836 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
August 31, 1896. 
details; but those who thoroughly digest 
this little booklet on a most important 
subject will have their appetite whetted, 
and their desire stimulated to know more 
of a subject that will at no distant date be 
placed in the front rank of requirements in 
a gardener’s education. There are many 
useful and valuable manures in commerce, 
ready made to the hand of the gardener ; 
and such being the case, he may argue 
that there is little need for him to study 
them, and less to know their chemical com¬ 
position ; but the latter has so close a rela¬ 
tion to the nature of the crops cultivated, 
that the gardener cannot afford to ignore it. 
The proper time to apply certain manures 
to secure the desired results, is a matter 
that all too frequently does not enter into 
the gardener's calculations at all. Certain 
plants are benefited by certain manures, but 
when vegetative vigour is desired, such as 
good growth of stem or leaf, different ferti¬ 
lisers must be employed than when short- 
jointed wood, flowers or fruit are required. 
Gardeners ought to know the why and 
the wherefore for the application of any 
given manure; then to reason from that to 
the results means a liberal education, the 
far-reaching advantages of which it would 
be impossible to predict, provided gar¬ 
deners generally were to follow up their 
scientific acquirements and apply them to 
all branches of gardening. Mr. Dyke's 
little work is not meant as a compendium 
of the whole subject of manuring but 
rather as a concise essay dealing with all 
the elementary principles of manuring with 
which every good gardener ought to be 
familiar. The greater part of the essay we 
have read with interest not from the fact 
that it contains much or anything that is 
new to science, but because it treats the sub¬ 
ject tersely and correctly. The only state¬ 
ment we have noticed,and to which we should 
take any serious objection, is that relating 
to the sources from -which plants obtain 
their oxygen. While the first part of the 
sentence is correct, tke second says:— 
“ but it must be remembered that plants 
can absorb oxygen from the atmosphere.” 
They do absorb that element both by night 
and by day, but it does not enter into their 
composition; the free oxygen of the atmos¬ 
phere is concerned only with destructive 
metabolism, or in other words with the 
process of respiration, just as in the case 
of animals. Only combined oxygen enters 
into and forms part of the plant body, and 
this alone would take part in the nutrition 
of the plant. 
The author of the essay well explains 
that in order to perfectly understand the 
nutrition of plants, it is necessary to grasp 
the elementary requirements of the same, 
and then the relative quantities of such 
that may be present in any given soil, after 
which the significance of manuring will 
become more and more apparent. The 
relative quantities of any given element of 
plant food and its activity or solubility in a 
soil can be ascertained by simple experi¬ 
ment. Soils vary so, and different plants 
require some particular stimulant more 
than another, that the diligent enquirer 
can only arrive at exact or correct con¬ 
clusions, by studying these things in con¬ 
junction and acting accordingly. This 
could never be done by applications of a 
complete manure ; hence the necessity of 
cultivating their acquaintance separately. 
It will then become possible for a gardener 
to use the various actually necessary in¬ 
gredients with economy. 
All these questions are dealt with by Mr. 
Dyke in a somewhat lengthy introduction, 
after which he proceeds to discuss general 
manures such as farmyard manure, guano, 
native guano, fowls and pigeon’s dung, 
green crop manuring and cognate matters. 
To farmers and gardeners generally, farm¬ 
yard manure is simply dung and nothing 
more ; but the subject is really a very com¬ 
plex one and all concerned would find it to 
their advantage to enquire into the subject 
in considerable detail. The more im¬ 
portant elements of plant food are liable to 
be lost when manures are improperly 
treated, so that their value is greatly 
depreciated thereby. Special manures 
include all those which possess a large pro¬ 
portion of one or more particular and valu¬ 
able elements of plant food, such as 
sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, blood, 
soot, hoof and horn parings, dried fish 
manures, bones, kainit and the various 
treatments to which they are subjected in 
order to render the several valuable con¬ 
stituents soluble and fit to supply nourish¬ 
ment to the crops cultivated. The special 
manures passed under review are really very 
numerous, and gardeners could do much 
worse than invest in a copy of this useful, 
yet unpretentious and inexpensive 
pamphlet. The table of present prices for 
certain weights of chemical and commercial 
manures given at the end of the essay will 
not only be of interest but prove a useful 
guide to gardeners who are as yet un¬ 
familiar with the same, but desire to make 
their acquaintance. 
-- -» « ■ -- 
Particulars concerning the first issue of our twelfth 
volume will be found on the previous page. 
Messrs. George Bunyard & Co., we are pleased to 
learn, have been appointed by Royal Warrant as 
purveyors of fruit to Her Majesty the Queen. 
The Flower Show and Fete of the Prickwillow 
Horticultural Society, Cambridge, has been an 
unqualified success. There were 8oo exhibits in the 
large marquee, and 120 competitors in the 105 
classes. The show ‘is pronounced as the best that 
has ever been held. 
The seventh annual show of the Pitsmoor Floral 
and Horticultural Society, Sheffield, was held on the 
19th inst., was creditable in every way and proved 
that beautiful flowers and excellent vegetables can 
be grown in spite of the smoke from the great manu¬ 
factories at Brightside. The show improves every 
year and has greatly outgrown its original humble 
beginning. 
Hailstorm at Harpenden.—A terrific hailstorm 
occurred at Harpenden, Herts, about 4 o'clock on 
Thursday morning doing an immense amount of 
damage to property, some of the hailstones being two 
inches across. Mr. Phillips, owner of a number of 
glasshouses, had one side of all of them completely 
riddled—hardly a sound pane of glass remaining — 
while Mr. Purrott, who owns about 104,562 sq. feet 
of glass had also a great amount of it broken, and 
much damage done to Grapes, Cucumbers and other 
stock. All the glass broken was twenty-one ounce. 
Both Nurserymen had wisely insured in the Nursery¬ 
men’s Hailstorm Insurance Corporation, of 1 and 2 
King Street, Covent Garden. 
National Chrysanthemum Society.—At a meeting of 
the General Committee held at Anderton's Hotel, on 
Monday evening, Mr. B. Wynne, presiding, the 
Secretary, Mr. R. Dean, announced the recent death 
of an old member of the Society in the person of Mr. 
Arthur Wortley, and it was unanimously resolved 
“ That this committee place on record an expression 
of the sorrow with which it has heard of the recent 
death of Mr. Arthur Wortley, formerly secretary of 
the Stoke Newington Chrysanthemum Society, to 
which office he was elected in 1851, and bears in 
grateful remembrance his services to the Society in 
that capacity, and also as an old cultivator and ex¬ 
hibitor of the Golden Flower." In consequence of 
the retirement of two members of the committee, 
Mr. G. Walker of Paddington, and Mr. W. Holmes, 
Hackney, were elected to fill the vacancies, and Mr. 
McHattie, gardener to the Duke of Wellington, at 
Strathfieldsaye, was elected to a seat on the Floral 
Committee. The Jubilee Sub-Commictee presented 
a comprehensive scheme for duly celebrating the 
jubilee of the Society next year (the main features of 
which will shortly be announced), which was 
unanimously adopted, and a special committee 
appointed to carry out the same. Twenty-three 
ordinary members and two Fellows were added to 
the Society’s roll of membership. 
Stealing from allotments.—We do not think any of 
our readers will take exception to the exemplary 
sentence passed by the City Bench, on the 30th ult., 
upon the purloiner of produce from the allotments 
at Cripley, Oxford. Robberies of this nature, we are 
credibly informed, are of very frequent occurrence, 
and this being so it is a matter of surprise that steps 
are not taken to discover the depredators. That 
this is difficult when, as in the case under notice, the 
offender himself is an allottee , and therefore has 
justification for being upon the ground, we readily 
admit, as without very close watching the chances 
of detection are slight. It is to be hoped that the 
determination of the magistrates to put a stop as far 
as lies in their power to these nefarious practices 
will have the desired effect. 
Dahlia Show at the Royal Aquarium, S W.—The 
annual Dahlia show to be opened on Tuesday, Sept. 
3rd, and continued on Wednesday and Thursday, at 
the Royal Aquarium, Westminster,will be the only one 
held in London this year. The entries are most promis¬ 
ing, and the show will include Gladioli and early Chry¬ 
santhemums. All types of Dahlias will be on view, 
but special interest is attached to the magnificent 
new Mexican Cactus varieties, of which there will 
be a special exhibit. The Gladioli will be more than 
equal to last year's display, and the National Chry¬ 
santhemum Society have arranged for an extensive 
exhibition of early specimens of the early popular 
“ Mums.” 
Proposed Testimonial to Mr. A. F. Barron.—A 
representative meeting of Horticulturists was held 
at the Hotel Windsor, Victoria Street, S.W., on 
Tuesday afternoon, Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, F.R.S., 
presiding, to promote a public testimonial to Mr. A. 
F. Barron, as a means of expressing in a tangible 
form the feelings of warm sympathy that are 
universally felt for him under the unfortunate 
circumstances of his dismissal from Chiswick, and in 
recognition of the long and honourable services 
which he has rendered to the Royal Horticultural 
Society as Superintendent of its gardens and exhi¬ 
bitions, and to Horticulture generally. It was 
unanimously resolved that a testimonial fund should 
be raised, and a general committee was appointed 
with power to add to their number, Mr. William 
Marshall, Auchinraith, Bexley, Kent, and Mr. B. 
Wynne, 1, Danes Inn, Strand, W.C., jointly under¬ 
taking the secretarial duties. It is proposed to 
appoint a President and Treasurer at the next meet¬ 
ing on September 10th, and in the meantime either 
of the Secretaries will be glad to receive the names 
of gentlemen who are willing to join the committee, 
or to otherwise aid in the movement. 
Shirley Gardeners’ and Amateurs' Improvement 
Association.—The monthly meeting was held at the 
Parish Room, Shirley, Southampton, on the 19th 
inst., under the presidency of Mr. B. Ladhams, 
F.R.H.S. The lecturer on this occasion was Mr. 
J. Miles, gardener to Mr. Walter Perkins, J.P., 
Portswood House, and the subject "picking and 
storing hardy fruits.” Practical hints were given 
on the proper time for picking, and the most con¬ 
venient methods of doing the work. Mr. Miles 
gave a description of his especially built fruit-room, 
40 ft. by 12, and also the manner of ventilating it, 
and the methods adopted to keep the temperature as 
near forty degrees as possible. Mr. Miles touched 
but lightly on the debatable ground of " apple 
colouring," in which, by the way, he is an enthu¬ 
siastic believer. There was a lively discussion on 
"packing for market,” and at the close a hearty 
vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer. A 
great show of fruit and flowers was made by the 
members, and a certificate of merit was awarded to 
Mr. W. H. Rogers, J.P., Red Lodge Nursery, for 
over fifty varieties of Apples and Pears. Mr. 
Walter Perkins, gardener, Mr. J. Miles, was also 
accorded a certificate for thirty varieties of fruit, 
many highly coloured, and the twelve varieties of 
