272 
THE COTTAGE GAEDENEE AND COUNTEY GENTLEMAN, August 9, 1859. 
the flavour is nothing remarkable. Several varieties of Black 
Hamburgh were exhibited, one of which, known as Merrick's 
Victoria , was a good bunch, with large, well-developed berries, 
but not highly coloured. WUmot’s Hamburgh was, as usual, 
thick-skinned and coarse. Diamond Drop is a Sweetwater¬ 
looking variety, and may, possibly, be the same ; but the firmness 
of the flesh induced us to believe that, it might be the true Bar- 
sur-aube , but being rather unripe this point could not be deter¬ 
mined. A variety called White Tokay was a very large bunch, 
with large, ovate berries, without any Muscat flavour. Wc have 
frequently met with this variety in collections under the same 
name, and it appears to us to bo the true one, although there are 
several others that are met with under that designation. Griffin's 
Muscadine has a long, loose bunch, with small amber-coloured 
berries, which are very sweet, and appears very much earlier than 
the Royal Muscadine from the same house. Black St. Peter's, 
or Oldaker's St. Peter's, was very well ripened, and very rich in 
flavour. Many of the other varieties were not sufficiently ripened, 
—such as Morocco, and some others. Mr. Newton also brought 
a dish of Irish Peach Apples, perfectly ripe. He was awarded 
the liighest prize for the collection of Grapes. 
Mr. Newton, gardener to the Lord Chief Baron Pollock, ex¬ 
hibited remarkably fine specimens of Grosse Mignonne Peach, 
from an orchard-house without artificial heat. Also two shoots 
bearing fruit, taken from a tree of Bellegarde, which exhibited 
this extraordinary peculiarity, that one had all the leaves with 
round glands, and in the other they were perfectly glandless. 
In the latter instance the leaves were very much longer and 
narrower than the other, and the fruit much smaller and very 
much later hi ripening. The same gentleman also exhibited 
branches of Isabella and white Magnum Bonum Plums, laden 
with very fine fruit, from trees grown in pots in an orchard-house, 
which exhibited very successful and excellent cultivation. The 
fruit was well grown, and the leaves healthy and luxuriant. 
A dish of French Crab Apples, of last season’s growth, were 
exhibited in good condition by a member of the Society. 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
{Continued from page 261.) 
Many other saline manures have been employed by cultivators 
with various degrees of benefit, such as common salt (chloride of 
sodium) ; bleachers' refuse, principally composed of sulphate of 
soda and common salt; cubic petre (nitrate of soda) ; gypsum 
(sulphate of lime) ; saltpetre (nitrate of potash) ; and soda ash, 
containing, among other salts, carbonate of soda, common salt, 
and sulphate of soda. 
As already stated, some salts are essential, and still more are 
useful for promoting the growth of plants ; an important con¬ 
sideration, therefore, is contained in the answer to the query so 
often put—How should saline manures be applied ? The answer 
is, that, when practicable, they ought to bo in very small quan¬ 
tities and frequently, during the time of the plant's growth. No 
plan can be worse than soaking seed in a saline solution for the 
purpose of giving such salt to the plant of which it will be the 
parent. It is soddening the embryo with a superfluity totally 
•useless to it; and, if the solution does not injure the germination, 
it will be washed away most probably before the roots begin to 
absorb such nutriment. 
We may observe here, appropriately, that, to arrive at a correct 
knowledge of manures by means of experiments, far more fore¬ 
thought and careare requisite than are usually bestowed upon them. 
1. A space should be left without any manure being applied, 
otherwise there will be no satisfactory basis of comparison. 
2. The larger the space subjected to experiment for each 
manure, the more entitled to confidence will be the result. The 
reason for this is, obviously, that no two seeds will produce 
plants of precisely equal prolificacy. Imperfect ripening of the 
parent seed, variance in the depth at which the seed is buried, 
and many other circumstances, will be more liable to have a con¬ 
trolling effect over the weight of the produce from a small plot 
of crop than from a larger. A dozen super-prolific or defective 
plants, on a square rod of ground, will have an influence on the 
result when calculated per acre, that would be scarcely appre¬ 
ciated if the experiment were made on an eighth of an acre. 
3. If manures in solution are employed for soaking the seed, a 
similar quantity of seed of the same sample should be soaked for 
a similar length of time in simple water. If liquid manures are 
given experimentally to plants during their growth, other plants 
of like number and growth, and in every respect treated similarly, 
should at precisely the same time have simple water applied to 
them. 
4. There should be a certainty that the manure employed is 
pure. No wonder that experiments are discrepant when Mr. E. 
Solly has detected adulterations in fertilisers to the amount of 
97 per cent.! Even when the dung of animals is employed, it 
varies most essentially, and according to the food on which they 
are kept. The richer their nourishment the more abounding are 
their excrements in the salts of ammonia and other fertilising 
matters. 
Some manures are beneficial by absorbing moisture from the 
atmosphere. This property is, at least, as useful to ground that 
is aluminous as to that which is siliceous ; for it is equally use¬ 
less to either during such periods of the year as are characterised 
by a plentiful deposition of rain ; but in the drought of summer, 
when moisture is much wanting to plants, it is beneficial to both: 
in very dry seasons it is even of greater importance to clayey 
than to light soils ; for vegetation on the former suffers more 
from long-continued drought than on the latter, inasmuch as 
that moisture being equally exhaled from each, the surface of the 
clayey soil becomes caked and impervious to the air—the only 
grand source of compensatory moisture that is available to the 
languishing plants, and which is more open to those which grow 
on light and, consequently, more pervious soils. 
The following table of the comparative absorbent powers of 
many manures is extracted chiefly from “An Essay on the Uses 
of Salt in Agriculture,” by Mr. Cuthbert Johnson :— 
1000 parts of Parts. 
Horsedung evaporated previously to dryness, at a 
temperature of 100°, absorbed during an ex¬ 
posure of three hours to air saturated with 
moisture at 62° ...... 145 
Putrefied tanners’ bark, under similar circum¬ 
stances (66°).145 
Unputrefied tanners’ bark ..... 115 
Cowdung.130 
Pig ditto ........ 120 
Sheep ditto . . . . . . . . 81 
Pigeon ditto.50 
Eefuse marine salt (60°) . . . . . . 49i 
Soot (68°).36 
Burnt clay . . . . . . . . 29 
The richest soil (in one hour) .... 23* 
Coal ashes . . . . . . . . 14 
Lime (part carbonate) ..... 11 
Crushed rock salt . . . . . . . 10 
Gypsum ........ 9 
Chalk.4 
The absorbing power of a manure is much influenced by the 
state in which it is presented to the atmosphere. In a finely- 
divided state mere capillary attraction assists it; lienee, as 
before insisted, the importance of keeping the soil frequently 
stirred by hoeing, &c. But a mere mass of cotton, by means of 
capillary attraction, will absorb moisture from the air, yet it 
parts with it at a very slight elevation of temperature; it is of 
importance, therefore, to ascertain which aro the manures that 
not only absorb but retain moisture powerfully. The following 
results of my experiments throw some light on this point:— 
100 parts of Mirutes. 
Pigdung evaporated to dryness at a temperature 
of 106°, and then moistened with 6 parts of 
water, required for being reduced to dryness 
again, at the above temperature . . . 135 
Horsedung, under similar circumstances . . . 90 
Common salt.75 
Soot.75 
Eich soil.32 
Chalk . 29 
Poor soil (siliceous) ...... 23 
Gypsum.18 
These experiments point out a criterion by which we easily 
ascertain the comparative richness of any two given soils or 
manures; the most fertile will be the most absorbent and retentive. 
Some persons have argued that the .moisture-retentive powers 
of manures must be injurious to plants by withholding that 
moisture from their roots; but these theorists argue without an 
* Sir H, Davy. 
