244 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
December 16, 1893. 
SALT IN THE GARDEN. 
For our supply of common salt, that absolute 
necessity of everyday life, we in England rely upon 
the salt mines of Cheshire and Worcestershire, 
which yield a salt composed of from g8 to 99 per 
cent, of chloride of sodium, and from i to per cent, 
of lime. The manurial value of salt has long been 
recognised. The Romans were well aware of the 
difference between saline pastures, and those from 
which salt was absent, Plin)'asserting that not only 
did the cattle thrive better where salt was accessible 
to them, but that the cows gave more milk, which, 
too, was better for cheese making than that from 
cows pastured where salt was absent. Coming down 
to later times, we find that Glauber, some three 
hundred years back, obtained a charter from the 
authorities in Holland for the exclusive privilege of 
granting licences for its use in agriculture, and at 
home we find Markman in the reign of James I. 
recommending its use in tillage. Yet in spite of this, 
we find that the merits of salt are but little under¬ 
stood among the majority of those who till the soil, 
and from its being used at times in excessive quanti¬ 
ties its value has been much discredited. 
There are just two uses to which salt has been 
most frequently put in gardens, and these will very 
well illustrate what I would say with regard to its use 
and abuse. In the first place I will refer to its use 
as a weed killer on gravel paths, &c., and this I 
unhesitatingly affirm is an abuse of It, and a great 
mistake, because while the various weed killer 
mixtures now sold do their work so effectually that 
one application will generally sufiice to keep the 
weeds down from twelve to eighteen months, a 
dressing of salt put on in the spring will but cause 
the weeds to grow with greater luxuriance in the 
autumn. The use of salt for this purpose also 
involves more danger to box and grass edgings than 
does the use of the weed killing compounds which 
are more manageable, and when once absorbed in 
the gravel all danger is past, whereas salt is often 
carried on the soles of boots on to the grass to its 
disfigurement, or a sudden storm may come on and 
wash it on to the edgings. Happily the rapidly 
increasing use of the weed killers will soon, I believe, 
make the use of salt for killing weeds a thing of the 
past. 
The next most common use that is made of salt is 
as a dressing for Asparagus beds, and I have known 
instances where proprietors of gardens have pro¬ 
vided salt in such practically unlimited quantities 
that by some ^unfortunate combination of circum¬ 
stances an ignoramus has been put in charge and 
given them such a liberal dressing as killed the 
Asparagus as well as the weeds. In such cases, salt 
as a manure has fallen into discredit and its further 
use forbidden. This again is an abuse, for it is 
using it in immoderate quantities. Now although 
salt may be applied to Asparagus in greater quanti¬ 
ties than to most other crops, I would never use it in 
any great quantity at one time more than another, 
and prefer to give several dressings during the 
growing season at intervals of a month. 
There are no crops in the garden to which salt 
may not be applied to great advantage in varying 
proportions according to the nature of the soil and 
class of crop on which it is used. I have used it at 
the rate of six bushels per acre on all kinds of 
garden crops with the most gratifying results, one 
instance of which must suffice as an illustration. A 
piece of ground which had had no manure whatever 
on it for two years, I gave a dressing of salt and 
planted it with Brussels Sprouts. The ground was 
decidedly stiff, but it yielded us one of the best crops 
of sprouts I ever saw, and which sold at the best 
market price. The best plan is to sow the salt on 
ground previous to digging it, or else immediately 
after the crops are sown, as the danger of injuring 
young growths by its action on them is thus minimised. 
Some crops, notably Cabbage and other Brassicas, 
Beet, Onions, Peas, and Beans, will take up more 
salt than others, and a dressing of it scattered among 
Broccoli before winter hardens it and helps it to with¬ 
stand the action of frost. 
Another advantage accompanying its use is its 
value as an insecticide. An annual dressing of the 
whole of many a suburban garden would do much to 
keep under the plague of slugs, snails, and grubs, by 
which many of them are infested. I have used it 
with manifest benefit to Vine borders in rather 
greater proportions than to culinary vegetables, and 
have no doubt it may be employed to most fruit 
trees in like proportions, for besides having a direct 
manurial value it improves light sandy soils by its 
property of absorbing and retaining moisture. It 
has also the power of changing plant food from a 
dormant to an active condition, promoting the form¬ 
ation of double silicates, and so enabling plants to 
obtain greater quantities of silica to a deficiency of 
which in some soils one of our most noted 
promologists attributes the deficiency of colour 
in fruit grown upon them. I believe there is 
no fruit crop but what would be benefited by its 
application. Another way in which salt can be used 
is to mix it with the compost heap, in the following 
proportions:—To twenty yards of soil, old potting 
shed rubbish, decayed weeds and wood ashes, use six 
bushels of salt and the same of soot if obtainable. 
This will form a most excellent manure for all crops. 
Where nitrate of soda is used, a mixture of it with 
half its weighfof common salt will often be prefer¬ 
able to the soda alone,— W. B. Glasscock, 7, Tamworth 
Road, Crovdon. 
-- 
TWO HANDSOME SHRUBS. 
There are two ways by which trees or shrubs may 
render themselves agreeably prominent in winter 
(not to say ornamental, for most trees and shrubs 
have something to recommend them even when 
The Sea Buckthorn. 
leafless), and these are by being evergreen or furnished 
with berries. The Holly, as everybody knows, has 
both recommendations; but Elaeagnus pungens 
maculata and Hippophae rhamnoides share these 
honours between them, so to speak. The first-named 
(see illustration) has evergreen leaves that are smooth 
above with a large pale yellow blotch fading to 
creamy yellow or silvery white, as they reach matu¬ 
rity or in winter. The blotch is of irregular shape 
and variable in size on different leaves, and bounded 
by a dark green margin, or occasionally a whole leaf 
or even the small shoots may be of a uniform pale 
yellow. The under surface is covered with silvery 
scales. The shrub varies from 3 ft. to 6 ft. higfi, 
according to conditions, and may be grown as an 
isolated bush on the lawn, planted in the shrubbery, 
or trained against a wall, under all of which con¬ 
ditions it is a beautiful object, changing slightly in 
colour according to the period of the year, but 
always cheerful, particularly during the dull season 
now running its course. There are several varie¬ 
gated forms of it, but none more beautiful than E. 
pungens maculata. 
Hippophae rhamnoides, a shrub popularly 
known as the Sea Buckthorn, loses its leaves in 
winter, but the deficiency is amply compensated for 
by the profusion of bright orange-yellow berries 
with which the branches are laden, and which ripen 
in autumn before the fall of the leaf and persist 
during the greater part of winter. Some planters 
may fail to obtain any berries, but that will not be 
the case if he takes the provision to introduce a 
few male plants amongst the berry-bearing ones. 
The two kinds of flowers, it must be remembered, 
are borne upon different individual plants, and if 
the latter have been raised from seeds it cannot be 
ascertained what kind they will produce till they 
reach the flowering stage. The species is a native 
of our shores, and naturally is well adapted for sea¬ 
side planting ; but this fact seems to be very much 
neglected or even ignored by planters in many mari¬ 
time localities along our sea-board. It nevertheless 
thrives equally satisfactorily inland, and in some 
gardens forms a conspicuous ornament during the 
autumn and winter months. The species may be 
propagated by seeds, layers, suckers, and by mode¬ 
rately stout pieces of the roots. 
- _ _ 
' ♦ ' - 
SIZE i/. QUALITY. 
Your correspondent "Con.” who wrote so strongly 
in favour of a higher appreciation of what we know 
as quality in garden products, over size, whether at 
exhibitions or for ordinary uses, has my entire 
sympathy. I like to see something of a tangible 
basis for the judging of everything, and in relation to 
flowers especially we usually have high estimates 
as to quality. But then in their case quality is a 
well defined feature. It is far less so in the case of 
fruits and vegetables. How is quality to be defined 
in their case ? We each and all have our own 
notions of what constitutes quality, some very dis¬ 
similar, but at least these opinions never have been 
brought into practical form and set down in unmis- 
takeable terms. No set of judges is in any way 
bound by the opinions of others. There is a sort of 
rough and tumble estimate of what quality is or 
should be, but there is no defined rule or regulation 
to establish it ; that is that in no known instance in 
relation to fruits or vegetables does size mean 
quality. That is a self evident proposition. 
It may be pleaded that a large fruit or vegetable 
must have relatively percisely the same quality that 
a smaller sample has, but all experience goes to 
show that if by quality we mean flavour, solidity, 
nutritiousness of flesh, and not least of keeping 
properties, the smaller examples have these elements 
in the greater proportion. Relatively again the 
huge Onion, for example, has very little more of 
cellular tissue or flesh than has the one much less in 
size, and also less of flavour, the greater bulk con¬ 
sisting of water only. Equally so all fruits or vege¬ 
tables and even the lesser Potatos contain relatively 
a far greater proportion of starch than do the big 
tubers. So far as Cauliflowers are concerned, is one 
giant head so sweet, succulent and useful, as three 
much less in size grown on the same area of ground? 
The same reasoning applies to Cabbages and many 
other things. All this we know and cannot dissent 
from, but still we have in relation to all these things, 
no defined rules of judgment. Melons seem to be 
the only exception. These we refuse to judge 
without tasting. Did we judge these by size, in 
ninety nine cases out of the hundred we should make 
the awards to the poorest flavour and thus for the 
most worthless fruits .—An Old Judge. 
-- 
AECHMEA DEVANSAYANA 
WEILBACHII. 
The Bromeliads do not get the attention they 
deserve for stove decoration. Many of them are 
really handsome, either in flower or leaf, but some 
of them possess both these qualities. The habit of 
the plant recalls that of Ae. fulgens, better known in 
some gardens as Lamprococcus fulgens, but it is a 
stronger grower and the flowers are different in 
colour. The ligulate leaves are of a dark green and 
bronzy towards the base, while the younger suckers 
are wholly of that colour. The flower scape stands 
well above the leaves, and is furnished with bright 
crimson-red bracts, the uppermost of which as well 
as the axis on which they are borne are of a brilliant 
coral-red. The flowers themselves are borne in two 
ranks on spreading spikes or branches, and have a 
purple ovary, violet sepals and petals that are violet 
when they expand but fade to pink and ultimately 
become almost pure white. The whole plant forms 
a neat vasiform tuft, and is well worthy a place in 
the stove whether in flower or not. We noted it 
flowering quite recently in the nursery of Messrs. J. 
Laing & Sons, Forest Hill. 
