284 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 3rd, 1891. 
weatlier continued cold and unpropitious, linings of 
new-mown grass were added from the beginning of May 
onwards. 
For the culture of exotic plants such as Pine Apples, 
tanner’s baik was reckoned more serviceable, because 
the fermentation was less violent and more durable. 
A trench was taken out of the ground 11 It. to 12 ft. 
long, by 6 ft. wide, and 3 ft. deep. This was filled with 
tan taken fresh from the tanners’ vat, and left loose, 
because treadiDg would have interfered with its proper 
fermentation. The water was also well drained from it, 
and pits were never dug out in wet ground, otherwise 
the bark would not ferment if wet. This practice was, 
no doubt, the origin of our word pit, as distinguished 
from a frame set on the top of the ground. After ten 
or fourteen days the pots of plants intended to be 
grown there rvere plunged in the tan, and the heat 
would be maintained at the required degree for two or 
three months, after which a load or two of fresh tan 
was added, and the whole shaken up together afresh. 
The heat would then last for two or three months longer. 
If Pine Apples were intended to be grown, a frame, 
3 ft. high at the back and 15 ins. in front, was set 
over the bed. Large or fruiting plants were placed at 
the top, and the suckers or small plants at the lower 
end of the frame. For seeds and small plants it was 
only necessary that the frame should be 14 ins. high at 
the back, and 7 ins. in front. This was the kind most 
in use in kitchen gardens. Three-light frames were 
considered the most useful, and two-light frames for 
Melons and Cucumbers. Large frames were made to 
be taken asunder at the corners when they were to 
be removed or shifted on to other beds. In such pits 
the gardeners of those days fruited Pines better than 
hose grown in their native country, except they were 
under the care of a good gardener. 
-- 
RENOVATING ORCHARDS. 
( Continued from p. 270. ) 
The quickest method of storing food in the earth for 
immediate appropriation is in the form of liquid 
manure, such as the drainage from stables and manure 
heaps, or the contents of cesspools—sewage. After 
much experience, I am justified in recommending the 
application of liquid manure to debilitated fruit trees 
in the winter, under certain prescribed conditions. It 
may be applied usefully in the summer also if the soil 
is moist, not on the surface only, but 3 ft. or more 
below it, otherwise a minimum of benefit will accrue 
from a maximum outlay in material and labour. On 
this subject I cannot do better than reproduce what I 
wrote in the Journal of Horticulture, a little more than 
a year ago. Those who have read it, I ask to read 
it again, and find all the fault they can with it. They 
had better do this before making full trials of the 
method indicated, because they will not have such a 
good chance afterwards. Here is the article that was 
founded on long practice. The simple plan advocated 
has since been tried by others, and not found 
wanting :— 
“Some time ago a correspondent said he failed to see, 
how liquid manure given to fruit trees in the winter 
could be of any benefit, as the roots were then in a 
dormant state. In the first place they are not in a 
dormant state after the leaves fall though they do not 
imbibe nutriment from the soil to anything like the 
same extent as in summer ; and in the second place 
they do not imbibe what they need either in summer 
or at any other time when the food for which they are 
hungering and thirsting is not in the soil. That is the 
condition of thousands of trees in summer and winter. 
They have been planted for years or generations, and 
manure may or may not have been placed round their 
stems from time to time. Be that as it may, the roots 
have deprived the soil of all that was good for the trees, 
and gone further and deeper in search of more—seeking, 
but finding not that which is necessary for their 
sustenance. They have lived but not prospered, and 
never can prosper until the impoverished food store 
(the earth) is replenished—supplied with matter which 
is essential to their health. 
“LTnquestionably this may be given with great advan¬ 
tage in summer if obstacles do not forbid its application 
then, and in no other way can it be so quickly effective 
as in a liquid state. At no period are the roots of fruit 
trees of all kinds so active as early in September, and 
at no period can so much nutriment be imbibed from 
the soil in a given time when the earth is in a fit state 
for its reception. It is not in a fit state when it is dry, 
and I have no hesitation in saying that the best of 
liquid manure that can be procured does immeasurably 
less good applied in summer, when the soil, in which 
the roots are situated or trying to move, is dry, than in 
winter, when it is moist—not waterlogged, but moist 
enough for absorption, while at the same time per¬ 
mitting of free percolation, for where water passes 
through the soil air follows, and there can then be no 
stagnation. The earth, then, to be in the best condition 
for the reception of liquid manure, must be moist, yet 
sufficiently drained naturally or artificially. 
“During the summer months the earth may appear 
moist, and is moist, it may be, to a foot or so in depth, 
even under and near long planted, large, yet enfeebled 
trees ; but below the moist layer in which there are few 
or no roots, we find on digging that the earth is as dry 
as powder, and it is in this dry under stratum that the 
chief of the roots are established. This should be 
thoroughly moistened with clear water, then, and not 
till then, following with liquid manure. But it is often 
most difficult, and may be impracticable, to make the 
impoverished soil moist during the summer season of 
the year, in which the roots of starving trees are estab¬ 
lished ; and beyond question the autumn rains and 
winter snows do the important work more effectively 
and cost nothing. Then is the time to empty cesspools 
and pour the contents into the ground ; of course, when 
the surface is moderately dry. At that season of the 
year the liquid can be given of twice the strength it 
would be safe to apply it when the roots are in an 
active state ; in fact, it is not easy, I suspect, to give 
it too strong in winter. Some of the virtues may pass 
away, but the bulk will be retained by the moist soil, 
and be imbibed by the roots to the certain benefit of 
the trees. 
“ I have used thousands of gallons of the contents of 
cesspools that could only be emptied in winter, with 
the most striking benefit to all kinds of fruit trees and 
bushes which only needed sustenance to render them 
bearers of excellent fruit. As I gained courage from 
experience, the liquid was less and less diluted, and the 
stronger it was, the more marked was the effect bene¬ 
ficially on the trees. If the soil is moist in summer, 
liquid manure may be given with advantage to fruit 
trees that obviously need support; but the very strong 
may need to be somewhat diluted. It is worse than 
useless applying it to dry soil, as it drains down, 
leaving little of its virtues behind, and may in passing 
do injury to some of the roots ; but apart from that, 
the practice is wasteful, and therefore should be avoided. 
“When travelling in Lincolnshire in August last year 
1 had the pleasure of calling on a clergyman, who is 
also an ardent gardener. I had known the old espalier 
and other trees in his garden for years. Many of them 
had the appearance of being worn out, and most persons 
of an improving turn of mind, with the means of carry¬ 
ing out their ideas, would have destroyed the old trees 
and planted young. Some were planted, but the old 
were retained and nourished. I was somewhat aston¬ 
ished to see the change they had undergone since the 
previous year, thick deep green leaves in place of the 
pale and thin ; stout, short-jointed, well-fed wood in 
place of the weak ; large fruit in place of the small; 
clean and rosy in place of the speckled and sickly hued. 
This rapid renovation had been effected by liquid 
manure given strong and plentifully in the winter. 
“ I had exactly similar experience in years gone by, 
and in the same village. Whether the vicar came to 
hear of this I know not, or whether he remembered 
something he had read on the subject, or whether it 
was a question of wasting the sewage or not, and so he 
ventured to try it on the old trees, not minding much 
if he killed them, I am not able to say, but the fact 
remains he did pour the strong stuff into the ground 
when it was naturally wet in winter and the trees 
leafless ; then when the spring came and the summer 
advanced, the sturdy shoots and thick dark leaves, the 
bold buds, and good fruit told plainly that the food in 
solution given in winter, when the trees were resting, 
was not lost, but retained and appropriated. In no 
other way could the enfeebled trees have been improved 
so quickly, decidedly and cheaply. 
“ It is nearly thirty years since some cesspools on the 
premises of a gentleman could only be emptied in the 
winter. The contents were applied to old trees in an 
orchard, completely saturating the ground, and there 
was no mistaking the effect of the application. It was 
then used in the garden, being given to trees of various 
kinds near the walls and in the open that appeared to 
need extra support, also to Gooseberries, Currants, 
Strawberry beds, and Raspberry plantations, with the 
most satisfactory results ; indeed for seven years they had 
no manure beyond the sewage, and this was only given 
in winter. The owner of the trees and bushes, and 
all else who knew them, were satisfied that they 
became much more healthy and grew far better crops of 
fruit after being thus treated than they had ever done 
before, and canker wounds healed freely in some 
apparently worn-out Apple trees that were invigorated 
in the manner described. To be effectual the appli¬ 
cation must be thorough, surface dribbling being of 
little use.” 
It maybe thought, and isthought by some cultivators, 
that liquid manure supplied in winter passes through the 
soil into the drains. This is not so when the soil is moist 
and not too sandy for fruit trees. The liquid is not lost, 
but filtered, that which is least wanted, then, almost 
pure water, passing away, that which is most wanted— 
the virtues of the liquid—being retained for the support 
of the trees. This anyone can prove by experimenting 
with a large flower pot full of moderately firm moist soil. 
In order to aid the penetration of the liquid quite 
down to the roots of trees, holes made with a crowbar 
are useful, particularly on sloping ground, filling them 
over and over again. These food receptacles should not 
be close to the stem only, for the most active-feeding 
roots are at a distance from it about equal to the spread 
of the branches. The deeper and wider and more 
numerous these conduits are the better, especially when 
they are afterwards filled, as they should be, with a 
rich compost rammed firmly. A mixture of loam, wood 
ashes, and leaf-mould in equal parts, well incorporating 
with each bushel, 3 or 4 lbs. of superphosphate of 
lime, used in the manner suggested, will soon be taken 
possession of by a mass of fibrous roots, and the trees 
will be improved accordingly. I have seen some 
striking results follow that practice in the renovation 
of both fruit and ornamental trees on grass. 
(To be continued.) 
--WE-e--- 
THE CULTURE OF CARROTS. 
Success in the culture of these useful roots is probably 
dependent more on the description of the soil to which 
the seed is committed than to the skill or good manage¬ 
ment of the cultivator. In many districts of the 
country, notably the highlands, where the soil consists 
almost entirely of bog-peat of a good average depth, 
it is a comparatively easy matter to raise heavy crops 
of fine Carrots annually. In the midst of a season such 
as the present, when the general failure of the Potato 
crop is so widely felt, I recall to mind an interesting 
and opportune article which appeared in a gardening 
journal, in November, 1872, on the Carrot as a valuable 
food product, when the country was threatened with 
something like a Potato famine. 
The writer, Mr. ~\V. Thomson, of the Tweed Vine¬ 
yard, in the course of his paper, pointed to the vast 
extent of waste land, more particularly marshy bogs 
throughout the country, which, if reclaimed and cul¬ 
tivated, would be capable of producing an abundant 
supply of Carrots, the soil being specially suited to 
their culture. My then personal experience in the 
county to which his remarks more especially referred 
enabled me to fully endorse his paper. I have very 
gratifying recollections of the large crops of fine 
vegetables—notably Onions, Cauliflowers, and Carrots— 
that were produced from a kitchen garden, the site of 
which had been formerly a veritable quagmire, but 
which contained excellent soil for the culture of many 
other garden products. 
In gardens with soil less suitable for Carrots we have 
had good crops, and also some failures ; but, generally 
speaking, a good deal of extra labour was connected 
with their cultivation. Dry soot, as well as solutions 
of paraffin, guano and sulphate of ammonia, have been 
tried in different seasons, but unsuccessfully. Mixing 
the seed freely with sulphur is a practice sometimes 
adopted, and a few years ago I saw some very cleaD, 
handsome samples of the intermediate variety that 
were first in several classes at a village show, the seed 
of which had been treated as above. They were grown 
by a railway pointsman on heavy land by the side of 
the line, The best remedy, however, that we have 
found as a preventive of worming, in conjunction with 
trenching the ground, is burnt earth placed thickly in 
the drills prior to sowing the seed. Following such 
treatment, we have secured good, clean crops in both 
dry and wet seasons from land which rarely had 
produced more than a scant supply of the Early Horn. 
Seaweed, which, by the way, is also splendid 
material for the winter dressing of Asparagus plantations, 
should be taken advantage of wherever it is within 
reasonable carting distance, as there is no manure 
more suitable for the production of large crops of 
Carrots. Quite the finest crop I ever saw was lifted 
from a quarter that was prepared for Asparagus. 
