December  l,  1898.  jq URNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  •  COTTA  GE  GA  RDENER.  413 
applied  ;  but  because  these  crops  had  been  neglected  in  tillage — the 
absence  of  “toil  with  fork  and  hoe,”  the  manures  had  been 
simply  wasted  on  them.  Not  in  one  season  alone,  nor  in  one  kind  of 
soil,  but  over  five  consecutive  seasons,  and  in  widely  differing  soils, 
has  this  been  proved,  and  the  facts  cannot  b'c  explained  away. 
It  seems  to  be  taken  for  granted  by  scientists  that  private  gardeners 
can  make  precise  and  exhaustive  manurial  experiments  over  a  series 
of  years  for  the  information  of  the  public.  Not  one  in  twenty 
of  them  can  do  anything  of  the  kind.  The  overwhelming  majority 
of  them  have  enough,  and  more  than  enough,  to  do  to  meet  the 
multifarious  demands,  and  it  is  a  marvel  that  so  many  of  them  meet 
them  so  well  with  the  means  at  disposal.  Very  few  indeed  of  those 
men  can  do  what  is  suggested  ;  but  do  not  let  it  be  supposed  that  the 
more  intelligent  do  not  make  experiments  for  themselves.  Gardeners 
as  units,  and  for  their  own  home  purposes,  are  the  greatest  experi¬ 
mentalists  in  the  kingdohi ;  but  scientists  cannot  know  this.  They 
w  mid  have  to  live  and  work  in  gardens  for  a  few  years  to  find  out 
the  facts,  and  the  facts  are  these — namely',  it  is  just  by  experiments 
with  manures  of  various  kinds,  and  in  methods  of  procedure,  that  our 
b.st  and  most  intelligent  gardeners  have  learned,  with  a  near  approach 
to  exactitude,  the  steps  to  take  to  produce  the  desired  results,  and 
these  are  as  good,  taking  the  broalest  view  of  their  duties,  as  the  best 
that  can  be  found  in  any  country  in  the  world.  It  is  sadly  true  that 
there  are  so-called  gardeners  who  are  lamentably  ignorant — men  who 
neither  read  nor  study,  but  just  muddle  on,  and  such  do  not  count  in 
this  reference. 
No;  if  experiments  with  manures  are  to  be  conducted  with 
precision,  the  work  must  be  done  by  public  authorities,  such  as  the 
1  loyal  Horticultural  Society,  Agricultural  Experimental  Stations, 
Educational  Organisations,  Botanical  Gardens,  or  on  plots  set  apart  by 
such  landed  proprietors  who  may  be  disposed  to  find  the  requisite 
means;  it  is  not  practicable  to  add  to  the  ordinavy  routine  in  the 
majority  of  private  gardens,  though  it  might,  or  might  not,  be  feasible 
at  Frogmore.  Mr.  O.ven  Thomas  might  perhaps  answer  for  that ;  and 
if  not  there  (on  the  50  acr<23  of  garden)  whore  are  we  to  look  ? 
Then  there  are  our  leading  market  gardeners — growers  of  fruit, 
flowers,  and  vegetables.  Do  not  they  make  experiments,  though 
unknown  to  the  world  ?  Many'  of  them  do  so  to  a  much  greater 
extent  thau  is  generally  recognised,  and  act  in  accordance  with  the 
best  scientific  advice  procurable.  Like  the  most  successful  private 
gardeners,  it  is  just  because  they  have  been  experimenting  for  years 
that  they  have  succeeded  so  well  in  the  tremendous  competition  they 
have  to  meet.  One  of  the  most  devoted  students  that  can  perhaps  be 
found  as  a  real  cultivator,  whose  every  step  taken  rests  firmly  on  a 
scientific  foundation,  who  has  studied  closely  in  the  laboratory  and 
laboured  strenuously  in  the  growth  of  produce  for  sale,  making,  as  wj 
are  glad  to  know,  remarkable  progress  during  the  past  few  years — 
on'y  last  week  this  scientific  worker  expressed  the  wish  that  depre- 
citors  of  farmyard  m mure  and  advocates  of  artificials  alone  “had  to 
obtain  their  living  by  growing  fruit,  flowers,  and  vegetables  for 
market;  they  would  then  learn  that  in  practice  no  hing  suits  p’ants 
s a  well  as  farmyard  manure  in  conjunction  with  artificials.”  This 
from  a  man  who  has  had  experience  with  trainloads  of  natural  and 
tons  of  artificial  manures,  with  at  one  time  a  predilection  in  favour  of 
the  former — a  naan  who  can  and  does  sell  produce  to  the  value  of 
more  than  £500  per  acre  of  land  annually  is  not  to  be  lightlv  pas-e  1 
over.  His  remarks  had  no  ro'erence  to  Mr.  Hall’s  address,  for  they 
were  in  print  long  before  it  was  delivered. 
The  object  of  this  gentleman  is  entirely  praiseworthy.  Ho 
wishes  to  induce  cultivators  to  discover  the  best  and  most  economical 
methods  of  imparting  and  maintaining  soil  fertility;  he  desires  to 
put  them  on  their  guard  against  costly  concoctions  which  are  well 
known  to  exist,  and  which  persons  are  tempted  to  purchase  by 
insinuating  ways.  All  this  is  admirable,  and  if  he  can  set  more 
men  a-thinking  seriously  on  the  subject,  and  from  thinking  resort  to 
action  in  the  form  of  careful  experiments,  ho  will  do  very  much  good. 
Unfortunately,  the  most  ignorant  so-called  gardeners  are  hard  to  reach. 
Like  hundreds  of  farme  s,  they  are  too  far  gone  to  read,  because 
they  “  know  better  than  books  and  papers.”  But  it  is  necessary  to 
discriminate.  The  tendency  of  many  scientists  (not  all)  is  to  regard 
all  gardeners  as  ignorant.  This  is  not  so.  The  better  class,  or  average 
high-class  representatives  of  the  craft,  are,  as  the  Rev.  Prof.  G. 
Henslow  said  in  the  last  published  part  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society,  “more  or  less  scientific  physiologists,  though 
perhaps  without  knowing  it.  For  it  is  just  because  florists  an  l 
horticulturists  do  succeed  so  wonderfully  well  in  growing  plants  that 
they  have  discovered  for  themselves  what  their  plants  require," 
though,  as  the  learned  professor  suggests,  “  without  exactly  knowing 
the  why  and  the  wherefore  in  each  case.”  This  is  quite  true. 
These  men  know  what  particular  manures  best  suit  the  particular 
purposes  lor  which  they  are  applied,  and  they  will  continue  to  use 
them,  whether  in  the  natural  or  artificial  form,  and  whether  the  last 
named  are  proprietary  mixtures  or  not.  They  know  perfectly  well  that 
when  the  land  is  crammed  with  rich  farmyard  manure  that  lime, and  the 
mineral  forms  of  artificials,  especially  phosphatic,  give  the  best  results; 
but  they  also  know  that  when  land  is  practically  destitute  of  humus, 
good  farmyard,  or  rich  hotbed,  manure  is  the  most  trustworthy  kind  t  > 
use  us  a  foundation  for  whatever  artificials  may  be  given  in  addition. 
This  Mr.  Hall  knows  very  well,  for,  according  to  a  note  in  the 
“Gardeners’  Chronicle,”  lie  conceded  the  point,  in  reply  to  Mr,  A. 
Dean,  by  describing  “  the  sandy  soils  of  Surrey  as  peculiarly  unsuit¬ 
able  for  experiments  with  phosphates.”  If  in  Surrey,  it  must  be  so 
with  similar  soils  elsewhere,  where  farmyard  manure  has,  the  bc.^t 
effect.  Mr.  Dean  could  tell  of  some  of  the  grandest  crops  of  Grapes 
that  the  country  produces  in  the  sandy  sails  of  Surrey,  and  many 
other  crops  besides  Grapes,  largely,  but  not  in  all  cases,  entirely  by  the 
aid  of  natural  manures,  because  a  supplement  of  steamed  bone  flour 
has  a  beneficial  effect. 
We  also  seo  it  stated  that  Dr.  Masters  described  something  that 
land  been  said  ns  “  quackery.”  As  Mr.  Dean  is  no  quack,  the  remark 
must  have  applied  to  Mr.  C.  Berry’s  practice  of  mixing  “all  softs  of 
manures,  compounds  and  others  together,  and  applying  them  to  most 
crops.”  That  certainly  does  savour  of  the  big  battle  cure— with  a 
little  of  everything  in  it  to  catch  all  diseases ;  but  it  for  “  all  sorts  ’  wo 
substitute  some  sorts,  and  these  the  right  sorts,  for  incorporat¬ 
ing  in  manure  and  compost  heaps  shortly  before  applying  in 
the  spring,  we  venture  to  say  the  practice  is  the  reverse  of  quackery; 
on  the  contrary,  it  has  been  found  the  best  of  all  methods  ot 
sustaining  the  fertility  of  sandy  soil  by  a  continental  horticulturist 
of  high  repute  over  a  period  of  thirty  years  or  more,  and  the 
pracrice  had  the  sanction  of  scientific  State  authorities.  Sinai  ar 
practice  has  also  long  since  been  found  to  answer  well  by  gardeners 
both  in  England  and  Scotland,  though  little  has  been  said  about  it  in 
the  Press. 
It  is  not  entirely  safe  for  either  scientists  or  practicalists  to  be  too 
dogmatically  assertive  as  to  the  best  methods  of  manuring  the  sod. 
Tiie  advocacv  of  preparing  special  manures  for  every  crop  and  kind  of 
plaiU,  regardless  of  the  character  of  the  soil,  is  not  much  less  suggestive 
of  quackery  than  Mr.  Berry’s  “  nil  sorts  for  most.”  Those  men  are 
the  wiser  who  discriminate,  and  ad  should  search  for  the  truth.] 
BULBS  AND  THEIR  CULTURE. 
( Continued  from  pcije  So2.) 
There  are  many  ways  in  which  bulbs  may  be  employed  in  the 
flower  garden,  in  aldition  to  the  general  practice  of  devoting  beds 
entirely  to  them.  In  some  instances  a  long  succession  of  flowers  is 
expected  from  the  time  the  Snowdrops  and  Crocuses  appear  rill  the 
middle  of  June;  when  such  is  the  case  good  results  are  obtaine  1  by 
associating  other  spring-flowering  plants  with  them.  Let  me  givo  a 
few  examples.  A  charming  combination  I  have  often  employed  is  to 
plant  yellow  Tulips  a  foot  or  15  inches  apart,  and  then  covei  the 
whole  surface  of  the  lied  with  one  of  the  many  good  forms  of  bedding 
Myosotis.  Tiie  latter  begins  to  flower  while  the  Tulips  are  in  full 
beauty,  and  contimaes  well  into  June;  and  as  the  flower  spikes 
lengthen  and  the  Myosotis  grows  into  a  mass  the  Tulip  leaves  are 
almost  Triddcn,  so  that  we  obtain  just  as  good  a  display  of  Forget-me-not 
as  when  the  bel  is  devoted  entirely  to  it,  and  in  addition  we  have  t  ie 
early  and  brilliant  display  of  Tulips,  which  in  its  late  stage  contrasts 
well  with  the  rising  mass  of  blue  beneath.  Red  or  white  Daisies 
again  make  a  capital  groundwork  for  either  Tulips,  Hyacinths,  or 
Narcissi.  ,  .  ..... 
Silenc  pendula  compacta  also  forms  a  splendid  setting  for  .Narcissus 
poeticus,  and  as  both  flower  Simultaneously  they  shou'd  b'  associated 
in  beds  which  are  required  in  full  beauty  about  the  end  of  Ma\. 
Masses  of  Scilla  sibiricu  arc  wonderfully  effective  about  the  time 
Crocuses  are  fading;  and  if  yellov  Tulips  arc  planted  thinly  among 
the  Scillas  they  make  a  good  display  after  the  l.vt'cr  flowers  havo 
faded.  With  a  few  years’  close  study  of  these  matters  the  flower 
gardener  usually  finds  that  many  novel  and  beautiful  combina'i  ns 
may  be  made  by  working  on  the  lines  above  suggested. 
When  bulbs  are  planted  in  flower  beds  it  is  of  course  necessary  t ' 
take  them  up  each  year  to  make  room  for  summer  bolding  plants;  for 
this  reasoia  n^any  are  led  to  plant  only  a  couple  of  inches  deep,  *ut 
am  convinced  the  practice  is  not  a  goo l  one,  as  all  bulbous  plants 
produce  better  spikes  of  flowers  when  the  young  shoots  have  to  force 
their  way  through  4  or  5  inches  of  soil  and  plunging  material  be.ore 
