August 8, 1903. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
671 
AUGUST 8, 1903. Che Gardening "World. 
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EDITORIAL NOTES. 
'he Hohenheim Agricultural High 
chool. 
This is now tlie oldest school of its kind in 
-ennany, having been founded in 1818 as a 
timing academy, which was raised to the 
ink of a high school in 1865 and placed 
nder the AVurtemberg Ministry of Educa.- 
on. This school is furnished with a 
•iimerous staff of professors, assistant pro- 
bssors, and other assistants. It seems that 
! ie whole course consists of six terms, includ- 
ig a winter and a summer term in each of 
nee years. The course is chiefly devoted to 
iricultural instruction, but the sixth term 
eals with the cultivation of fruit and vege- 
tbles, cultivation of Vines, Hops, and 
obacco, field and garden crops, disease of 
dd and garden crops, knowledge of seeds, 
c - The school at Hohenheim is well fur¬ 
nished with the means for practical work, for 
there are 800 acres attached to it, and all 
sorts of subjects in connection with agricul¬ 
ture, horticulture, and forestry in their 
widest sense are carried on. Many other 
branches of learning are also pursued, in¬ 
cluding pisciculture, dairying, mineralogy, 
zoology, and various others. The library 
consists of 8,000 volumes. In the warden 
school we noted that theoretical and practical 
instruction are given in general gardening, 
vegetables and hothouse plants, Grape cul¬ 
tivation, fruit-growing tree nurseries, land¬ 
scape gardening, botany, biology, and 
anatomy of plants, cultivation of flowers, 
microscopic work, etc. 
Sweet Pea Gladys Deal. 
AVe are in receipt of some sprays of a new 
variety of Sweet Pea under the above name 
from Messrs. AV. AV. Johnson and Son, 
Boston, Lines. It is described as a new Lady 
Grisel Hamilton of a pure French gray colour, 
without any trace of rose, which is usually 
so difficult to eradicate. AVe should describe 
is as lavender, the standard being the darkest 
part of the flower, and the wings paler. After 
keeping the flowers for a day or two they 
deepened in shade considerably as faded, but 
still retained the lavender hue which we like 
so much to see in this section of Sweet Pea. 
It belongs to the section of colour described 
by the National Sweet Pea Society as laven¬ 
der, and in this section it may be remem¬ 
bered that they included Lady Grisel Hamil¬ 
ton, Countess of Radnor, Lady Nina Balfour, 
New Countess, Princess May, Celestial, and 
Creole. AVe have grown Lady Nina. Balfour 
under certain conditions when it presented a 
shade of colour similar to that of Gladys 
Deal. AVe know, however, that Sweet Peas 
vary under different conditions as to soil ana 
climate. The original type of this section 
was Countess of Badnor, and a selection has 
been sent out under the name of New Coun¬ 
tess, under the belief that it was equal to the 
original Countess, but it is just as liable to 
sport, as its parent. Sweet Peas are vea 
sportive, but we hope that the newcomer ha 
been selected sufficiently long to become con¬ 
stant, or fairly so, even under different condi¬ 
tions as to’ soil and season, for, as sent to- us, 
it is certainly a very pretty variety. 
—o— 
Investigations and Discoveries of 
Liebig. 
In 1815 Liebig, with the assistance of Mus- 
pratt, took out a British patent for artificial 
manure, containing potassium in the form of 
potash. He showed the. need that soils had 
for potash owing to the quantity extracted 
from them by such crops as Potato-s, Beet¬ 
roots, etc. As a result of these investiga¬ 
tions, the salt strata of Stassfurt and Anhalt 
were worked. He also showed that nitro¬ 
genous compounds were necessary for the 
erowth of plants, and in this he was con¬ 
tinued by Lawe-s, Gilbert, and Pugh in this 
country. The discovery of the value of 
superphosphate of lime for agricultural pur¬ 
poses was one of the greatest services he ren¬ 
dered to- the art. He advocated the dissolv¬ 
ing the bones by means of- sulphuric acids, 
that they might be readily assimilated by the 
soil. 
• —o— 
Fixing of Free Nitrogen of the 
Amosphere. 
Hitherto we have "been well accustomed 
with the theory of the fixation of nitrogen 
by means of bacteria in the nodules on the 
roots- of leguminous plants-. Dr. Caro ana 
Dr. Frank, of Berlin, have just published an 
account of a remarkable discovery in artifi¬ 
cial manures. This is no less 'than the fixa¬ 
tion of the free nitrogen of the atmo-sphere, 
whereby they can utilise it as a manure for 
the sustenance of plant life. They have dis¬ 
covered that certain metal carbides-, notably 
calcium and barium carbide, are able to 
absorb nitrogen direct from the air, and 
to form with them compounds which can be 
easily c-onvert-ed into potassium cyanide and 
cyana-mide. Hitherto we have been con¬ 
fronted with the fact- that the free nitrogen 
of the air lias been very inert, and can only 
in a few ways be made to combine with other 
substances. The results of this new disco¬ 
very will be far reaching if it. is found to 
work satisfactorily. The nitrogen of the air 
is practically inexhaustible, and it is said that 
a column of air which would rest on a 2 J-acre 
field would contain as much nitrogen as is 
annually imported to Germany in the form 
of saltpetre and valued at. £8,000,000. 
British Botanical Association. 
The other week we had some additional in¬ 
formation on this institution in the form of 
an illustrated prospectus o-f the aim and ob¬ 
jects o-f the association. The pamphlet gives 
a general view of the botanical laboratories, 
together with an interior view of the chief 
laboratory and another. A view of the en¬ 
trance hall shows museum specimens pre¬ 
pared and ready for sale. These specimens 
include a great variety of subjects, and will 
be useful for teachers carrying out. demon¬ 
strations in botanical classes, and also for 
nature study. The laboratories and stock- 
rooms are located at Holgate, York, and are 
under the care of Mr. A. H. Burtt, B.Sc. 
(Viet..), D.-Sc. (Tubingen), who lias also- quali¬ 
fied assistance. The association has already 
some .300 clients, and the regularity with 
which orders ’ are repeated convinces the 
directors that their work is highly appre¬ 
ciated. The suggestive list of plant-objects 
for nature study includes types of British 
natural orders of flowering and flowerless 
plants, also- type specimens of climbing and 
dwarf plants, leaves, spines, prickles, ten¬ 
drils, aquatic plants, insectivorous plants, 
medicinal plants, inflorescences o-f flowers, 
specimens illustrating the distribution of 
fruits and seeds and specimens of seedlings 
