the gardening world. 
June 12, 1886. 
and many plants require tying to stakes, or otherwise, 
rendering secure from injury by winds and rains, also 
enabling their flowers to be readily seen. Pyrethrums 
of the roseum type are very handsome and we have a 
fine display of them, both single and double. They 
give little trouble beyond tying them up, and having 
been undisturbed for some years they have formed 
large handsome clumps which flower profusely every 
season. Early in the spring, just before growth 
commences, we give them a top-dressing of old manure 
over the roots and round the crowns, and this 
seems to suit them far better than lifting or re¬ 
planting. As the stems become tall and shew their 
flowers, one stout stake is placed to each large root, at 
the back, or where it cannot be readily seen, and then 
one tie of matting about the centre is usually sufficient 
to keep them up without giving a too formal bunched 
appearance. 
Peonies and many other plants can be treated in a 
similar manner, but do not let the stakes project above 
the plants nor be in any way conspicuous, or the freedom 
of such borders, one of then' essential characters, is 
destroyed. If choice strains of Primulas, Polyanthuses, 
or Auriculas are grown out of doors and it is desired to 
save seed, they should be very carefully watched and 
the capsules gathered immediately they are ripe for the 
seed is quickly shed. Seed of all these plants should 
be sown as soon as it is ripe for it soon loses its vitality. 
Grass on lawns is growing rapidly and should be 
frequently mowed -to keep it neat, and it also has a 
tendency to improve the turf in thickness, increasing 
the growth of the fine grasses, which give to the best 
lawns their beautiful velvet-like surface. 
^iany annuals can be sown out of doors now, and 
if welj- attended to in watering after the young plants 
appear, they will flower in late summer and autumn. 
Our early sowings this season have been very un¬ 
satisfactory, although the sped was the best that could 
be obtained, not one half has germinated, which is 
^undoubtedly due to cold weather and heavy rains we 
hive ha.d ; similar results have been experienced before, 
aqd until the weather is really settled, and the soil is 
getting warmed ;t is much better to sow seeds of this 
Jfind under glqss, planting these seedlings out when 
they are large enough or the conditions are suitable. 
Everything should now be placed out that is intended 
for such positions, as it will give them an opportunity 
to become established before the weather is hot and the 
soil parched. 
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. 
Earth up the earliest and most forward Potatos now, 
drawing the soil well up to the haulm with a hroad 
hoe. These important vegetables are making capital 
progress, and most other occupants of this garden are 
showing considerable improvement. Celery may be 
planted out in the trenches that have been already 
prepared, placing them 6 in. to 8 in. apart. All 
yegetables in seed pans or beds may be planted out for 
Succession as soon as possible while the weather is 
favourable. — Scolytus. 
-- 
TILLAGE OPERATIONS OP THE 
GARDEN. 
{Continued from p. 029). 
The Working of Clayey and Stiff Soils.— In 
dry districts, soils which have the power of absorbing 
and retaining the greatest quantity of water, may be 
considered as of the highest value to the gardener ; 
whereas, in localities when rains are frequent, the 
“-lighter” descriptions of soil are, for the opposite 
reason, the more esteemed. 
Generally speaking, those soils which are capable of 
arresting the largest proportion of the rain and dew 
that falls, retain it also with the greatest obstinacy, 
and take the longest time to dry. 
Some idea of the retentive power of different classes 
of soil may he gathered from the following table 
Descriptions of Soil. 
Water 
absorbed 
Sand . 
by 100 parts. 
25 
Loamy soil . 
40 
Stiff clay ... 
50 
Heavy clay . 
61 
Pure clay ... 
70 
Rich garden soil. 
96 
Humus matter . 
190 
These figures show that 100 lbs. of sand will absorb 
and be able to retain for the use of plants growing in it 
25 lbs. of water; 100 lbs. of a loamy soil 40 lbs. of 
water ; clays according to their degree of stiffness from 
50 lbs. to 70 lbs. of water for each 100 lbs. of soil ; and 
good rich garden mould 96 lbs. of water ; while humus 
matter and peaty soils, from the fact of their spongy 
nature, will absorb and retain nearly double their own 
weight of water ; hence they are peculiarly adapted to 
water-loving plants, Ferns and Mosses. 
A full consideration of these important facts makes 
it quite evident that in all soils there are mechanical 
agencies constantly in force, with more or less vigour, 
according to the nature of different soils and the 
character of the season, which assists in compacting the 
mass ; and one of the most important offices of tillage 
is to counteract these influences, and to give the soil 
the proper granulation and loosening most advantageous 
to the roots of plants. 
The most obvious mode of increasing the produce of 
our gardens is by improving the fertility of those which 
are of inferior quality ; and the more perfect culti¬ 
vation of every kind of soil, from the richest to the 
poorest—this is tillage. 
We see how vegetables in a garden, which are droop¬ 
ing for want of rain, are invigorated and refreshed by 
merely digging or forking the ground around their 
roots ; the fibrils thus find a readier passage to the 
moisture of the sub-soil below, and very soon transmit 
it to the stems and leaves of the plant by capillary 
attraction. 
Properly pulverised soil is rendered more permeable 
to air and moisture, and the inert materials contained 
in it, both organic and inorganic, are thereby converted 
into more quickly digestible plant-food. 
In a deeply pulverised soil, however light its cha¬ 
racter, plants are seldom burnt by the effects of 
drought; clays no doubt retain moisture in their solid 
clods or lumps, hut the roots or plants cannot pene¬ 
trate these until the particles are broken up. If plants 
are enabled to keep alive in very stiff clays during a 
scorching summer, they seldom make much progress, 
unless the roots find a well-pulverised or comminuted 
soil below the immediate surface. 
The purpose of the gardener should be, therefore, so 
to till and prepare this land, and so to manure and 
crop it, that every year it may improve in texture and 
productive power; that his porous soils may become 
more consolidated and retentive of moisture, and his 
heavy clays mellowed and dried by breaking up, ex¬ 
posure and the weathering by sun, wind and frost. 
What really loosens stiff clay soils by detaching the 
particles from each other is the act of drying. As the 
water dries out of the soil, the sticky clay-mass, 
shrinking around the sand-grains, either pulls these 
particles closer together or else itself cracks and breaks ; 
it does both in fact. For this reason we find alternate 
freezings and thawings of wet clay that has been 
turned up rough by digging loosens its texture as no 
other agency can, and this drying and breaking up of 
wet sticky clay is an essential preliminary to warming 
it up to a point most favourable for the germination of 
seeds, and for the growth of young plants. 
The greatest care should be taken in dealing with stiff 
clayey soils to avoid the injurious influence of treading, 
or undue pressing by the use of garden implements, 
which may cause its adhesion. Few can estimate the 
full amount of injury occasioned for instance to a Potato 
crop, if the soil is at all inclined to he stiff and tenacious, 
and it is worked when in a soft and plastic condition. 
For in the case of heavy rain immediately succeeding 
the planting of the tubers, a muddy coating forms on 
the top, which when dry, acts as a hard cement. This 
covering greatly interrupts the free entrance of at¬ 
mospheric air into the soil, and thereby checks the 
sprouting of the tubers and renders the crop irregular, 
and the produce small. We saw a very pointed example 
of this last season. In the same manner, but in 
a greater degree, is this the case with small seeds 
when by undue pressure the soil envelopes the seeds as 
it were in a hard shell, thereby depriving them of the 
necessary access of air, which retards germination and 
prevents the young plants from making satisfactory 
easy growth. 
__ - ♦ _ 
The Hull, East Riding, and North Lincoln¬ 
shire Horticultural Society’s Exhibition will be 
held in the Hull Botanic Gardens on July 14th, 15th 
and 16th, when two gold and two or more silver 
medals will be awarded. 
DUNEDIN, STREATHAM HILL, 
The Residence of N. Sherwood, Esq. 
How it is possible to live so near the City as to be 
within an easy drive of one’s place of business, and yet, 
when in one’s garden, he amid so much quiet and 
repose as to feel quite in the country, is shown when 
the visitor enters the grounds attached to Mr. Sher¬ 
wood’s residence at Streatham Hill. In all, there is 
about three acres of ground. There is a well-kept 
lawn, some fine clumps of Rhododendrons, now in full 
bloom, a good bit or two of American Azaleas, various 
Evergreens, shade and flowering trees, specimen Conifers, 
side walks under leafy trees parallel with lines of 
shrubbery, where one comes upon a bit of rustic Fernery, 
a pleasant arbour, a dove-cot, a house for tame rabbits 
and jiet dogs ; then a Rose garden, then seven plant- 
houses, with the necessary offices ; beyond these, a 
kitchen garden and frame-ground, a small paddock with 
a cow, and a portion railed-off as a tennis-ground, a 
fowl-yard with a piggery, and a few other domestic 
surprises, that one wonders how so much can have been 
got into so confined a space. At the extreme back, 
where not long since quiet fields and green lanes could 
he looked upon, the builder has put up a line of villa 
residences, marking the rapid out-growth of the greater 
London that advances with such giant strides. But 
for this, one might be miles away in the country and 
completely out of the sound of the roar and hustle of 
London life. Such repose and quiet is necessary for 
the refreshment of mind and body of a man who has to 
conduct all the details of a large business establishment. 
Passing through the entrance-liall of a dwelling that 
presents to view indications of the home of a man of 
taste and culture, the visitor enters an octagonal con¬ 
servatory, just erected at the back, and having a 
westerly exposure. This is to he filled with Camellias 
and other flowering plants, suitable creepers will spread 
about the interior and fall down in graceful festoon and 
gay blossom, and a portion of the floor will be made to 
serve the purpose of a smoking-room. Leaving this, 
an abrupt grassy slope leads to a stretch of grass-plot, 
admirably kept and singularly free from weeds, for 
they have been destroyed by dressings of “Bellicide,” 
a new Daisy and weed-killer, just introduced by Messrs. 
Hurst & Son, of 152, Houndsditch, and to which a 
fuller reference will shortly he made. One peculiarity 
about this ‘ ‘ Bellicide ” is that while it destroys the 
weeds, it also fertilises the Grass around them, which 
thus stimulating, causes the vacant spaces to be soon 
carpeted with living verdure. 
Standing on the lawn, one speculates when the 
garden was planned and planted. The size of some of 
the trees suggest an age extending hack sixty and 
seventy years at least. There are Thorns of mature 
years, a Cedar of Lebanon or two by no means youthful. 
The serpentine paths indicate something anterior to the 
straight lines that characterise modern suburban gar¬ 
dens. No recent houses and gardens are these—they 
are related to two or three generations hack. The 
Rose garden illustrates the increasing difficulty ex¬ 
perienced in growing Roses with anything like success 
in the near suburbs of London. With the wind in the 
east so many weeks in spring, fog and smoke are driven 
westwards, and with but one result—that the tender 
growths of the Roses are checked and injured. Trees 
and shrubs alike show the same signs. If it were pure 
fog one would not so much care ; but it brings with it 
particles and gases that wage war against health}'vege¬ 
tation, and all the resources of the gardener are called 
into play in order to battle against so deadly a foe. 
With the exception of Tomatos, no other fruit is 
grown under glass ; Mr. Sherwood loves plants, and has 
a varied collection. A new plant house in two divisions, 
recently erected by Mr. B. S. Williams, has some 
specimen stove and greenhouse plants in its warmest 
portion, and some excellent Tuberoses fast coming into 
bloom ; the cooler portion is devoted to Javanese 
Rhododendrons, Pelargoniums, &e., with a fringe of 
Thunbergias in pots to the central stage, the shoots 
hang down, and the varieties—alata, alata alba, Bakeri, 
lutea, aurantiaca, and Fryeri—flower freely in small 
pots, and are very pretty. There are miscellaneous 
collections of plants in some of the houses, a few Orchids 
in one, another is devoted to propagating purposes, and 
there is a pleasant little Fernery, fitted up with walls of 
tufa and mimic waterfalls here and there ; the Ferns 
are doing well, a good specimen of Todea superha being 
in admirable condition. 
