April 15, 1899. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
619 
A Gift of Land.—Mr. John Miller, the secretary of 
the National Footpath Preservation Society, at a 
meeting of the executive committee, at 42, Essex 
Street, Strand.saidthatalordofthe manor had offered 
him 30 to 40 acres of ploughed land to be dedicated 
to the public The district and parish councils were 
unwilling to be burdened with the keeping of it. The 
chairman of the society hoped there would be no 
difficulty in dedicating ife land for technical educa¬ 
tion in agriculture. Mr. Miller said the owner 
would, no doubt, consent to this, provided the county 
council would take it over. 
The Value of Lemon Juice.—It is stated by Dr. 
Laser, of the Hygienic Institute of Konigsberg. that 
the juice of the Lemon has the power of destroying 
the diptheria bacillus. He avers that he has tried it 
in the form of a gargle, in fifteen cases of acute 
diptheria, and in eighty other cases of throat disease, 
and that only one of these ninety-five cases proved 
fatal. If this is due entirely to the effects of the 
Lemon, then a most important discovery has been 
made. The juices should be diluted when employed 
as a gargle, and slices of the fruit may also be given 
to the sufferer to suck, but the pulp should not be 
swallowed. 
Prize List of the Scottish Horticultural Association. 
—The Chrysanthemum exhibition of this body is to 
be held in the Waverley Market, Edinburgh, on 
November 16th, 17th, and 18th next, when prizes to 
the amount of over £440 are offered in 114 classes for 
Chrysanthemums, plants, fruit, and vegetables. 
AmoDgst Chrysanthemums the most important class 
will again be the twenty vases of Chrysanthemum 
blooms in as many varieties, and cut with long stems 
carrying their own foliage. Five prizes of the aggre¬ 
gate value of £80 are offered in this class, including a 
piece of plate of the value of/20, which goes with the first 
prize. In the classfor thirty-sixJapaneseChrysanthe- 
mum blooms, £38 is offered in four prizes. The Scottish 
Challenge Cup and £25 are offered in four prizes for 
twelve vases of Japanese Chrysanthemums, distinct. 
There are besides fourteen classes for a single vase of 
specified varieties of Chrysanthemums, one for four 
vases and one for three, so that this method of 
exhibiting can hardly fail to be a feature of the 
November show at Edinburgh, as in former years. 
Fruit and vegetables are again well provided for. 
The latter are generally in fine form in November, 
and attract a great amount of attention from visitors 
generally, as well as gardeners. No hard and fast 
rules are laid down for the exhibitors of vegetables, 
the stipulations being that they must be correctly 
named, clean, and neatly dressed. The force of the 
two latter stipulations should of course, be obvious, 
even to a beginner. In any case the vegetables are 
always scrupulously clean at Edinburgh. 
The Value of the Thistle.—No industry or profession 
has a monopoly of "cranks," but probably the agri¬ 
cultural and horticultural callings have had their full 
share from time to time. An Australian gentleman 
has somehow discovered that the Thistle is one of 
the best friends the farmer ever had. This original 
gentleman says :—The Thistle grows so fast and 
spreads so rapidly, that in the course of a few years 
it makes the ground Thistle sick. We should fancy 
he means that the land looks " sick ” with Thistles, 
which at least would be true. At last, says our 
Antipodean friend, the Thistle disappears of its own 
accord, and leaves the soil as well cultivated as if it 
bad been ploughed. He goes on further to say that 
a few years ago he received notice from the local 
authority to destroy the Thistles on his land, but he 
showed evidence to prove that the destruction of the 
Thistle by artificial means, when it had once obtained 
a hold,'was impossible, and that instead of being an 
enemy it was a friend. The local authority, whoever 
he was, is supposed to have believed this. But this 
is not all, for the story goes on to say that our savant 
proved by practical experiment the value of the 
Thistle to grass land, which reads rather like a fairy 
tale. In this slow, but at least safe, old country we 
still regard Thistles as a nuisance in cultivated land, 
and the adjectives which would be used to qualify 
the conduct of a neighbour who allows them to grow 
unchecked in his garden, by any neighbour of the 
delinquents would probably be more expressive than 
polite. We like to do our cultivation here by the 
spade or the plough and not by our friend the 
Thistle. 
The Origin of Forcing Vegetables and Flowers—A 
rude kind of forcing Cucumbers and other plants was 
carried on by the ancient Romans. The gardener of 
the Emperor Tiberius grew Cucumbers in winter in 
boxes or other receptacles that could be wheeled into 
a house by night and wheeled out again during the 
day, so as to give the plants the benefit of sunshine. 
Glasshouses were then unknown. According to M. 
G. Gibaut this style was abandoned like many other 
things at the beginning of the Middle Ages. Hot¬ 
beds and frames were, however, invented at the re¬ 
naissance period. Forced vegetables became even 
more plentiful from 1600 onwards, about which time 
bell-glasses were utilised for sheltering Melons. The 
invention of glass in time gave rise to the idea of 
building glasshouses, which were heated in various, 
rather primitive ways, the smoke flue being one of 
the earliest outcomes of the heating system. 
Adulterations of Sulphate of Copper.—Of late 
years sulphate of copper has come into general use 
as a fungicide. It has as a natural consequence raised 
the price of the sulphate, and the result is that 
a good deal of adulteration has been practised. 
Sulphates of iron, of zinc, potassium, and soda, and 
other sales of a lower value than that of the much 
sought after copper sulphate have been added. 
Monsieur A. Desmoulins, one of the masters at the 
School of Agriculture at Montpellier, has given, in 
La Revue Horticole for December 1st, a few simple 
methods of discovering any adulteration that may 
have been carried on. These should be of service to 
those who spray largely for fungoid diseases, and 
inasmuch as they are easy to follow they will appeal 
to the practical man :—By adding several drops of 
liquid ammomia to a solution of copper sulphate, if 
the latter is pure, a bright blue colour will be obtained. 
If, on the contrary, it has been adulterated with 
sulphate of iron, or sulphate of zinc, a rusty blue 
precipitate will be formed in the first case, and a 
dirty white in the second. It is equally easy to 
discover the presence of sulphate of potassium or 
sulphate of soda. The test recommended is to 
pour a little solution of the copper sulphate to be 
tested into a glass, and dip into it a piece of 
platinum wire, afterwards holding the part of the 
wire wetted with the solution in the flame of a lamp 
or jet of gas. If the flame shows a blue-green hue 
it is certain that the sulphate of copper is pure; if, on 
the contrary, it gives a yellow-green colour there is 
adulteration, either with sulphate of soda or sulphate 
of potassium. 
-*f*- 
A USEFUL PUMP. 
It is an admitted fact that in fruit and vegetable 
culture, the use of sewage, or drainings from stables 
and cowsheds is of very great benefit, if judiciously 
applied. The application of this to crops in an 
expeditious.economical manner is an important point, 
and the means at the disposal of the gardener for this 
purpose are sometimes very makeshift and crude. 
A rickety, old, tripod pump, and an equally wobbling 
water barrel, are most frequently met with in gardens, 
representing the only distributors, such as I have had 
to use, and a beastly, dirty job it is at best. I lately 
had brought to my notice a handy little pump, 
called the Semi-Rotatory lift and force pump. 
I believe it is made by Messrs. Wilcox & Co. ; 
but any good tradesman can procure it. I procured 
a no. 3 lift and force pump costing about 35s., and 
attached sufficient i| in. gas barrel to reach the 
water in the cesspool, as a suction pipe. A small 
section at the extreme end I had punched with holes, 
and this was then filled with copper wire guaze to 
prevent any solid matter entering. This is so made 
that it can be unscrewed and cleaned out if it should, 
as it occasionally may, become choked. For a 
delivery pipe I attached an ordinary f inch garden 
hose, which will conduct the water to the required 
place. This is the simplest and best form of pump 
I have yet seen, and am greatly pleased with the 
working of it. I ought to add that it is so constructed 
that it should be screwed or bolted to a wall, 
frame, or post. In my case the pump is attached to 
an old, disused cistern placed over the cesspool, the 
suction pipe passing through a central hole in the 
stone slab covering the dome of the cesspool. An 
old solid box or block of wood answers equally as 
well to support the pump. Its adaptability for other 
purposes was demonstrated a few days ago when a 
stoppage was discovered in the main drain conveying 
all household water, kitchen drainings, &c. away. 
In consequence of the stoppage a manhole, some 
10 feet deep, become partially filled. It being 
necessary to empty this we requisitioned this handy 
pump (which by the way only weighs a few pounds 
and can be easily carried.by one man) and speedily 
emptied this manhole conveying the water away 
through the delivery hose in a clean and expeditious 
manner, in every way better than the old method of 
rope and buckets.— A. P. 
THE MANURING OF FRUIT TREES. 
According to experiments made by M. Grandeau it 
results that if you wish to have a good crop of fruit 
the trees cultivated must be placed in certain condi¬ 
tions, which often enough are ignored. 
A damp sub-soil is, it appears, so unfavourable for 
these trees that it is wise not to plant them there at 
all. No doubt dry soils are preferable to those 
which are too humid, but we do not think that this 
humidity is really injurious. We have seen 
excellent Cherry trees growing on the banks of a 
river where the roots came into contact with the 
water at a distance of some 3 ft. to 4 ft. below the 
level of the soil. But as regards the necessity of 
abundant manure for the foot of the young fruit 
tree, we quite agree with M. Grandeau. If you 
employ organic manure considerable quantities must 
be applied, and it is more economical to adopt 
mineral fertilisers like basic slag and kainite. But 
in this case it is very profitable to mix a certain 
amount of turf with the soil before manuring. 
Thus the soil is loosened and a little moisture 
retained in dry soils, which is favourable to the 
growth of the roots, which thus being stronger and 
more numerous assimilate more rapidly and with 
greater profit the fertilisers buried at the foot of the 
tree. Very conclusive experiments were made on 
this subject at the Geisenheim School of Horticul¬ 
ture.— Aviculteur, March 16th, 1899. 
-- 1 - 
AMOUNT OF LIME IN VEGETABLE 
MOULD. 
We are frequently asked for information regarding 
means to determine the amount of lime contained in 
soil. There are, of course, instruments called 
calcimetres for this purpose, but some persons do not 
care to go to the expense of buying them, and it is for 
their benefit that we describe the following method : 
—All you require is a sufficiently sensitive scale, a 
stone, glass or porcelain jar, which can hold two or 
three quarts. Get some acid (vitriol, aqua-fortis, 
muriatic acid, even strong vinegar). Now you take 
a sample of the soil for analysis. This should be 
done in dry weather ; if the soil is moist it must be 
dried at a mild heat. The sample is gathered at 
various depths (2 in. to 3 in.) in different spots ; 
then, all the stones and vegetable remains being 
removed, you mix the soil well and make it as fine as 
possible. Now set aside 11 lbs. or so of the soil for 
analysis. Reduce it to powder and pass through a 
sieve to free from small stones. Then weigh exactly 
100 parts of the mixture and likewise the jar, into 
which you pour 150 grammes of acid (if you employ 
strong vinegar, 500 grammes are necessary), then 
200 grammes of water. Thus you have 
Soil .. .. .. 100 grammes. 
Acid and Water .. .. 350 ,, 
Total .. .. 450 „ 
Put the soil in small portions into the water and 
acid and stir with a stick. As each part falls there 
is an effervescence due to carbonic acid gas, when 
the soil is calcareous. 
When the 100 grammes of earth have been thus 
gradually mixed with the acid and water all the 
carbonates should be decomposed. Stir the mixture 
well, let it rest for five to ten hours and then weigh. 
When the soil is calcareous you will not have the 
above weight of 450 grammes. Let us suppose we 
find 438 grammes, namely, a difference of 12 
grammes, due to disengagement of carbon dioxide. 
Now, knowing that 22 grammes of this acid 
correspond to 50 grammes of carbonate of lime 
(chalk) there is only a simple calculation to make :—• 
50 x 12 
-= 27 grammes. 
22 
of carbonate of lime or chalk. Remember that the 
soil must be put into the acid in small portions so 
that the carbonates may be decomposed.— Gazette du 
Village. 
