84 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
Oct. 11th, 1884. 
handsome tree in our rural districts, which is 
largely planted in our towns, hut hardly with 
happy results, for the arid atmosphere and soils 
of our streets do not favour that retention of 
foliage which is so desirable in town trees. 
Fortunately we have one truly grand tree that 
will thrive well in towns, and that is the Oriental 
Plane, a native of the dry East, which seems 
equally at home in London streets and squares, 
and by the margins of running brooks where the 
conditions of growth are so diverse. This Plane 
likes ample room, and must for a few years be 
subject to the pruning saw, still, in time, it 
will become very spreading and lofty, but as a 
London tree it so far remains unrivalled. For a 
dwarf and more compact tree, none can compare 
with the beautiful Kobinia Bessoniana, the 
specimens of which in Sutton Court Load, 
Turnham Green, always commands admiration. 
For a narrow street, this tree is better adapted 
than is the noble Plane. 
A Check foe Slugs. —In the Eight Hon. 
Joseph Chamberlain’s garden at Highbury, 
Birmingham, Mr. Cooper, the gardener, employs 
a very good means of preventing slugs from 
eating thp tender shoots of Lapageria rosea, 
Lapageria alba, the buds of Odontoglossum 
Alexandra, and all those other tender things 
which they seem so fond of, but which is too 
costly a food.to be accorded them willingly. The 
ordinary check arranged for them consists of a 
strip of cotton wool wound round the base of the 
shoot or flower-spike, but even this they get 
over. Mr. Cooper soaks the cotton wool in a 
solution of chloride of lime before using it, and 
he finds that it then forms a most effectual check, 
the slugs never crossing it. 
Gaebya elliptica. — A correspondent oblig¬ 
ingly informs us that this fine winter-flowering 
plant has fruited this season in Mr. Andrew 
Kingsmill’s garden at Eastcott Lodge, Pinner, 
near London, where the female plant is growing 
against a wall. The pollen for fertilizing it was 
obtained from a plant some distance away. It 
would be interesting to know (and to record) in 
how many other places the plant has fruited. 
The Phylloxera. —M. Balbiani, Professor at the 
College de France, was commissioned a short time ago 
by the Minister of Agriculture to report upon the best 
mode of destroying the winter eggs of the phylloxera, 
as it has been found that it is in this way the progress 
of the parasite is very materially checked. M. Bal¬ 
biani reports that three methods have been employed 
—the mechanical destruction of the eggs by barking 
the vines, boiling water, and rubbing the vines with 
preparations calculated to burn up the eggs. The 
first-named of these methods has been tried in several 
vineyards near Bordeaux, the workmen rubbing the 
stocks with a chain-steel glove, but the results are 
not satisfactory, as it is only the old wood which can 
be treated in this way. The use of boiling water would 
produce excellent results but for the fact that it is open 
more than any other process to carelessness in applica¬ 
tion, and that neutralizes all its good effects. The rub¬ 
bing of the vines with a preparation composed of nine 
parts of coal-tar to one of oil was open to the objec¬ 
tion that the eoalJar got so thick in cold weather, 
that it could not be applied, and the cost of heating 
it again was considerable. Several vine-growers tried 
to liquify the mixture by adding 15 per cent, of 
turpentine, but this, when applied, killed the vines 
altogether. M. Balbiani tried several fresh experi¬ 
ments, among others a mixture of oil, naphtha, 
quick-lime, and water. This mixture has been tried 
upon a very large scale in the vineyards of the Lot- 
et-Garonne and the Loir-et-Cher, and it possesses, 
according to M. Balbiani, the double recommendation 
of being effectual and cheap, as the cost is under a 
franc for a hundred stocks .—The Times. 
6 avbciri ntj tel 1 a hit* 
Ox Tuesday next the Fruit and Floral Committees 
meet at South Kensington, and on that and the 
two following days a large Fruit and Vegetable 
Show will be held in connection with the Health 
Exhibition. The classes for Apples, Pears, and 
Potatos are the special features of the Schedule. 
Messrs. J. C. Wheeler & Sons, Gloucester, also offer 
prizes for three dishes of Potatos. 
Ox November 14th and loth a Chrysanthemum 
Show will be held at the Crystal Palace, and good 
prizes are also offered for Hardy Decorative Shrubs, 
arranged in designs to illustrate then use for autumn 
and winter effect in the flower-garden. Ornamental 
berried plants, Variegated and other Hollies, and 
trained Ivies are also included in the prize list. 
We are pleased to hear that the sea anemone, 
“ Old Granny,” which interested so many people at 
the Fisheries Exhibition, held in Edinburgh, and 
which was then in the custody of Mr. Sadler, passed 
on his death into the hands of his successor in the 
Curatorship of the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens, Mr. 
Robert Lindsay. “Granny” is still alive, and in 
good health. 
Mr. C. M. Hovey of Boston, Mass., U.S.A., is con¬ 
tributing to The Massachusetts Ploughman , a series of 
notices of one hundred and fifty ornamental trees, 
under the title of “Arboretum Americanum.” 
It is proposed to hold a Forestry Exhibition at the 
Alexandra Palace next year, “to show forth the 
productions of the Forests of the World, from the 
Pine Forests of the far north to the Palm Forests of 
the tropics.” Classes have been arranged to include 
Practical Forestry, Forest Produce, raw and manufac¬ 
tured, Scientific Forestry, Ornamental Forestry, Illus¬ 
trations of Forestry, Forest Literature and History, 
Essays and Reports, Loan Collections, &c. Theexhibiton 
is No. 1 of a series that will be held concurrently for 
six months, commencing at the end of March. Mr. J. 
Forsyth Johnson, 90, New Bond Street, W., is the 
Manager of the Forestry Exhibition. 
The Executive Committee of the International 
Forestry Exhibition have issued a number of additional 
awards. Gold medals have been given to Messrs. 
Little & Ballantine, Carlisle ; Messrs. James Veiteh & 
Sons, Chelsea; and silver medals to Messrs. James 
Dickson & Co., Chester; and Messrs. Little & Ballan- 
tine. The exhibition closes to-day. 
We are pleased to be able to announce that at a 
Meeting of the Executive Committee held on Monday 
last, His Grace the Duke of Westminster, K.G., was 
elected (and has since accepted) the office of President 
of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution ; and 
Mr. George Lambert, F.S.A., Coventry Street, W., 
in consideration of valuable services rendered to 
the Institution, was unanimously elected a Vice- 
President. At the same meeting it was resolved that 
there should be an election of Pensioners in January 
next, but the number will be small, owing to the few 
casualties that have occurred during the year. Those, 
however, who are seeking election, and who have been 
subscribers for fifteen years, will, we believe, be placed 
on the list without the trouble of an election. ThePension 
Augmentation Fund has reached the sum of £715, 
leaving only the sum of £420 to be raised before the 
end of the year, in order to secure the £500 promised 
at the begi nni ng of the year, should the other sum be 
raised by subscriptions. 
Mr. George Syjee who several years ago left Messrs. 
Barron & Sons’ nursery at Borrowash, to take charge 
of the Botanic Gardens at Castleton, Jamaica, has 
returned home, and wifi not go out again. Mr. Syme, 
we believe, is seeking another engagement. 
The Chrysanthemums in the Manchester district 
are coming along so fast, that the bloom will be some¬ 
what earlier this year, and the Manchester Botanical 
Society have decided to hold their exhibition a week 
earlier than the date originally fixed. 
At the Dairy Show which has been held at the 
Agricultural Hall during the week, very interesting 
stands of Roots, Cereals, and Grasses were exhibited 
by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading; Messrs. James 
Carter & Co., High Holborn; and Messrs. W T ebb & 
Sons, Wordsley. 
HOME MANURES FOR THE 
GARDEN, 
At a meeting of agriculturists a short time ago, one 
of them acutely remarked that, “ we fanners are just 
beginning to get into our heads the idea that we must 
feed our plants as we feed our animals. We have 
always had the notion that to get good crops we had 
simply to make our soil rich, and have not stopped to 
think how the manure helps the plant to grow. But 
we have got to learn that the main use of fertilizers is 
to feed our plants, and that we must adapt the manure 
to the needs of our crops and soils, just as we adapt 
the fodder to the wants of our stock. We have got 
to learn how to make the most of the plant-food that 
our soils may furnish of themselves, and to supply in 
manures what our soils lack.” 
This was practical sense, and it was sound scientific 
theory as well, and its truths are just as applicable to 
the garden as they are to the farm. 
First, then, we observe that “plants, like animals, 
require food for life and growth.” Secondly, in order 
that our plants may grow and thrive, they must have 
at the disposal of then roots in the soil a sufficient 
quantity of each of a number of substances needed for 
then food. Thirdly, that the object of manuring land 
is not only to restore the ingredients taken out of 
the soil by the growth of plants, but to increase the 
quantity of plant-food so as to make it more pro¬ 
ductive. 
Our present object, however, is not so much to 
consider the whole question of manuring theoretically, 
as to bring before our readers a few practical remarks 
respecting the treatment and use of some of the more 
easily obtained, or whatwe have termed Home Manures. 
What constituents does a manure contain ? How 
does the manure operate ? How quickly does it act ? 
How long does its action continue ? These are some 
of the most important questions which the gardener 
has to answer. 
Manures work only by means of the chemical sub¬ 
stances they contain, and of these the chief and only 
ones we need consider now are nitrogen, potash, lime, 
and phosphoric acid. The value of any material 
used as a fertilizer must depend upon the proportion 
of these four ingredients, and the ease with which 
they become soluble, so as to be readily taken up by 
the growing plants. But a manure that supplies one 
only of these important ingredients, unless the others 
are already present in an available form in the soil, 
will not produce a perfect and vigorous plant. Thus 
lime, potash, phosphoric acid, or nitrogen will not 
work alone, but supply them in combination, and 
healthy luxuriant growth will be the result. 
The peculiarity of the manure obtained from our 
horse-stables, cow-sheds, and piggeries is that it con¬ 
tains all the substances we have mentioned as necessary 
to healthy plant-life ; but at the same time it must be 
remembered that the manure will vary in value, not 
only with the description of animal from which it is 
obtained, but also on the character of their food, on 
the quantity of straw or other material employed as 
litter, and on its management when accumulating. 
As the urine of our domestic Animals has a higher 
value as a means of manure than the same quantity of 
solid excrements, it follows plainly that a well-managed 
manure-heap will be composed of a sufficient amount 
of litter to retain the greater part of the urine, and to 
admit of only a small proportion running to waste. 
Attention to this point is of great practical importance, 
as the quantity of liquid absorbed materially affects 
the fermentation of the mass. 
Cow-dung is the most abundant and least valuable 
in composition of the animal manures, owing to its 
large proportion of water. On this account it decom¬ 
poses in the soil but slowly, and becomes very slightly 
heated when lying in heaps. If permitted to accumu¬ 
late for any length of time, it will be found to acquire 
a compact and soapy character, which renders its 
distribution in the soil extremely difficult. The most 
economic method of dealing with cow-manure for 
the garden, is to convert it into a compost with layers 
of pond or clitch-mud, the cleansings of streets, night 
soil, leaf-mould, or other coarse vegetable refuse, adding 
to each successive layer a good sprinkling of fresh 
burnt lime, the heap being repeatedly turned over 
and liquid manure poured in at the same time. This 
will convert the whole into a rapidly and powerfully 
acting manure, which may be used with advantage 
