April 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER, 
3 
in America and elsewhere. In a pamphlet on 
“ Guano,” edited by Messrs. Gibbs, there are many 
experiments demonstrating its highly beneficial effect 
when applied to turnips, apple-trees, and raspberries. 
It is evidently a highly stimulating manure, for the 
fruit-trees blossomed twice ; and the other crops were 
several days forwarder in making their appearance. 
This arises from its abounding in salts of ammonia.” 
Some persons have used it with great success as a 
manure for the pine-apple, melon, cucumber, and 
various florists' flowers. They employed it in the 
form of a compost, mixing no more than one pint of 
guano with a barrowful of earth. One gentleman 
failed in forcing his cinerarias into bloom by using it; 
but he put so much into the soil at their final shift¬ 
ing that he made all their leaves turn brown. But, 
then, another says, “ I have used it for twelve months 
with the most gratifying results: not on one plant or 
vegetable, but on every plant or vegetable that is 
benefitted by the application of manure. For plants 
in pots it should be used in a liquid state, and my 
cinerarias bear testimony to its merits.” 
Mr. J. Selkirk, of Aigburth, near Liverpool, on a 
light sandy soil, employs it for autumn planted crops, 
at the rate of one pound to every four square yards, 
mixing every pound with half a pound of wood 
ashes. Cabbages and cauliflowers he found especially 
benefitted, and free from club-root. Turnips and let¬ 
tuces were also equally improved; and he applied it 
with most favourable results as a liquid manure, four 
pounds to 10 gallons of water, to camellias and. pelar¬ 
goniums. 
Mr. Henry Ford, of Sheaf House, Sheffield, fell 
into the error of using guano far too freely, for he 
mixed two pounds of it in only one bushel of earth, 
and the consequence was that though an epiphyllum, 
fuchsias, and cactuses potted in it did well, yet his 
penstemons were killed and his pelargoniums much 
injured. 
Another party reports that he has used it as a liquid 
manure to balsams, camellias, and crysanthemums, with 
the greatest success. 
Mr. J. E. Teschemaclier correctly observes, that if 
used at all in the earth for potting roses, pelargoniums, 
and other hardy strong-growing plants, not more 
than a tea-spoonful of guano to a quart of earth 
should be employed. He found the grass of newly- 
rnade lawns greatly invigorated by its application to 
the soil just before laying down the turf. To peas 
he also found guano especially a valuable applica¬ 
tion. He put it into the drills, but covered it with 
full two inches of earth to keep the young roots from 
coming into immediate contact with it. He states 
that all cactuses and other succulent plants are extra¬ 
ordinarily benefitted by liquid guano. 
We might multiply these results to a much greater 
extent, but to do so would be uselessly tedious; and, 
we will only add, as the results of our experience, 
that at the rate of four cwt. per acre, or about three 
pounds to 30 square yards, is the best quantity to 
apply to the soil to any crops. The best mode of 
applying it is to scatter it thinly between the rows 
or over the roots of growing well-established plants, 
just to point it in with a fork, and then to leave it to 
the rains to cany down its soluble parts. 
As a liquid manure, half an ounce to a gallon for 
most plants, and one ounce to the gallon for succu¬ 
lent plants and balsams, are the best proportions. 
Mix it twenty-four hours before you require it, draw 
off the clear liquid, and the guano sediment may 
then have a similar quantity of water again put upon 
it. These two washings will extract all its most 
valuable ingredients. This liquid manure should be 
applied only to healthy plants, and during their 
season of growing. 
The following composition is recommended by Pro¬ 
fessor Johnstone, as an artificial guano, it has been 
proved, he says, by experiment to approach in value, 
in a considerable degree, to the genuine kind, it is 
intended to equal, in effect, one cwt. of guano. 
Value. 
s. d. 
78| lbs. of bone-dust, at 2s. 6 d. per bushel* 
25 „ of sulphate of ammonia . 
1J ,, of pearlash. 
25 „ of common salt . 
2£ „ of dry sulphate of soda. 
3 9 
0 2-i 
0 tf 
0 2 * 
132£ lbs. 
At a cost of 9 0-|- 
All the above substances, except the first, any 
druggist will supply. 
An active member of a Horticultural Society near 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, writes to us as follows:—“It 
is mainly to the colliers, and others of similar class, 
that we are indebted for the perfection to which 
florists’ flowers have arrived. Among the many in 
this county (Northumberland) may be classed the 
name of Domoud, as one of the most successful of 
the cultivators of these flowers; and though an 
humble ‘pit-man,’ he has his name chronicled in 
the pages of floriculture. Another of the same class, 
who died lately, is deserving of record in your pages 
—perhaps as follows:—‘ Died at Kenton, Northum¬ 
berland, on the 6th of March, aged 70, Mr. Thomas 
Buckham, a celebrated florist. The deceased, although 
a humble miner, and passing the half of his life in 
the bowels of the earth, could appreciate the beauties 
of Nature, and was one of the most successful growers 
of florists’ flowers in the county.’ ” 
THE ERUIT-GARDEN. 
The Fig.—A lthough this is not everybody’s fruit, 
yet we have known amateurs to produce it in high 
perfection, and to set much store by it; for when tho¬ 
roughly ripened during a hot period, it is assuredly 
one of the most luscious of fruits. A great amount 
* Half the weight of super-phosphate of lime, or bones dissolved 
either in sulphuric or muriatic acid, would be much preferable to 
merely ground bones. 
