1 Jury, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 51 
often stimulative in their influences, producing little, if any, permanent good. 
I well recollect the time when this estimate of manure water even amongst us 
gardeners was much more prevalent than it now is. The many various solid 
manures now in use are simply so much food, varying in their influences upon 
the plants to which they are applied according to the different elements of 
which they, the manures, are composed, almost as much as do the various 
articles of diet consumed and assimilated by animals. A given kind of manure 
may be the best possible for some particular species of plant, affording all the 
elements requisite to build up and sustain it, and still be of little value to 
another plant that requires something essentially different for its support. 
Through the joint result of chemical researches and advanced knowledge in 
cultivation this is now better understood than it used to be, but the fact is not 
always realised that the effect of manure in aliquid state must necessarily be in 
accord with that of the solid matter which is used to make it. 
Por instance, soot is one of the most exciting stimulants known, quickly 
becoming exhausted, after which, unless something else is at hand to sustain 
the exuberant growth thus excited, the plant languishes to a greater extent 
than it would have done if the extra growth made through the effects of the 
soot had been non-existent. (Guano has a tendency in the same direction, 
but does not so soon become exhausted.) Soot is generally applied as a top 
dressing ; but it is best to apply it as a liquid manure. TI take all that can be 
obtained, and simply enclose half-a-busnel in a bag and sink it to the bottom 
of one of the tanks which is sunk in the ground; this holds about 600 gallons 
of water, and all plants are watered, large and small, with this. Visitors often 
remark how healthy and green the plants look. The various animal excremental 
manures are possessed of fertilising as well as of lasting properties in a great 
measure proportionate to the description of food on which the animals have 
been fed. For example, the manure from cattle fed on hay and corn is much 
richer than if their food consisted of grass. Purely animal manures vary 
considerably in strength, and their enduring properties, ina great measure, are 
ruled by their rate of decomposition. 
At the time a ‘plant is put out in the open ground, or placed in a pot or 
other confined space, solid manure in quantity limited by its nature and 
strength, as also by the ability of the plant to absorb and assimilate food, more 
or less freely, can be given; but beyond this we cannot go, as, if too much 
manure is present in the soil, its effects are identical with those which result 
from an animal taking food stronger than the digestive organs are able of 
digesting and assimilating. It then follows that after a time the manure first 
present within the reach of the roots gets exhausted; it then becomes a 
question of providing more in either a solid or liquid state—the former usually 
in the shape of a top dressing, the latter by soaking the soil to which the roots 
are restricted. The use of solid manure, except in a highly concentrated state, 
is generally convenient for such plants as most frequently need assistance ; 
that is, when they have their roots confined to pots, with no access to food 
beyond the limited space in which they thus exist. It is then that manure 
water becomes the most convenient, and often the most beneficial in its effects, 
for in this way food is brought immediately within the reach of the whole 
number of hungry mouths (the feeding fibres) quicker than by the use of solid 
matter laid on the surface, which takes time to get washed down in the 
_ ordinary process of watering. 
There can be no question that the time of active growth in both roots and 
branches is the proper time for using the manure water, and when plants exist 
that want assistance in this way, especially such as are naturally of a 
hardwooded enduring character, I should advise that in all cases some be 
given as soon as growth commences in either the roots or the shoots; 
otherwise the first effort of the shoots will be weak, and no subsequent 
application of manure during the ensuing summer will in that case strengthen 
them so as to make the collective growth equal to what it would have been if 
thejfood they required had been within the reach at the time they began to 
