August  8, 1895. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
127 
nitrates,  or  the  microbes  transform  nitrogen  into  assimilable  matter  by 
plants  independent  of  ammonia.  These  are  a  few  ideas  that  strike  us 
as  worthy  of  investigation,  and  not  inconsistent  with  the  construction  of 
organisms  out  of  inorganic  matter. 
But  we  are  told  on  page  5  that  the  micro-organisms  will  not  work 
without  a  supply  of  organic  matter — that  is,  of  crop  residues— dead  or 
decaying  vegetable  and  animal  substances,  which  they  convert  into 
carbonic  acid,  water,  and  ammonia ;  then  other  organisms — the  nitri¬ 
fying  bacteria — change  the  ammonia  into  nitrous  and  finally  into  nitric 
acid,  which  combines  readily  with  the  soda,  lime,  or  potash  in  the  soil, 
when  there  is  danger  of*the  nitrates  being  washed  away  if  not  utilised 
by  vegetation.  These  organisms,  says  Mr.  Dyke,  “  cannot  work  without 
a  good  supply  of  oxygen,  warmth,  moisture,  and  salifiable  base.”  How 
is  it  that  aquatic  plants,  Keeds,  and  Sedges  thrive  splendidly  in  water  or 
in  bogs  ?  Whence  do  they  get  their  nitrates  1  The  micro-organisms 
are  evidently  dry  land  plants,  yet  they  want  moisture  “  not  in  excess  or 
stagnant  in  the  soil,  for  this  would  stop  the  air  from  penetrating  into 
it,  and  consequently  the  organisms  would  cease  work,”  Further,  the 
bacteria  are  extremely  feeble  at  a  temperature  below  40°  or  above 
122°,  but  they  develop  quickest  in  a  temperature  of  99°.  This  means 
that  we  get  very  little  aid  from  microbes  in  this  country  with  its  mean 
temperature  of  50°,  or  even  in  its  hottest  month,  July,  64°.  Facts  attest 
that  our  produce  exceeds  that  of  any  country  in  the  world  of  the  same 
kind,  hence  the  slow  action  of  the  microbes  is  of  manifest  advantage, 
inasmuch  as  the  land  properly  cultivated,  manured,  and  cropped  abides 
in  good  condition.  Mr.  Dyke  says,  “Our  spring  crops  (e.g.,  Cabbage, 
Onions,  Wheat,  &c.,  do  not  grow  much  during  the  cold  spring  months,” 
and  this  “  shows  ”  that  it  is  due  to  the  inactivity  of  the  microbes  during 
the  winter,  or,  in  other  words,  the  crops  named  are  starved  for  lack  of 
nitrates.  This  is  a  phase  of  the  subject  quite  new  and  beyond  our  ken. 
It  means  feed  a  plant  well,  and  it  will  out  of  that,  manufacture  heat  like 
an  animal.  Unfortunately,  the  more  a  plant  is  fed  in  cold  weather, 
especially  with  nitrogen,  the  more  it  suffers  from  climatic  vicissitudes, 
and,  indeed,  the  nitrates  are  worthless  without  the  sun’s  warmth. 
Then  follows  another  lesson  from  the  microbes,  and  it  is  shown  in  a 
way  which  makes  it  appear  that  organic  nitrogen  is  practically  worthless 
without  the  active  working  of  these  jerky,  splitting  bodies,  but  we  find 
a  dressing  of  manure  put  on  grass  land  in  autumn  or  early  in  winter 
tells  in  favour  of  the  hay — an  earlier  cut  and  a  bigger  stack.  Whence 
come  the  nitrates  if  the  microbes  do  not  work  in  the  winter  months  ? 
The  decay  goes  on  in  the  cold  season,  for  by  spring  the  manure  has  gone 
somewhere,  and  the  land  is  stored  with  certain  elements  in  forms  that 
the  meadow  plants  can  and  do  appropriate. 
Passing  over  the  sulphates,  which  we  shall  certainly  get  if  there  be 
any  sulphur  in  the  soil,  and  there  is  generally  plenty,  and  confining 
ourselves  strictly  to  nitrogen,  we  have  a  soil  charged  with  ammonia. 
This,  according  to  the  microbe  theory,  is  of  no  use  until  the  microbes 
have  converted  it  into  nitric  acid  and  its  union  with  potash,  lime,  or 
soda  bases  has  taken  place.  Nevertheless  the  grasses  respond  promptly 
to  the  benign  influences  of  the  sun  in  the  spring  time,  and  an  early  winter 
manured  meadow  is  a  “  sight  to  the  eyes  ”  long  before  grass  dressed 
with  nitrate  in  March  has  begun  to  move.  In  spite  of  this  well-known 
fact,  we  are  told  on  page  6  that  the  slow  action  of  farmyard  manure 
and  blood,  on  account  of  the  nitrogen  having  to  be  converted  into 
nitrates  before  it  can  become  available  to  the  growing  crop  “  points  out 
the  necessity  of  applying  manures  as  nitrates,  like  nitrate  of  soda,  to 
help  the  crop  daring  the  cold  months.”  This  is  opposed  to  the  sound 
principles  and  economy  of  manuring,  for  nitrates  are  not  of  any  use  in 
the  soil  unless  the  plants  can  at  once  lay  hold  of  them,  and  to  do  that 
they  must  have  commenced  growing. 
Ammonia  is  quite  another  thing — it  means  warmth,  and  that  signifies 
earlier  growth  in  the  spring  and  during  the  “  cold  months.”  What  helps 
Cabbage,  Lettuce,  Onions  and  Spinach  so  much  as  a  judicious  appli¬ 
cation  of  thoroughly  decayed  manure  to  the  soil  before  sowing  or  setting 
the  plants  1  What  better  than  guano,  blood  manure,  rape  dust,  malt 
culms,  and  soot  for  dressing  plants  wanted  to  give  produce  early  in  the 
spring  f  In  these  we  have  ammonia  as  opposed  to  nitrates — cold  things, 
and  only  fit  for  spring  and  early  summer  use*  The  soil  grips  the 
ammonia,  but  nitrates  pass  off  in  the  drainage  water.  For  that  reason 
green  crops  are  advised  for  bare  ground  in  late  summer  so  that  the 
nitrates,  then  and  in  autumn  abundant  in  the  soil,  may  be  got  into  the 
plants,  and  so  prevent  their  being  washed  away  and  lost  to  the  land  by 
the  autumnal  and  winter  rains.  This  nitrogen  of  green  crops  implies 
ammonia  when  dug  or  ploughed  under,  that  means  condition — warmth, 
food,  and  growth  in  the  crop  while  microbes  slumber  and  nitrates  add  to 
the  cold.  The  importance  of  this  subject  renders  it  absolutely  necessary 
to  have  right  conceptions  of,  and  is  the  reason  of  our  alluding  to  it  at 
length. 
Mr.  Dyke  treats  of  the  Leguminosse  (an  order  of  plants),  gathering 
and  utilising  the  free  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere  for  their  nutrition  by 
means  of  a  fungus.  This,  as  regards  the  fungus,  is  new,  for  Professor 
Percy  F.  Frankland,  F.R.S.,  is  uncertain  as  to  what  the  micro-organism 
of  leguminous  plant  tubercles  really  is,  and  is  content  to  call  the  bodies 
“  bacteroids.”  This  seems  a  very  appropriate  term,  for  in  mature  form 
they  come  ni^  bacteria  (Schizomycetes),  or  so-called  splitting  fungi, 
while  daring  their  early  stages  of  development  the  streaming  masses 
resemble  the  jelly  fungi  (Myxomycetes),  or  so-called  slime  fungi,  during 
which  they  possess  amoeba  or  animal-like  movements,  changing  form 
at  will  on  gelatine  plate  culture.  The  place,  therefore,  of  the  micro¬ 
organism  is  the  Myxomycetes,  whose  business  in  Nature  is  to  convert 
or  reduce  the  nitrogen  of  plants,  dead  or  living,  as  they  are  saprophytic 
or  parasitic,  into  ammonia.  What  form  is  the  assimilable  nitrogen  of 
leguminous  plant  tubercles  in  ?  Their  decay  in  the  soil  signifies 
ammonia,  and  is  not  this  assimilable  in  the  tissues  of  plants  whether 
taken  up  by  the  roots,  the  parts  above  ground,  or  from  the  nitrogenic 
nodosities  ?  The  micro-organism,  according  to  Mr.  Dyke,  “  is  able  to 
fix  the  free  nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere  so  that  it  can  afterwards  be 
utilised  by  the  plants  for  their  nutrition,  and  in  return  the  plant  supplies 
the  food  constituents  necessary  for  the  growth  the  micro-organism.” 
“  From  the  above  fact,”  continues  Mr.  Dyke,  “  we  learn  that  manures 
containing  nitrogen — e.g,,  nitrate  of  soda  and  sulphate  of  ammonia,  are 
of  very  little  value  to  these  [leguminous]  plants,  and  experiments  have 
proved  the  same.”  Where  the  “  fact  ”  comes  in  it  is  difficult  to  see,  and 
as  for  experiments  they  are  frequently  conducted  without  regard  to 
the  current  fertility  of  the  soil.  Has  Mr.  Dyke  ever  tested  the  effect 
of  nitrate  of  soda  on  Peas  in  a  dry  season  1  Is  not  the  produce  enormously 
greater  and  the  quality  vastly  superior  to  that  of  plants  left  to  gather 
nitrogen  from  the  atmosphere  ?  “  It  plants  have  not  a  sufficient  supply 
of  nitrogen  in  the  soil  it  can  be  detected  by  a  lack  of  vigour  in  their 
growth  ;  the  plants  look  hard  and  stunted,  the  leaves  are  of  a  pale  yellow 
colour,  and  weakly  at  the  growing  point.”  Such,  indeed,  has  been  the 
condition  of  field  and  garden-grown  Peas  and  leguminous  crops  generally 
this  year,  only  good  crops  being  had  where  the  soil  has  been  deeply 
stirred  and  enriched  with  stable  or  farmyard  manure.  A  dressing  of 
nitrate  of  soda  makes  Peas  in  the  condition  described  more  quickly 
produce  pods  as  long  as  the  finger,  with  peas  inside  that  melt  like  batter 
in  the  month.  Rely  on  atmospheric  nitrogen  and  microbes,  then  the 
land  produces  next  to  nothing  in  leguminous  crops,  and  very  little  of 
anything  else  but  weeds. 
The  elements  essential  for  plant  nutrition  receive  generous  attention, 
and  in  the  chapter  on  manures  there  is  repletion  without  surfeit.  The 
microbes  come  to  the  fore  again  in  the  fermentation  of  stable  or  farm¬ 
yard  manure,  and  appears  to  be  “  taken  as  read.”  The  author  is  very 
miserly  with  farmyard  manure,  only  8  tons  per  acre  being  advised  with 
a  top-dressing  of  some  kind  of  chemical  manure,  better  results  being 
had  than  from  20  tons  without  the  fertilisers.  However  this  may  be, 
we  notice  that  the  market  gardeners  and  farmers  putting  the  larger 
amount  into  the  land  have  “  far  away  ”  the  best  crops.  Guano,  native 
guano,  fowl  manure,  green  crop  manuring,  and  vegetable  refuse  are 
carefully  handled. 
In  the  chapter  on  “  Special  Manures  ”  sulphate  of  ammonia,  nitrate 
of  soda,  blood—**  a  poor  fertiliser,”  yet  “  one  of  the  best  manures  for 
loamy  or  sandy  soils,”  which  shows  the  value  of  ammonia — a  fact  the 
pamphleteer  overlooks ;  and  the  same  applies  as  regards  soot ;  hoof 
and  horn,  shoddy  and  wool  waste,  with  leather  and  “  scutch  ” — a  bye 
product  in  the  manufacture  of  glue  and  the  dressing  of  skins — are 
cogently  treated. 
Manures  supplying  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid  follow.  Dried  fish 
manures  appear  a  variable  mixture,  but  some  grades  must  be  strong,  as 
28  lbs.  suffices  for  a  load  of  soil,  but  whether  barrow  or  cartload  is  not 
stated.  It  seems  a  “  success  in  the  cultivation  of  Tomatoes,  Vines, 
Cucumbers,  and  Strawberries  ;  ”  and  is  a  manure  “  very  suitable  for 
sandy  soils.”  Bones  come  next,  and,  of  course,  are  suitable  for  any  kind 
of  soil,  dissolved  being  quicker  in  action,  and  used  later  in  the  season 
than  meal  or  other  forms.  Phosphoric  guanos  are  also  mentioned,  and 
serves  a  similar  purpose  as  bones. 
Under  the  head  of  “ Manures  which  Supply  Nitrogen  and  Potash” 
we  are  told  of  the  value  of  nitrate  of  potash,  and  the  preparation  of  the 
popular  mixture  for  “  pot  plants  ” — one  part  nitrate  of  potash,  one  part 
sulphate  of  ammonia,  and  two  parts  superphosphate,  1  oz.  sufficing  for 
ten  plants  in  5-inch  pots,  or  half  ounce  to  a  gallon  of  water. 
Phosphate  of  potash  is  also  noticed  as  “  a  most  suitable  manure  for  pot 
plants,”  but  very  expensive. 
Mineral  phosphates  come  next,  including  Thomas’  phosphate  or  basic 
slag.  “  It  can  be  mixed  with  potting  soils,  the  quantity  being  about 
80  lbs.  to  every  [cart]  load  of  soil.  It  must  not  be  mixed  with  manures 
containing  ammonia,  blood,  guano,  or  great  loss  will  occur,  owing  to  the 
substance  being  given  off  as  a  gas.”  Superphosphate  of  litnf  is  liberally 
discussed,  also  sulphate  of  potash,  muriate  of  potash,  kainit,  carbonate 
of  potash,  sulphate  of  iron,  lime,  salt,  magnesia,  and  liquid  from  manure 
heaps.  This  brings  us  to  the  end  of  the  twenty-ninth  page,  and  on  the 
thirtieth  we  come  to  the  crucial  point — the  application  of  the*kaowledge 
acquired,  and  find  it  condensed  into  a  single  page. 
For  orchards  superphosphate  and  muriate  or  sulphate  of  potash  is 
advised  to  be  applied  in  the  autumn,  and  if  the  growth  in  the  spring  be 
weak  apply  nitrate  of  soda.  For  Beans  and  Peas  sulphate  of  potash  and 
superphosphates  applied  early  in  spring.  For  Cabbage,  Turnips,  Radishes, 
and  Lettuce  superphosphate  and  sulphate  of  potash  applied  early  in  the 
spring,  afterwards  dressing  with  nitrate  of  soda.  It  seems  there  is  a 
difference  between  theory  and  practice,  for  on  page  6  the  necessity  for 
nitrates  in  the  cold  months  is  put  off  (and  rightly)  until  after  early  in 
the  spring.  “  Cucumbers,  Onions,  and  Asparagus  are  similar  in  their 
requirements,  the  latter  being  benefited  by  the  application  of  salt.  The 
proportions  to  mix  are  1  cwt.  of  sulphate  of  potash,  2  cwt.  of  super¬ 
phosphate,  and  i  cwt.  of  nitrate  of  soda  per  acre,  with  the  addition  of 
56  lbs.  of  nitrate  of  soda  per  acre  every  fortnight  or  three  weeks  after 
they  are  well  established.  Strawberries  require  a  manure  rich  in  soluble 
phosphates  and  potash.  The  application  of  1  cwt.  of  sulphate  of  potash, 
2  cwt.  of  double  superphosphate,  and  100  lbs,  of  nitrate  of  soda  per 
acre  will  be  found  very  beneficial.”  No  doubt ;  but  when  is  it  to  be 
applied  ?  The  same  thing  occurs  in  the  case  of  lawns.  A  work  of  this 
nature  should  be  explicit  as  to  times  of  application,  and  still  more  so  as 
regards  the  amounts  to  be  applied  of  the  respective  substances  or 
mixtures.  Looking  backwards,  we  find  on  page  28,  under  sulphate  of 
