274 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
August 
As a proof of the earnestness of their desire to pro¬ 
mote cottage gardening, and of their gratitude for the 
patronage they have received, the proprietors offer to 
place gratuitously at the disposal of the managers of 
each Horticultural Society in England, Wales, Scot¬ 
land, and Ireland, a copy of the first volume of The 
Cottage Gardener. They wish it to he offered as a 
prize to such cottage gardener as may he thought 
most deserving by each Society’s managers. 
The proprietors request that application for copies 
may be made before the 1st of October next, it being- 
desirable that they should know the number of vo¬ 
lumes they must have bound, as they propose having 
the binding executed in a distinct style. Communi¬ 
cations upon the subject are requested from the pre¬ 
sident or secretary of all such societies. 
Which is the most beneficial mode of applying 
manure? is a question requiring attention to many 
more points of extraordinary importance than ever 
entered into the mind of a Romford potato and cab¬ 
bage grower, having no other notions beyond “ plenty 
of good stuff so rotten as to be easily dug in.” 
In the first place, in what state must manure be 
to be “most beneficial?” Practice coincides with 
science in answering—in a liquid state. The spon- 
gioles, or mouths, of the roots are too small to take 
in the finest powder human art can form, and it is 
only when in the far more minute state of division, 
caused by dissolving a body in water, that any sub¬ 
stance can pass through the roots of a plant to its 
digestive organs. Nor does this branch of the in¬ 
quiry stop here, for though it is certain that manure 
in solution is the best form of application, then the 
question arises how strong ought the solution to be ? 
Experiments on a large scale, added to the general 
experience of gardeners, demonstrate that it ought 
to be very weak. Little and often is found to be a 
healthful rule in feeding plants as well as animals. 
If much, or very strong, liquid manure is given to our 
crops from which we desire any return but in leaves, 
our hopes will be frustrated, for either disease or 
unfruitful over-luxuriance will be the certain conse¬ 
quence. Even to those crops from which we seek a 
profitable return in leaves—such as spinach, rhubarb, 
and cabbage—if the liquid manure be very strong, 
that is, if it contains much of the saline or other so¬ 
luble components of the manure, it very generally 
destroys the fibrous roots and causes death. Take 
guano for an example, and here, if it be genuine, 
only half an ounce to a gallon of water is found to 
be the most beneficial proportion. Even of the dungs 
containing much less of the salts of ammonia—that 
of the sheep, for instance—yet no more than a peck 
of it to thirty gallons of water is found to be most 
advantageously employed. Even in this diluted form 
it cannot be given beneficially to plants more than 
twice a week, or three times if the weather be rainy; 
this latter fact pointing out still more strongly the 
necessity of using the liquid at a very reduced strength. 
Upon these points it is scarcely necessary to offer 
any evidence, for it is attested by the universal expe¬ 
rience of gardeners; yet we will quote the following 
from the most able essay on the subject that has ever 
been published: * 
“ Mr. Barber, of Muirdrockwood, had 27 acres of 
land before his house, and the land was so poor that 
it originally only fed two cows, and that poorly; he 
kept 40 cows and 4 horses in his stable close to his 
house. He put the dung of the 40 cows into a tank, 
and passed a rill of water through the tank, and irri¬ 
gated with the solution 22 acres. With the miscellane¬ 
ous refuse of his house and the scullery, he irrigated 
five acres. The produce now, from the same 27 acres 
of land, fertilised by the liquid manure, enables him 
to feed 40 cows and the four horses. It was a very 
important experiment as to the result of the com¬ 
parison between the effects of the liquid and the solid 
manure on the same land. There were some knolls 
of land close by, which were elevated, and he could 
not irrigate; he had not the use of the hose; and 
whilst he has got four or five-fold crops by the appli¬ 
cation of the liquid manure, with all the top-dress¬ 
ings he has been able to use he has never succeeded 
in getting more than one and a half-fold of produce 
from the same sort of manure, the dung. 
“ I have had a number of other experiments made, 
all to the same effect; and one thing I find, that, by 
the horticulturists, those who grow large produce and 
obtain prizes, invariably, so far as I have heard, do 
it by the application of the manure in the liquid form. 
I have obtained this further very important conclusion 
from such facts as I have collected, that an extent 
of dilution such as extinguishes smell is about the 
best for absorption or assimilation by the plant; that 
all the progress is made by diluting more and more, 
and applying more and more frequently. A very able 
horticulturist, Mr. Pince, of Exeter, tells me that he 
has arrived at this point, that he applies the liquid 
manure twice a week, and with one of plain water, as 
he expresses it, in the interval between each watering 
with the liquid manure. He gets rid of fibrous matter, 
and, to use his own expression, ‘ I give this water 
with the manure in it so clear, that if you were not 
to know what it was, you would not object to drink 
it.’ The two conclusions are in favour of frequent 
applications of manure in solution, and of getting 
rid, as much as possible, of fibrous matter. 
“ Liquid manure has been applied by surface water¬ 
ing in the kitchen garden at Worsley, and, as I am 
informed, at a number of other places, with as marked 
an effect as upon grass-land. Mangold-wurtzel, cab¬ 
bages, and turnips have thriven remarkably upon it. 
A merchant of Philadelphia (U. S.) who was fond of 
horticulture, beat all competitors at a show there by 
the enormous size of his cabbages and other produce. 
His gardener was seen to draw a liquid from a large 
hogshead, and dispense it, from time to time, to the 
plants with the watering-pot. There was an intense 
curiosity to divine what might be the elixir which 
produced so wondrous an effect. The merchant in- 
* Sewer Manure. —Statement of the course of investigation, and 
results of experiments as to the means of removing the refuse of towns 
in water, with suggestions of the practicability of applying sewer 
water as manures by subterranean channels. Prepared for the con¬ 
sideration of the Committee of Works ; by Edwin Chadwick, Esq., 
C.R., with appendices, tkc. We reeommend its perusal to all our 
readers ; it is full of infoimation and just views. 
