August 8, 191)3. 
The Gardening World 
GENERAL NOTICES. 
We would earnestly urge secretaries of societies to notify us as far in advance as possible as to dates of meetings, shows, etc. We desire to do all in our power to have these 
dequately represented in the columns of The Gardening World. 
We respectfully request our readers, when they write to persons or films advertising in this paper, to mention that their advertisement was seen in The Gardening World. 
■hey will thereby not only oblige this paper, but the advertisers. 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“Happy the man who, studying Nature’s laws, through known effects can trace the secret cause.’— Dryden’s Virgil. 
Weekly Prize 
FOR 
Short Articles. ! 
The Proprietors of The Gardening World 
will give a cash prize of Ten Shillings tor 
[■he BEST PARAGRAPH, or SHORT ARTICLE, sent ) 
jy readers during the week. The Editor’s ) 
udgment must be considered final, and he will ^ 
oe at liberty to use any of the contributions \ 
sent in. The paragraph, or article, must not ) 
kxceed one column in length, but the value, ) 
rather than the length, of the article will he / 
considered in making the award. Competitors ( 
may send in item? of news or comments on ( 
news; hints OF practical interest to gar- > 
leners or growers of plants, fruits, or flowers; ) 
successful methods of propagating plants ? 
usually considered difficult; or contributions ( 
ON ANT SUBJECT COMING WITHIN THE SPHERE ( 
of gardening proper. Letters should be > 
addressed to The Editor, marked “ Competi- < 
hon,” and posted not later than Friday night < 
to ensure insertion in the issue of next week. 
The following Coloured 
Plates have appeared 
March 14.—NEW CHINESE PRIMULAS. 
March28.—'TEA ROSE “ CHAMELEON.” < 
April 4.-COLEUS THYRSOIDEUS. 
t April 18.—CESTRUM SMITHII. 
April 25.—JAPANESE PIGMY TREE. i 
May 23.—Coloured Plate of SAXIFRAGA / 
GRISEBACHII and A GROUP OF ALO 
CASIAS. 
May 30.—Coloured Plate of DENDROBIUM \ 
NOBILE ROTUNDIFLORUM -and D.n. 
NOBILIUS. ) 
■June 6.—Monochrome plate of CALADIUMS. ( 
June 20.—Monochrome Plate of ZENOBIA 
SPECIOSA PULVERULENTA. 
July 4.—Coloured Plate of APHELANDRA 
AURANTIACA ROEZLII. 
July 11. — Monochrome Plate of the / 
AUSTRALIAN PITCHER PLANT. 
August 1.—Coloured Plate of BORONIA ; 
HETEROPHYLLA. < 
Back numbers may be obtained from the ' ( 
j publishers, price 2|d. 'post free. ) 
With the PRESENT ISSUE we present ) 
j a Half-tone Plate of CAMPANULA PER- > 
SICIFOLIA MOERHEIMI. 
NEXT WEEK we shall give a Half-tone ; 
Plate of A BASKET BED IN LORD WIM- ? 
BORNE’S GARDEN. ( 
Views and Reviews. 
Manuring Garden Crops. * * 
This small book of some 120 pages is de¬ 
voted to an exposition of the relative values 
of farmyard and artificial manures. We say 
farmyard manure as a general term, but it 
deals more particularly with London manure, 
which is mostly obtained from the stables of 
horses, together with a variable quantity of 
refuse which may find its way into what is 
called London dung. The book speaks of 
manure chiefly from a market gardener s 
point of view, and therefore likely to be 1 of 
service to him, because, whether in the neigh¬ 
bourhood of London or any other large town, 
lie is more likely to get the manure of horses 
than the farmyard, which, as a rule, is much 
more valuable for various reasons. Other 
fertilisers often placed at the command of 
the market gardener are raw fish, woollen 
rags, furriers’ waste, shoddy, and similar 
materials, which usually contain a certain 
percentage of nitrogenous substances. 
The ways of market gardeners have cer¬ 
tainly something to recommend them when 
we remember that land which has been culti¬ 
vated in the neighbourhood of London for 
the last 1,000 years still maintains its fer¬ 
tility, and furnishes a good example to jtlie 
fraternity in America who frequently com¬ 
plain of the deterioration of the land by crop¬ 
ping. The chief complaint made against 
market gardeners in this hook is that they 
use a bulky manure that becomes costly on 
account of the quantity required and the 
cost of carriage. 
The authors make a calculation of the 
average value of London dung per ton, 
and reckon that a market gardener 
situated between twenty and fifty miles from 
London would have to pay on an average Ts. 
per ton for the manure, including cartage. 
This may seem a high price to those living 
within easy distance of London, and who, 
sending their produce by road, bring back 
manure in their own vans, hut then the 
««The Manuring of Market Garden Crops," by Bernard 
Iyer, I). Sc., F.I.C., and F. W. E. Shrivel! F.L.S.^ Reprinted 
ro™ Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, \ ol. 
ZXVII. Part i, 1903. Vinton & Co., Ltd., 9, New Bride 
• treet, Ludgate Circus, London, E.C. Price Is., post free. 
extra wear of vans and horses must be taken 
into account in computing the expenses in¬ 
curred. It is seldom that market gardeners 
use less than 25 tons—that is, fifty loads—of 
London dung to the acre. This costs .£10, 
hut there are many who use 5 J tons to 
the acre, raising the cost to £20 for manure 
alone. The authors think that by using a 
small proportion of this town dung and 
spending a little on concentrated fertilisers 
some of that .£20 could be retained for their 
own pocket. 
The authors do not say anything against 
the value of this dung, but freely admit that 
in certain cases it is absolutely essential for 
adding organic matter to the soil and im¬ 
proving its mechanical condition. Soils that, 
are most benefited by animal manures in the 
shape of litter and excrement are those of 
an extreme character, such as very sandy 
soils on the one hand and heavy clay soils- 
on the other. Both of these soils are liable 
to suffer in very diy seasons through the toss 
•of moisture, and the addition of a certain 
quantity of suitable manure has the effect 
of making the soil more retentive of mois¬ 
ture, while at the same time in heavy soils 
it seiwes to aerate, and thus improve their 
mechanic condition. 
In good fertile soils—that is, those pos¬ 
sessing a good average amount of humus or 
decaying animal and vegetable matter in 
them—if well cultivated, would grow good 
crops by the use of artificial fertilisers alon£. 
It is always safe, however, to use a small 
quantity of farmyard manure or stable dung 
of any sort, but the more carefully it is pre¬ 
pared the better. This is actually a pro¬ 
vision against the season, whatever it may 
be, and will stand the crops in good stead in 
case the rainfall should be deficient. 
The authors tong suspected that an ex¬ 
tensive use of town dung made it an expen¬ 
sive manure. About ten years ago they re¬ 
solved to put their views to the test by prac¬ 
tical experiments. With this object in view 
they established the Hadlow Experiment 
Station, Golden Green, Tonbridge. During 
those years the experiments have been 
mostly carried out with market garden crops, 
but more recently they have been extended 
to Hops and other agricultural crops. 
The main experimental field consisted of 
a poor clay loam of a light colour resting on 
