THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 18, 1857 
S09 
it is at least one of weakening of constitution; and, if 
such a course is persisted in through several generations, 
what may we not expect either in plants or animals? 
And when to this we add that through high manurings 
the plants thus handled are alternately excited and 
depressed, the case assumes a still more serious 
character. 
Now let us look into the manure question : in doing 
so it will be well to consider how long the Potato has 
been subjected to such high culture, and whether 
manurings have been on the increase in later years. 
That the latter is the case I have no doubt, and the 
increase in manures may be dated from that period 
when great competition took place as to the field 
culture of root crops, and when our exhibitions had 
their birth. It is not easy to fix a precise date to these 
matters, but it may be placed, I think, at from twenty to 
thirty years since. Admitting, then, that manorial 
applications have been on the increase, let us inquire, 
as practical gardeners, what we should expect, or rather, 
anticipate from manures in excess acting on the watery 
system of a plant from warmer climes. Why, in plain 
gardening English, we should expect that the elabora- 
tive or preparing powers of the plant would be in arrears, 
and that the whole system would, in showery seasons, be 
so overcharged with fluids that the economy of the 
plant in question might be expected to become deranged 
in consequence. 
Let us borrow a comparison, which, as I think, comes 
sufficiently close to our case to illustrate it. Take a 
young healthy-growing Peach tree from the nursery, 
plant it on ground highly enriched with manurial 
matters, causing it by such means to produce what 
has been nicknamed “ basket twigs,” and what has ever 
been the result? Why, ill-ripened and very generally 
half-rotten shoots, which, at the very moment their 
highest elaborative functions should proceed, are 
suddenly arrested by some apparently unaccountable 
calamity perverting the whole system of the tree. 
But, if any one still doubts the corrupting influences 
of an excessive application of manures, I will tell what 
occurred under my own hands. About the year 1832 I 
planted Potatoes in such a way as to test in the highest 
degree their prolific powers. I was then exceedingly 
fond of experiments. I tried to my full knowledge 
the forcing powers of a judicious combination of rich 
manures with a proper degree of mechanical texture in 
I soils: the result was that I obtained seventy pounds’ 
j weight at one root! But what were they like? Why, 
I had odd forms enough almost to illustrate “Bonny- 
castle’s Mensuration.” Some of the very largest would, 
in hard times, have done for drums after a little clever 
handling ; and as for quality, why the very pigs turned 
up their noses at them. I, of course, was highly 
praised by some persons and sneered at by others ; but 
this I did not mind. I wanted to know the effects of 
I an excess in high cultural principles, and whether there 
were not limits which we could not pass with impunity. 
What these monstrosities would have performed had 
they been planted and pushed onwards by “might and 
main” it is difficult to say, and I here express my 
regret that I did not pursue the practice for at least three 
successive years: such, I have no doubt, would have 
settled many a Potato puzzle. 
I will now leave the garden, and quote something 
illustrative from the farm. It is notorious in these parts, 
where thousands of acres of Potatoes are annually grown, 
that the poorer the soil is, or at least the nearer to a 
state of nature, the less virulent is the disease. Now, 
although there may be a few exceptions, yet I am 
perfectly assured, from my own personal observations 
during the last ten years, that such is the case. The 
fact is unmistakeable, and I may observe that I passed 
through a field or two of this character two evenings 
since in which the disease has been manifest for at least 
a fortnight; but the stems and foliage, instead of 
assuming the black and pulpy character, are under¬ 
going a steady course of drying; they may be called 
rusty in appearance, and will soon be standing like 
sticks, their leaves crumbling into a mere powder. 
Now r , this land has been badly farmed for several years— 
all taken out and little put in, which, according to the 
saying of the auld Scotch wives as applied to the meal 
kist, “sune gets to the bottom.” 
But, amid all this disaster, there can be little 
doubt that in a few years the disease will wear away. 
We have few cases of utter extermination amongst 
vegetables. Let all parties well consider these things, 
and lay aside, as far as possible, all abuse of the nature 
of the plant. R. Errington. 
CRYSTAL PALACE GARDEN.— August 8th. 
This was the first day of the Poultry Show, a half- 
crown day and a concert day; it was also a dull, cloudy, 
threatening-to-rain day, with a heavy fall of rain in the 
afternoon. The poultry did not look well at all under 
these circumstances. Some of the Geese were splendid 
birds. The Pigeons look well and lively in all weathers, 
and so ought the Ptabbits; but no one could get a frisk 
out of them that day, the sudden change in the weather 
made them so drowsy. One of the hens in the first prize 
pen of White Cochin-Chinas was the best model of the j 
race I have yet seen. 
But my chief reason for going was to see the flower 
gardens in their best trim for the season, and I was 
never so much gratified there before. There is a 
marked improvement in the planting all over the 
garden, and a much better arrangement of the colours 
than usual. The simplest garden in England is 
difficult to plant to those who do not understand the 1 
subject; but there is nothing difficult to do in planting 
the whole of this garden. There are thousands of 
gardens under one acre in extent which are ten times 
more difficult to plant properly than the whole of the 
Crystal Palace gardens, and, speaking like a critic, that 
is the highest praise that can be given to the designer. 
The whole of the planting is in the promenade style, j 
except the fringing of the shrubberies and the two 
chain patterns on each side of the centre of the upper 
terrace, and in that style all the beds accompany the 
walks, and no others are to be met with. Whether 
that should be the rule in all public gardens, or whether 
the rule should be admitted into private gardens, 1 shall 
not stop to inquire. 
“ Simple addition” is the easiest rule in arithmetic, ! 
and promenade gardening is just as simple in designing 
and planting flower gardens. It must have been from 
the want of a large stock of suitable plants that the 
chain patterns were hitherto planted on a wrong 
system. The first attempt, that of connecting the links ‘ 
of the chain by means of a dark Verbena, was so far 
good ; but last year and the year before that this chain, 
which is of the most beautiful design, could not well 
have been planted on a better plan to destroy the effect 
of the design itself; but this season the two chain 
patterns are planted to perfection for the first time. 
The colours, and the space which is given to each 
colour, can never more be improved on. The only 
improvement can be in the kind or kinds of plants 
made use of; so that in planting a chain you can make 
it fit for the Queen to wear as it were, or you may have 
it as a hayband to hold up the corduroys of a 
“ navigator,” simply by the proper use of a few suitable 
plants. # 
Tom Thumb Geraniums, Calceolarias of the Rugosa 
section, and Mangles Variegated Geranium are all the 
