August 21. 
large handful of soot over the crock at the bottom of 
every pot. The roots of the plants, he says, delight in 
it, and it keeps out worms. He entertains a very high 
opinion of soot as a manure for all plants, thinking it 
both beneficial to them as a food, and as a protection 
against insects. He uses it largely as a manure for 
Tulips, Carnations, Potatoes, and, indeed, to all his crops 
with the most marked success. 
Potatoes .—So beneficial has soot been found, when 
dug into the ground at the time of planting, by Mr. 
Barnes, Mr. Morton, and others, that some persons have 
been so sanguine as to think it a preventive of the 
Potato murrain. Although we do not entertain this 
opinion, yet we know it to be a capital manure for the 
Potato. On a light soil, without any manure, the late 
Bev. E. Cartwright grew 157 bushels of Potatoes per 
acre; but an acre of the same soil, manured at the time 
of planting with thirty bushels of soot, produced 192 
bushels of Potatoes; and another acre, similarly ma¬ 
nured with thirty bushels of soot and eight bushels of 
common salt, produced 240 bushels. 
The grass of lawns dressed in April, by sowing over 
them in rainy weather one bushel of soot to every seven 
square rods, we have seen increased in closeness and 
fineness of growth. But we think soot too valuable to 
be employed for that purpose. 
Liquid-manure made of soot and water has been 
found by Mr. Barnes, and other gardeners, an excellent 
mode of employing it. One writer says—“ My manure 
is soot mixed with water, in the proportion of one 
table-spoonful of soot to a quart of water, for plants in 
pots ; but, for Asparagus, Peas, &c., I use six quarts of 
soot to a hogshead of water. It must never be applied 
to plants whilst they are in a state of rest. It succeeds 
admirably with bulbs, and has benefited every plant to 
which I have applied it.” 
Pine-apples are manured with soot, and most bene¬ 
ficially, by Mr. Fleming, at Trentliam Hall; Mr. Barnes, 
at Bicton; and Mr. Alexander, at Carlton Gardens. 
Carrots are much benefited by soot; for, if well mixed 
with the soil, it not only increases their size, but 
protects them from the carrot grub. The late Mr. G. 
Sinclair, gardener to the Duke of Bedford, found that 
an unmanured soil, which produced only twenty-three 
tons of Carrots per acre, produced forty tons when 
manured with GJ bushels of soot, mixed with 6J bushels 
of salt. 
Onions are benefited by the application of soot, more, 
perhaps, than by any other manure. At the time of 
sowing, sprinkle soot thickly along the bottom of the 
drill, and stir it gently in with the corner of the hoe 
before putting in the seed. It will improve the growth 
of the Onions, and save them from the grub of the 
Onion fly. After losing the plants of three sowings 
from the attacks of this pest, Mr. Mosely, of Rolleston 
Hall, at length put it to flight by watering the bed with 
the following mixture :—Twenty gallons of rain water, 
one peck of lime in lumps, half-a-peck of soot, two 
gallons of urine, one pound of soft soap, and one pound 
of flowers of sulphur. This mixture was poured upon 
365 
the bed so soon as it had settled sufficiently to pass 
through the rose of a watering-pot. 
Garlic and Shallots, when planted, should have only 
the root ends of their bulbs just buried in the soil; 
and, at the spot where each is thus put in, about a 
dessert-spoonful of soot should be sprinkled previously. 
This saves them from the attack of the grub, as well as 
from the decay to which they are subject. 
Quantity per Acre .—Twenty bushels per acre is the 
smallest quantity that can bo applied alone with much 
benefit, and twice that quantity is still more advan¬ 
tageous. The best time for applying it is at the time of 
sowing or planting a crop; or by pointing it in about 
the roots of plants in the spring, when they begin 
to grow. 
On Wheat, Oats, Barley, and Grass, we have seen it 
applied with marvellous benefit in April, during rainy 
weather. In Essex, we have continually seen the 
chimney-sweeper sowing it over those crops at the rate 
of from twelve to thirty bushels per acre. The leaves 
of the plants thus treated speedily become of a darker 
green than the leaves of the plants which have not 
been sooted, and the weight of crop at harvest time has 
been proportionately superior. 
The reason for applying the soot during rainy weather 
is, that the ammoniacal salts contained by it are then 
immediately washed into the soil, instead of being 
evaporated by exposure to the sun and the air. We 
prefer applying it to crops when growing rather than 
with the seed, because there is no doubt that all ammo¬ 
niacal compounds—even when in the form of Guano 
and other dungs — are taken in and digested more 
effectively by plants of advanced gi-owth, than by plants 
just arising from their parent seeds. 
Neglected as soot is in many localities, yet it is in 
sufficient demand in some places to render adulteration 
sufficiently remunerative to induce its practice. Finely- 
sifted coal-ashes and charred saw-dust are the foreign 
and comparatively worthless substances used for this 
fraudulent mixing. 
We were not wrong in our warning that we were not 
safe from the Potato Murrain, although July closed 
without its appearauco to any extent. We founded our 
warning on the fact that vegetation is a month later 
than usual, and we now learn from Ireland, and else¬ 
where, that the rains at the close of July caused the 
appearance of the disease. We have seen its symptoms 
in the leaves in low-lying soils, and under trees in 
Hampshire, but the only serious visitation is in the 
moist-climated county of Cornwall. A correspondent, 
writing from Penzance on the 8th of August, says—“ I 
must confirm all I said about the Potato disease ; the 
haulm is literally charred away, and a large portion of 
the miniature tubers rotting away beneath. The Melons 
in this neighbourhood havo also cankered off both in 
the stem and fruit, though Cucumbers close adjoining 
havo not suffered.” 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
