Beoembor  It,  1896.  TQUUKAL  Ot'  RORTIOtJLftJRE  ARD  COTTAGE  GARDENER,  580 
hold  on  the  bushes.  Daubs  of  various  kinds  have  been  devised,  but  they 
entail  a  large  expenditure  in  applying,  Cages,  of  course,  answer  better 
than  anything,  but  wire  netting  hardly  enters  into  growing  berries  for 
general  purposes  and  market. 
Easpberries  will  have  had  the  old  canes  cut  out  some  time  ago  j  if  not, 
these  vvill  need  to  be  cut  off  close  to  the  ground  and  sufficient  of  the 
promising  canes  reserved  for  next  year’s  bearing.  The  thing  is  to 
reserve  enough  and  no  more,  as  overcrowding  Easpberries  neither  secures 
a  heavy  crop  nor  makes  sure  of  the  fruit  being  fine  and  withstanding 
wet  weather.  Four  to  six  strong  canes  to  a  stool  are  ample,  and  the 
small,  unripe,  frequently  bent  over  tops  should  be  cut  off  to  plump  buds 
on  stout  well-matured  wood,  always  remembering  that  neither  the  tips 
nor  the  bases  of  the  canes  give  fruit  worth  mentioning.  This  means  the 
exercise  of  judgment  according  to  variety.  The  dwarfer  sorts,  as  Eed 
Antwerp,  may  be  shortened  to  a  yard  length,  and  the  stronger  to  about 
4  feet.  Autumn-bearing  varieties  should  be  cut  over  at  the  ground. 
Staking,  tying,  and  bending  over  will  suggest  itself  to  private  growers, 
buc  market  men  save  the  staking,  though  some  plait  the  canes  so  as  to 
make  them  self-supporting. 
What  has  been  said  about  manuring  Currants  and  Gooseberries 
applies  to  Easpberries.  All  are  woodside  plants  naturally,  and  get  a 
top-dressing  more  or  less  annually  of  leaves.  This  implies  vegetable 
mould — humus,  that  moistens  in  summer  time  besides  soil  enrichment. 
I  therefore  advise  an  application  of  stable  or  farmyard  manure  for  Easp¬ 
berries,  removing  the  soil  about  the  stools  without  injuring  the  roots, 
and  supplying  fresh  soil  from  the  spaces  between  the  rows.  While  open 
it  is  a  good  plan  to  use  freshly  burned  slaked  lime  freely  on  the  stools, 
for  in  these  various  pests  harbour,  and  the  lime  certainly  kills  all  it  gets  a 
good  hold  on.  Larvae  of  various  beetles  haunt  the  Easpberry  quarters, 
the  great  fat  grubs  of  the  cockchafer  being  frequently  turned  up,  and 
other  smaller  fry  are  yet  in  the  larval  stage,  sc  that  to  burn  their  skins 
means  destruction,  and  then  there  will  not  be  any  beetles  or  weevils  to 
hinder  the  tender  growth  from  making  headway.  Dissolved  bones  are 
not  eaten  by  grubs,  and  kainit  stupefies  and  kills  most  of  them.  Soot 
is  hateful  to  nearly  all  enemies  of  crops,  therefore  users  of  this  cheap 
fertiliser  do  good  in  more  ways  than  one  to  the  subjects  of  their  cultures. 
Nitrate  of  soda  is  not  liked  by  any  pest  lurking  in  the  soil,  and  sulphate 
of  ammonia  acts  in  a  similar  manner.  For  these  reasons  we  advise  sub¬ 
stances  that  act  againii^  the  enemies  of  crops,  and  at  the  same  time 
profit  them  in  their  growth.  As  much  cannot  be  said  of  animal  manures, 
or,  indeed,  of  any  organic  substance,  for  many  pests  do  subsist  on  such 
in  a  state  of  decay,  especially  the  larvse  of  coleopterous  insects  ;  hence 
the  importance  of  a  change  of  feeding,  so  as  to  counteract  the  tendency 
to  a  hotbed  of  fungoid  and  insectal  infection,  for  no  animal  can  subsist 
on  inorganic  substances,  and  whatever  cuts  off  supplies  of  food  for  para¬ 
sites  diminishes  their  power  for  mischief,  always  provided  the  elements 
act  prejudicially  upon  them,  otherwise  saprophytism  may  and  fre¬ 
quently  does  develop  into  absolute  parasitism . 
Strawberries  require  no  winter  pruning,  for  the  old  leaves  being 
considerably  reduced  after  the  crop  was  gathered  in  the  clearance  of 
the  runners,  the  plants  will  not  have  more  top  than  necessary  for  the 
protection  of  the  crowns.  In  the  cssa  of  very  old  beds,  thinning  the 
rows  is  sometimes  had  recourse  to,  but  very  few  growers  allow  the 
plants  to  remain  so  long,  the  plants  being  treated  as  biennials  or 
triennials.  For  these  plants  stable  or  farmyard  manure  is  still  the  best 
dressing.  It  is  usually  applied  to  and  left  on  the  surface  during  the 
winter,  partly  as  it  aids  the  plants  to  withstand  severe  weather,  and 
partly  to  secure  a  better  amelioration  of  the  food  elements  or  conversion 
into  available  form.  Digging  in,  if  any,  is  deferred  until  the  late 
winter,  or  very  early  spring,  and  the  plant  roots  then  can  lay  hold  of 
the  food  at  once,  whereas  if  buried  raw  it  very  slowly  becomes  service¬ 
able  to  them,  often  not  for  the  coming  crop. 
For  similar  reasons,  manures  that  were  formerly  applied  in  the  spring 
are  employed  in  the  autumn,  especially  those  supplying  ammonia  slowly, 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  In  the  case  of  animal  manure,  rank  growth 
in  crops  is  obviated,  and  the  potash  is  gripped  and  held  by  the  soil, 
whilst  the  phosphoric  acid  is  not  held  over  so  as  to  not  be  of  any  use 
for  seed  formation.  Phosphates  of  the  ammoniacal  class,  such  as  dis¬ 
solved  bones,  are  frequently  app'ied  in  autumn  or  winter  so  as  to  be 
ready  as  food  for  crops  in  the  early  spring,  but  mineral  saperphosphates 
are  not  given  until  spring,  as  they  act  promptly,  and  supply  nothing  but 
the  phosphoric  acid  they  contain,  except,  of  course,  sulphur  in  the 
sulphate  of  lime.  Potash,  whether  as  muriate  (chloride)  or  sulphate, 
aa  in  kainit,  is  also  found  best  applied  in  autumn  or  winter,  for  though 
the  chlorine  may  wash  away,  the  potash  abides  and  is  in  better  form  for 
the  tender  rootlets  to  imbibe  than  the  crude  article.  Ammoniacal 
substances  also  do  not  vanish  like  nitrates,  therefore  they  are  applied 
earlier,  as  the  soil  holds  such  elements  unless  becoming  carbonate,  as 
when  there  is  much  lime  in  Ihe  soil,  an  i  the  passing  over  into  nitrates 
is  done  at  the  right  time  when  tLe  plants  need  the  stimulus  to  help 
them  along.  Nitrates,  on  the  other  hand,  either  are  taken  up  by  the 
plants  without  much  delay,  or  they  pass  away  with  drainage  water, 
therefore  they  are  not  apnlied  until  the  spring. 
Owing  to  slowness  in  becoming  available,  basic  cinder  phosphate  is 
applied  in  autumn,  and  with  it  what  may  be  deemed  necessary  in  the 
shape  of  potash.  From  5  to  10  cwt.  of  basic  cinder  phosphate  and  2h  to 
5  cwt.  of  kainit  supplying  what  most  bush  fruits  require  in  respect  of 
phosphoric  acid,  potash,  magnesia,  and  soda,  the  basic  cinder  supplying 
some  iron  ;  these  are  dug  in,  and  in  the  spring  either  sulphate  of 
ammonia  or  nitrate  of  soda  is  supplied,  so  that  the  plants  have  adequate 
amounts  of  phospbatic,  potassic,  and  nitrogenic  elements  wherewith  to 
build  up  their  structures  healthfully.  There  is  no  fiushing  under  such 
circumstances,  but  a  steady,  progressive,  and  well -sustained  growth 
from  beginning  of  growth  in  the  plants  to  the  finish  of  the  crop. 
Consequently  there  is  health,  so  far  as  it  is  due  to  food  supplies  and  its 
wbolesomeaess,  right  through  all  the  stages  of  development  and 
maturity,  to  which  purpose  all  cultural  management  does,  or  should, 
trend. — G.  Abbet. 
(To  be  continued.) 
HUMUS  IN  ITS  RELATION  TO  SOIL  FERTILITY. 
JJi/  H.\uiiY  Snvdf.k,  B.Sc.,  Professor  of  Agricultural  Chemistry  in  the 
College  of  Agriculture  of  the  University  of  Minnesota. 
The  term  humus  is  applied  to  a  large  class  of  compounds 
derived  from  the  decay  of  former  animal  and  plant  life.  The 
animal  and  vegetable  materials  (organic  matter)  undergo  decompo¬ 
sition  in  the  soil,  the  final  result  of  which  is  the  disappearance  of 
these  substances,  leaving  only  a  few  gases  and  a  small  amount  of 
mineral  matter.  When  the  organic  matter  is  in  its  inter¬ 
mediate  stages  of  decomposition,  and  mixed  with  the  soil,  it  is 
known  as  humus. 
Opinion  as  to  the  fertilising  value  of  humus  has  swung, 
pendulum  like,  from  one  extreme  to  another.  The  alchemists 
taught  that  the  spirits  left  the  decaying  animal  and  vegetable 
matters  and  entered  plants.  By  many  of  the  earlier  chemists 
humus  was  considered  as  supplying  the  larger  part  of  the  materials 
necessary  for  the  development  of  the  crop,  but  when  the  combined 
labours  of  De  Saussure,  Boussingault,  Dumas,  and  Liebig 
demonstrated  that  the  air  supplied  plants  most  of  their  food, 
particularly  that  part  which  was  supposed  to  come  from  humus, 
scientists,  as  a  rule,  assigned  a  low  value  to  humus. 
From  the  very  earliest  times,  however,  farmers  have  assigned  a 
very  high  value  to  humus  as  a  factor  of  soil  fertility,  and  this  belief 
was  strengthened  by  the  observed  facts  that  soils  rich  in  humus 
were,  as  a  rule,  highly  productive,  and  that  such  material  as  animal 
excrement  or  barnyard  manure,  which  supplied  the  soil  with  an 
abundance  of  humus,  possessed  a  marked  fertilising  power. 
Although  many  of  the  old  theories  which  were  supposed  to  account 
for  the  value  of  humus  are  no  longer  tenable,  recent  experiments 
have  shown  that  there  are  sound  scientific  reasons  for  ascribing  to 
humus  a  high  value  as  a  factor  of  soil  fertility,  and  have 
demonstrated  that  “  farmers  are  wholly  right  in  attaching  great 
importance  to  the  preservation  of  humus  in  their  soils.” 
As  the  following  paragraphs  will  show,  humus  performs  a  number 
of  different  functions  in  the  soil  which  are  of  the  highest  importance 
in  crop  production.  It  influences  the  temperature,  tilth,  perme¬ 
ability,  absorptive  power,  weight,  and  colour  of  soils,  and  directly 
or  indirectly  controls  to  a  high  degree  their  supply  of  water, 
nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash. 
Loss  OP  Soil  Humus  and  Decline  in  Fektility. 
A  virgin  soil  or  one  recently  cleared  may  show  a  high  state  of 
productiveness  for  a  number  of  years  after  it  is  brought  under 
cultivation.  Gradually,  however,  a  decline  in  fertility  is  observed, 
which  is  slight  at  first,  but  more  marked  after  a  lapse  of  fifteen  or 
twenty  years. 
Experiments  have  shown  that  the  decline  in  fertility  is  not 
entirely  a  result  of  the  removal  from  the  soil  of  the  essential 
fertilising  elements — nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  potash,  or  lime — 
but  is  due  in  many  cases  to  getting  the  land  out  of  condition 
through  a  loss  of  humas.  Experiments  conducted  by  the  Minnesota 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station  on  different  types  of  soils  worn  by 
continuous  grain  cropping  have  shown  that  when  a  fertiliser  was 
used  containing  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  potash,  or  lime,  or  when 
any  one  of  these  materials  was  applied  alone,  there  was  “  in  no  case 
an  increase  of  over  3  bushels  per  acre  of  Wheat  and  2  of  Flax.  .  .  . 
With  soils  that  have  been  cropped  for  twenty  years  the  largest 
increase  was  4  bushels  per  acre.”  The  difference  between  the 
grain-producing  power  of  new  soils  and  of  worn  soils  of  the  same 
original  character  was  about  15  bushels  per  acre.  These  results,  as 
well  as  many  others  which  could  be  quoted,  make  it  clear  that  the 
decline  in  fertility  of  the  soils  was  not  entirely  due  to  a  loss  of  the 
essential  elements  of  fertility,  and  that  we  must  seek  the  cause 
elsewhere. 
The  most  important  difference,  physical  or  chemical,  between 
the  composition  of  old,  worn  soils  and  new  soils  of  the  same 
character  is  in  the  amount  of  humus  which  is  present. 
That  the  loss  of  humus  is  an  important  factor  in  the  decline  of 
fertility  is  also  indicated  by  the  fact  that  with  methods. of  farming 
in  which  grasses  form  an  important  part  in  the  rotation,  especially 
those  that  leave  a  large  residue  of  roots  and  culms,  the  decline  in 
productive  power  is  much  slower  than  when  crops  like  Wheat, 
Cotton,  or  Potatoes,  which  leave  little  residue  on  the  soil,  are 
grown  continuously.  Under  grass  and  similar  crops  the  soil 
