as 
if by the rushing of waters, so as to make it plain and 
easy for our correspondent “ Verax"—Truth himself, to 
have a dip into it. 
Those who have the power of a hothouse, might very 
easily lay the foundation for a pyramid Geranium during 
the next winter. That is by far the easiest way to get a 
young plant, struck this summer, to run up in a short 
time with one leader, and that was the way I acted with 
the framework of those beautiful pyramids and standards 
which I mentioned this time last year, in my account of 
a visit to Shrublaud Park. 
In a former volume, I told of a lot of young plants of 
the fancy Geranium, called Queen Victoria, which I win¬ 
tered in a stove; and between August and May, that is, 
from the rooting of the cuttings till the time they showed 
the first bloom, and had them up above four feet each. 
I wanted them for standards, and when once they got 
into bloom, I had somo difficulty in keeping down side- 
shoots, and in getting them much higher that season, as 
this, and all the kinds of “ fancies,” show bloom at every 
second or third joint of young growth all through the 
summer. However, there they are to this day; some as 
standards, some as pyramids; and all of them seven or 
eight years old, and as healthy when I saw them at rest, 
last September, as any plants need be; so that no one 
need fear that his plants would soon w'ear out from the 
over stimulus. But why talk only of Geranium pyramids? 
