! Mat 8.] THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
W 
D 
MAY 8—14, 1851. 
Weather 
Barometer. 
near London in 1850. 
Thermo. Wind.j Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year i 
8 
Th 
Emperor Moth seen. 
29.573 — 29.369 
51—39 
N.W. 
0.22 
22 a. 4 
31 a. 7 
I 
28 
3 
3 
40 
128 
9 
F 
Burying Beetle seen. 
29.933 — 29.742 
54—29 
N.E. 
— 
20 
32 
2 
3 
8 
3 
44 
129 
in 
S 
Flvcatcher seen. 
[leaves 
29.997—29.959 
60—43 
SAW, 
— 
18 
34 
2 
33 
Q 
3 
47 
130 
11 
Sun 
3 Sunday after Easter. 
Aspen 
29.981 — 29.952 
62—47 
s.w. 
0.01 
17 
36 
2 
59 
10 
3 
4Q 
131 
iOl 
12 
M 
Wall Butterfly seen. 
30.002 — 29.94 6 
65—35 
N.W. 
0.01 
IS 
37 
3 
24 
1 1 
3 
51 
132 
13 
ru 
Old May Day. 
30.109—30.082 
62—33 
N.E. 
0.10 
14 
39 
3 
48 
12 
3 
53 
14 
w 
Orange-tip Moth seen. 
30.082—29.916 
59—41 
S.W. 
— 1 
12 
40 
4 
11 
13 
3 
54 
134 
As might be expected, whenever an amateur writes competently upon 
any art with which he is thoroughly conversant, he usually writes more 
instructively than does a contemporary practitioner of that art. This is 
to be expected, because the amateur knows, from comparatively recent ex¬ 
perience, the description of information of which he most stood in need, 
when first requiring instruction. He begins at the beginning of every 
operation ; he tells his readers every point about which care is required ; 
whereas, the professed artisan thinks “ every body knows ” all the ini¬ 
tiatory practices, and passes on to those which remain as difficulties, even 
to the proficient. Nor is this the only defect usual in the teaching by 
a practical man. He is, for the most part, a man of facts; he knows 
1 when and how a plant is to be propagated, and he tells you so in the 
j fewest possible number of words. Now, we admire brevity as much as 
brevity can be admired by any one who feels acutely that art is long, and 
life short; yet we must acknowledge our conviction that brevity is not 
| suited for teaching the uninstructed, nor for decoying the careless to be 
i attentive. Repetition and gradual explanation are required for the first, 
1 and amusement blended with instruction for the latter. We are made 
fully sensible of what we have here advanced, by the books now open 
before us. The Complete Gardener , by G. London, and H. Wise, two 
practical gardeners, and The Clergyman’s Recreation, shewing the plea¬ 
sure and profit of the Art of Gardening, by the Rev. John Lawrence. 
Editions of these books were published within a year of each other, early 
in the last century, yet two more striking contrasts—a more notable in¬ 
stance of the dry and brief, being born twin brother of the agreeable, 
cannot be quoted. Yet they both treat of the same art, and both contain 
a mass of useful information, for Mr. Lawrence places upon his pages a 
record of his own experience, and that experience was long and en- 
; lightened. No difficulty in gardening exists, or can exist, as he well 
knew, but it may be overcome by skill well-directed. It would have ap¬ 
palled most amateurs to have found that the enclosure, called the garden, 
at the rectory of Yelvertoft, in Northamptonshire, was barren and 
shallow, resting on a wet white clay ; but it did not stagger Mr. Law¬ 
rence, for he addressed himself to its reclamation, and in three years 
harvested from it, not only the primest of kitchen garden crops, but the 
j choicest of fruits. The secret of his success was his knowledge of the 
I benefit of draining, of shallow planting, and of preventing the radiation 
| of heat from his walls. Science guided his practice, for he was a naturalist 
as well as fond of horticulture, especially that part of it which includes 
the culture of fruits, priding himself upon the richness of his deserts. 
Working in his garden, he tells us was “ the best and almost only 
physick ” he took. He is represented as hospitable and generous, but 
we cannot entertain a very high opinion of his honour, if Lintot the 
bookseller adhered to the truth in complaining that in his “ New System 
of Gardening,” in different words he had republished what he had pre¬ 
viously sold to him (Lintot) in the form of “ The Clergyman’s and Gen- 
I tleman’s Recreation.” But we think there is no ground for the accu¬ 
sation. Mr. Lawrence’s New System of Agriculture, being a complete 
body of husbandry and gardening, embraces instructions given in his 
other works, but the instructions are in another form, and the high- 
priced folio, which the “New System” fills, could not have interfered 
with the far cheaper octavo, which relates to little but fruit-culture. This 
work, The Clergyman’s Recreation, published in 1711 , is concise, but, 
i perhaps, there is no work that has less of error in its precepts. In his 
! directions for pruning, training, and the preparation of an infusion of 
Did you ever consider the best place for applying 
manure to a crop ? This is a question which ought to 
have been suggested by every cultivator’s own mind; 
and it is certainly a most important one to answer 
correctly. Yet, we believe, there is more want of thought 
and more carelessness existing relative to the place 
where manure ought to be applied, than upon most 
subjects connected with the cultivation of plants. 
We were led to this l’emark by two facts recently 
brought to our notice in letters from correspondents. 
One of these (J. E. B.) says, that having Peas “ sown 
in drills about three inches deep, over them I have 
thrown in a small quantity of soot to protect them from 
vermin, and then filled up the drills with the earth.” 
Now, the result is, that though some of the rows “ have 
come up pretty regularly,” yet others “ have got hardly 
one Pea out of the ground.” Nor will they ever appear; 
wall-nut leaves to destroy worms, &c., he has recorded his practical 
knowledge of various directions which have been in late years recom¬ 
mended as improvements. It is chiefly confined to the cultivation of 
wall-fruit. He mentions nothing about apples ; and is much too prag¬ 
matical upon the diseases to which trees are subject. The Gentleman?s 
Recreation, appeared also in 1714, and, as he states in his introduction, is 
“an Appendix to the former,” or Clergyman’s Recreation. It is a mis¬ 
cellaneous collection of notes for the most part relating to the cause of 
barrenness in fruit-trees; and the superiority of fresh earth to some 
plants rather than dungs.—The most original observations are upon the 
benefits of horizontal shelter in preventing the blasting of wall-fruit. 
The observation upon permanent nails to which to tie the branches of 
wall-trees are equally worthy of the claim of novelty. The Fruit Gar¬ 
dener’s Kalender, in 1718, is composed of many excellent observations 
and directions. He mentions as a common practice ringing the branches 
of fruit-trees to make them bear, which he calls “circumcising” them. 
The remaining events in Mr. Lawrence’s biography that are preserved 
to us, embrace little more than mere dates, for even the place of his birth 
and his parentage are unknown. He attained to his Batchellorship of 
Arts whilst at Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1688 , and obtained his Master’s 
degree in 1703, previously to moving to Yelvertoft. He remained here 
until 1721, when he obtained the Durham rectory of Bishops Wearmouth, 
became a Prebendary of Salisbury the year following, and died at his 
rectory on the 18th of May, in 1732. He was buried in the chancel of 
his church, and a stone with an inscription was placed over his remains; 
but this, we are told, no longer is apparent, inasmuch as that some 
vulgar-minded and sordid churchwarden dared a few years after to have 
the stone turned over, and another inscription engraved upon the reverse. 
Can any of our readers inform us if this be so '! and if it be so, we will 
readily subscribe our mite to have the stone restored to its former 
position, asking others also to aid in this small tribute to the memory of 
one who must always be included among the best writers upon gardening. 
It is worthy of remark, that even in those days when orthography was 
reduced to more uniformity than in the previous century, when sounds, 
rather than rules of spelling, were regarded, our author and his family 
spelt their name indifferently Laurence and Lawrence. As an example, 
we have at the end of The Gentleman’s Recreation, this advertisement:— 
“ Lordships surveyed, and maps drawn of the same ; timber measured 
and valued, with other artificers’ work, and dialling in all its parts, per¬ 
formed by Edward Laurence, brother to the Author of this book. He is 
to be heard of when in London, at Mr. Senex’s, at the Globe, in Salis¬ 
bury Court.—N. B. In winter, and at such times as he is not surveying, 
gentlemen may have their sons or daughters taught accompts at their 
own houses, after a natural, easy, and concise method, with the use of 
the globes and maps, and all other useful parts of the mathematicks.” 
Mr. Lawrence had a son, the Rev. M. Lawrence, who died in 1791, 
aged 85, being the rector of High Rooding, in Essex, and of St. Mary 
Aidermanbury, in London. He inherited the taste of his father, 
especially for the culture of flowers, and was distinguished among his 
friends for his superior blooming of bulbs in vases. 
Meteorology op tub Week. —At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four ve vrs, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures are 63° and 40.6°, respectively. The lowest cold, 27°, was on 
the Uth, in 1838. Rain occurred on 6l days, and 107 days were fine. 
for the young roots were killed by the ammonia in the 
soot so soon as they came forth from the germinating ! 
seed. If some earth had been put over the Peas in the 
drills, and then the soot over the earth, it would have 
thwarted the mice as effectually, and would have acted \ 
as a manure to the crop; for, reduced in strength by ■ 
being spread through the earth, the ammonia would not . 
have been too powerful for the tender roots to endure, j 
That some of the peas came up, occurred only because I 
there happened to be less soot in contact with them, or : 
that the soot in those instances was not so strongly j 
impregnated with ammonia. 
In the second letter to which we have alluded, the j 
writer ( Ludlow) says, that he has never observed any J 
benefit arising from applying manures to old, weak, 
orchard fruit-trees, “ though I heaped up a barrow-load 
round the stem of each, and dug it in close about them 
No. CXXXVI., Vol. VI. 
