80 
the cottage gardener. 
gardens?” and the other, which may serve in part to 
answer the query, is from Air. James Derham, ol V\ ling- 
ton, near Bristol. He says: 
“What do you think of woollen rags for manure ? In the 
lower part of this county (about Crewkeme) cultivators 
attach great importance to them. There are a great many 
field gardens there, and an immense quantity ot unions arc 
raised in the neighbourhood. No one thinks of sowing un¬ 
less he has dug in woollen shreds. These are collected all 
) over the count}', and sold at so much per cwt. I was round 
I there the other day (March), and saw many waggon-loads of 
them; and in ono or two instances X saw them ploughing 
them in for corn (outs ? ). They tell me they put no manuie 
| besides ; and if this really is a good thing, how very easy for 
many persons to accumulate a stock. X ha\ e a laige heap 
myself, and should he glad to know your opinion as to the 
use of them. I have thought if they were first soaked for 
some days in liquid manure, it would improve them. \\ ould 
they not do to apply to fruit-trees in that state ? ” 
Soakiug the rags in liquid manure would be a very 
good mode of applying the latter, and there is no doubt 
they would do well in combination ; for the liquid ma¬ 
nure would be for the immediate use of the plant, whilst 
the rags, being slow in decomposing, would serve it 
during the after stages of growth. They would do better 
for fruit-trees without being so soaked, for these trees, 
except when growing in very poor soil, require no sti¬ 
mulating like that afforded by liquid manure. 
Woollen rags are by themselves, however, a good ma¬ 
nure ; and the willy dust, and other woollen refuse, so 
abundant in the great clothiery districts of Wiltshire, 
Gloucestershire, and Yorkshire, come within the desig¬ 
nation of woollen rags; and as they slowly decompose 
in the soil, they all give out food highly useful to plants. 
| During decomposition they produce ammonia and other 
! matters soluble in water, every hundred parts being 
composed, like feathers, hair, &c., of about 50 parts car- 
j bon or charcoal, 7 parts hydrogen, 17 parts nitrogen, 24 
I parts oxygen and sulphur, and 2 parts of saline matters. 
These last contain carbonate of potash, muriate of 
potash, acetate of potash and lime, all of which are 
salts, or bases of salts, useful to cultivated vegetables. 
We can quote many practical authorities as to the 
value of woollen rags as a fertilizer. Air. R. Slack, 
paper-maker, of Haylield, Derbyshire, has used them for 
many years. Ho finds them good for potatoes; and adds, 
i “ for liay yrass I have nothing that will produce so good 
a crop, spread upon the land in January, and raked off in 
! April.” * 
! Mr. J. M. Paine, writing in 1848, says that he had 
long been in the habit of using fifty tons yearly, paying 
| for them in London from fifty to eighty shillings per 
; ton ; the dearest being those containing the most wool, 
j Before putting on the land, they are cut into very small 
pieces (two inches square being the largest), and from 
one ton to half a ton per acre arc sufficient. He finds 
them most beneficial to hops and turnips. 
They are not so good when used mixed with lime; for 
although this decomposes them faster than when they 
are left to themselves, yet by such treatment the ammo- 
* Our own experience tells us that woollen rags are most useful to 
potatoes, strawberries, and raspberries . 
[May 0. 
nia is driven off, in which their most active power is 
comprised. 
We believe that the best mode of applying woollen 
rags to the soil is to mix them previously with the super¬ 
phosphate of lime, made from bones. This contains 
sulphate of lime also, which will fix the ammonia of the 
rags as they decompose ; and the phosphate of lime is a 
saline manure, in which the rags are deficient. 
Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, in his excellent volume on 
“ Fertilizers,” says, that “ woollen rags are a very durable 
manure, remaining dissolving in the soil and forming 
soluble and elastic matters for the service of plants for 
periods varying from two years on the heavy clays, such 
as those of the Kentish hop-grounds of the Weald of 
Kent, to three or four years on the light chalky soils of 
the valley of the Kennet in Berkshire. Ot these rags, 
the consumption by the Berkshire and Oxfordshire far¬ 
mers, but especially by the Kentish hop-growers, is very 
considerable. I am informed by an extensive dealer in 
these rags (Air. Hart, White lion-street, Bishopgate), 
that 20,000 tons, at the least, are annually consumed by 
the farmers of the south of England. Mr. Ellis, of 
Banning, Kent, purchased annually between four and 
five hundred tons, almost exclusively for his hop-grounds. 
The cottager, even, is interested in these facts, for every 
shred of an old woollen garment is available for his gar¬ 
den—is an admirable manure for his potato ground ; or, 
if he has not a garden, the collectors of rags, who gather 
for the large dealers, will readily give him a farthing per 
pound for all he can collect.” 
Air. Payne has written to us as follows:— 
“ If some of the large number of applicants for my bee¬ 
hives have to wait for them a little longer than they expected, 
the delay arises from the impossibility of having so large a 
quantity made at so short a notice. However, the season 
must be late, and they will all, I trust, be supplied in good 
time." 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
AIelons. — We have to apologise to our amateur 
readers for having apparently slighted the subject of 
melon culture. The fact is, that so many things press 
in proportion to the space allotted to our labours, that 
some of our “irons must burn,” to use a homely saying. 1 
We are just in time to advise about a crop of late 
melons, which are more eligible lor some families than S 
the early ones, and which assuredly require some nicety j 
of management. To grow melons in the months of 
July and August is not a matter of very great difficulty; 
very different, however, is it to obtain them in Septem¬ 
ber, October, and even November; at which period both 
light and natural heat so rapidly decrease, and when the 
increasing and stagnating humidity of the atmosphere 
is anything but favourable to tropical fruits. 
Those who possess melon and cucumber bouses, or 
pits, with a source of heat independent of fermenting 
materials, have littlo difficulty; and such may continue 
to produce good flavoured fruit until near Christmas; 
for such kinds as the Dampslia will keep lor weeks after 
they have been cut from the plant. Wo must rather 
address ourselves to those who have to fight their wary 
with an ordinary frame and the use ol lermenting mate¬ 
rials only; and the latter, it may be, not over abundant, | 
For such purposes there can be no better kind than the I 
