590 
THE GARDENING WORLD. May 11, 1901. 
manure when well made is an excellent fertiliser, 
and as we previously pointed out has advantages 
over the artificial article that cannot be performed 
by the latter. The fertility of the soil in particular 
is, by this form of manure, much better maintained. 
Urine, or what we more commonly designate it 
liquid manure, is a more valuable fertiliser than 
farmyard manure. It is needless to say that where 
this is allowed to escape into the waste drains of 
gentlemen's stables and farms without an effort being 
made to utilise it much valuable manure is lost. 
Of all classes of animal urine none is so rich in 
nitrogen as human. Probably this is due to the richest 
foods being consumed by the human species. The 
fact, however, is instructive, and ought to lead us to 
utilise much of what at present is not only a serious 
waste, but what is more is the just inheritance of the 
soil. All mansion house drain systems ought to be 
(where of course it is possible) terminated in the 
garden. A huge iron tank should be placed in a 
convenient situation there, that all the drainage of 
the house would gravitate into it, and thus the gar¬ 
dener would have an ample supply for use of one 
of the very beet liquid fertilisers. 
For the production of Grapes and for the healthy 
support of the foliage we know nothing to equal this 
manure. We know two large ranges of vineries where 
the proprietor was judicious enough to lead the house 
waste in tapped pipes inside so that the men can use 
it with scarcely any inconvenience. These Vines have 
been, we believe, mainly fed by this material for 
over twenty-five years, and the crops and foliage are 
truly a sight to see every year. Wherever this 
species of fertiliser can be turned into account it is 
almost imperative on the proprietor to reclaim it. 
No doubt the day is coming when our large 
cities will awaken to the importance of realising the 
sewage for commercial purposes, and thereby vastly 
increase the municipal coffers.— Oxygen. 
(To be continued.) 
JOHN CLAUDIUS LOUDON. 
(Continued from p. 541 . ) 
When Loudon first started The Gardener's Magazine, 
it was a quarterly, but soon after became a bi¬ 
monthly, then a monthly paper. The second issue 
contained a criticism of the London Horticultural 
Society, whose affairs at that time were notoriously 
badly managed. It appears that before Loudon’s 
attack no one dared to criticise the society in public. 
In the same number of his paper he also commenced 
writing on the " Self-education of Gardeners,” a 
theme on which he devoted a considerable amount of 
attention to the end of his life, and was in fact writ¬ 
ing a book on the subject when he died. In the 
second number of his magazine he also gave a plan 
showing how Kensington Gardens might be improved, 
and suggested small stone lodges with fire places for 
the shelter of the gate keepers in winter. At the 
same time he suggested that a band should play in 
the gardens for the amusement of the public, which 
should also have the convenience of seats as on the 
Continent. Most of these things have been brought 
to pass in our day ; but it is evident that Loudon 
had a mental view of all these advantages to the 
people much in advance of the times. 
In the third number of his magazine he went a 
step further in the commencement of a series of 
articles on “ Cottage Economy,” in which he advised 
young architects to give attention to the advisability 
and advantages to be gained from the building of 
cottages for labourers as well as gardeners on private 
estates. His plea was that they should be ornamen¬ 
tal in the eyes of the proprietors as well as roomy 
and comfortable for the occupants. Many private 
gentlemen laid the advice to heart and had cottages 
built. Loudon was greatly gratified when a gardener 
told him that his master had built him a comfortable 
cottage after reading the articles in Loudon’s 
Gardener's Magazine. The noble Marquis in ques¬ 
tion had rever thought of comfort in a cottage till he 
read those articles The reform of the Horticultural 
Society was the theme of the fourth number of the 
magazine. The criticism was continued till 1830, 
that is, for a space of four years, when the desired 
reform was brought about. 
Garden libraries were kept to the front in the early 
numbers of The Gardener's Magazine, and in the 
second volume he gave a list of the books which he 
considered useful to a gardener. Amongst those 
mentioned were the Encyclopaedia of Plants, and the 
Hortus Britannicus, both of which were then only 
being printed, an operation so laborious that they did 
not appear till two or three years after that time. 
The idea of a library was largely taken up in the 
course of two or three months, and many garden 
libraries were established in various parts of the 
country. They are yet far too few, however, in 
modern private establishments. Several letters were 
written by working gardeners acknowledging the 
advantage they had derived from these libraries. In 
1827, Loudon advised the planting of trees and 
shrubs alongside of walks, and having them properly 
named. This was carried out in Kensington 
Gardens, and was, in fact, continued till quite 
recently, but for some years past has been suffering 
neglect or relapse. During the same year the 
Horticultural Society commenced offering premiums 
for superior exhibits of fruits, flowers, and vege¬ 
tables, the notices being inserted in Loudon’s 
Gardener's Magazine. 
In 1828 Loudon established The Magazine of 
Natural History, the first work of its kind, and 
though popular, was not so great a success as the 
gardening periodical, owing to the uperop of 
numerous imitators. About the end of that year 
Loudon paid a third visit to the Continent, in order 
to get information for a new edition of the Encyclo¬ 
paedia of Agriculture. France was first ransacked, 
after which he went in succession to Strasburg, 
Munich, Stuttgard, Heidelberg, and Carlsruhe. He 
returned by way of Metz to Paris and thence to- 
England. Loudon gave an account of his tour in 
The Gardener's Magazine for 1828, and continued to 
give articles during several succeeding years. His 
own ideas and suggestions for improvement were 
freely interspersed with the descriptions of the 
places he visited, to make the information as useful 
to gardeners as possible. 
During the course of 1829 Loudon made several 
useful suggestions, all in advance of the times, but 
all carried out in some fashion in succeeding years. 
He suggested that the London of those days should 
have breathing spaces about half a mile wide and 
situated at intervals all round the growing metropolis. 
He then called attention to the waste of manure that 
was being carried away by the common sewers, a 
subject that has since engaged the talent of many 
learned and deep thinking persons. Other cities and 
towns as well as London now economise the sewage 
more or less for utilitarian purposes. He next pro¬ 
posed parochial institutions for the purpose of 
national education. His proposal for the establish¬ 
ment of a fund for the benefit of the wives and 
families of deceased gardeners has since been 
realised and carried a step further by the establish¬ 
ment of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institution 
and the Royal Gardeners’ Orphan Fund. 
About this time he made the acquaintance of his 
future wife, whose father died in 1824, without 
having made provision for his family. The Mrs. 
Loudon to be, had to do something for ber own 
support, and taking to literature wrote a novel 
entitled The Mummy, in which she laid the scene in 
the 22nd century, and attempted to predict improve¬ 
ments which would possibly take place in this 
country. Loudon read a review of it in the Literary 
Gazette, and this containing a mention of the steam 
plough attracted Loudon’s attention, so that he 
procured the work from a circulating library. He 
was so pleased with the book that he wrote an 
account of it in The Gardeners' Magazine, entitled 
"Hints for Improvements.” The author he sup¬ 
posed to be a man, and had a great desire to make 
his acquaintance. In February, 1830, he mentioned 
this fact to a lady friend, who chanced to know the 
writer of it; and promising an introduction invited 
both to a party. Loudon was greatly surprised on 
discovering that the author was a woman ; but from 
that evening he evidently formed an attachment for 
her, and married her on the 14th of the September 
following. 
SOOT AS A MANURE. 
The value of soot as a manure is pretty generally 
appreciated. Soot, as chemists tell us.consists of an 
impure variety of carbon or lampblack, but it is not 
from the carbon that the goodness of soot as a 
fertiliser comes, but from the presence of nitrogen 
in the form of ammonia. Just as large quantities 
of ammonia are produced in our gas works 
and are turned to commercial account by 
being converted into sulphate of ammonia, so also 
when coal is burned in the kitchen grate, the 
ammonia evolved from the fuel combines with other 
chemical elements (chiefly sulphur) simultaneously 
evolved, ana thus forms an ammoniacal compound 
having very much the same manurial properties as 
sulphate of ammonia. The quantity of such ammonia 
present in soot, varies very considerably, and is 
largely influenced by the quality of the fuel from 
which soot is obtained. 
Soot yields on an average from three to five per 
cent, of ammonia, and as this is present in an easily 
accessible form, soot is a comparatively quick acting 
fertiliser. It can be used as a dressing for crops of 
all kinds. When good soot can be obtained farmers 
and large market gardeners are pleased to pay from 
25s. to 30s. a ton for it. The lighter it is, the purer 
it is likely to be. Soot is usually sold at so much per 
bushel, and when the bushel weighs heavy there is 
always a suspicion that it contains an abnormal 
quantity of lime rubbish, sand, or other useless 
material.— F. G. 
PLANTS IN FLOWER AT CHELSEA. 
Something may be seen at all seasons of the year 
in the nursery of Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, Ltd., 
Chelsea. Various subjects have their particular 
seasons ; while certain members of other groups, 
such as the Orchids, and hybrid greenhouse Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, keep up a succession all the year round. 
Orchids. 
The prettiest and most interesting of all the forms 
of Spathoglottis is S. aureo-Vieillardii, an artificial 
hybrid whose parentage is expressed in the name. 
The sepals are yellow spotted with purple and the 
petals more heavily so ; while the lip has a crimson 
lamina, the rest being spotted with crimson. 
Amongst Phalaenopses in bloom we noted P. schiller- 
iana, P. Manni and P. rosea leucasta. The flowers 
of P. Manni are heavily banded with chestnut on a 
yellow ground ; while those of P. rosea leucasta are 
soft rosy-pink. One of the racemes of flowers was 
borne by a little plant on an old flower stem. The 
scented Miltonia Roezlii alba is always a desirable 
plant. 
It is seldom we see so many forms of Chysis all 
flowering together as on this occasion. The massive 
flowers of C. bractescens are white with a yellow 
lip. C. langleyensis is a hybrid between C. Chelsoni 
(itself a hybrid), and C. bractescens. The sepals 
have a pale fulvous tint overlying the white; and 
the petals have a rosy tint in addition. The lip is 
red with white veins. C. Sedeni is another hybrid 
having the white sepals and petals tipped with 
purple, and the lip purple. A third hybrid, namely, 
Chelsoni, has oraDge sepals shaded with buff and 
creamy at the base, the lip is buff-red, with broad 
white viens. All of the above were flowering at the 
same time in one house. 
Dendrobium atroviolaceum also does well at Chel¬ 
sea, the plants being grown in small Orchid pans 
suspended from the roof. The yellow beard in the 
centre of the white flowers of D. barbatulum makes 
this both choice and interesting. One of the finest 
of the Laeliocattleyas is Lc. Pallas, with its huge, 
wavy, crimson-purple lip. Equally choice is Lc. 
digbyano-Trianaei, whose huge lip is pink and 
deeply fringed all round the edges of the lamina and 
side lobes. Cattleya Mendelii and C. Schroderae 
are now in season, and the latter is always well 
represented by fine varieties. The same may be 
said of Laelia flava, flowering in various parts of 
the Orchid range and showing a considerable 
amount of variation amongst the different in¬ 
dividuals the golden yellow ones being handsome. 
The Orchid rockery always coniains a large num¬ 
ber of flowering specimens, and on this occasion we 
noted a large number of the primary and secondary 
hybrids derived from Epidendrum Wallisii and E. 
Endresii. E. Endresio-Wallisii has short purple 
petals and a soft violet and white lip A race of 
secondary hybrids named E. elegantulum has short 
reddish-purple sepals and petals ; and a white lip, 
blotched with white and fringed at the edges. 
Another race of secondary hybrids, named E. 
Clarissa, is very variable in colour, the sepals, petals 
and lip showing quite a number of arrangements in 
different individuals. The greatest advance amongst 
them is that named E. C. superbum, which has 
much larger and darker flowers. A First-class 
Certificate was recently accorded it by the Royal 
Horticultural Society. Choice and useful are the 
massive sweet-scented flowers of Cymbidium ebur- 
