Anri]  13,  18P9. 
journ-Al  of  horticulture  and  cottage  gardener. 
301 
o  hi8  type,  but  should  only  be  used  when  the  soil  contains  naturally 
^  supply  of  lime,  on  the  loams  and  chalkv  soils  rather  than  on 
sands  or  gravels  or  the  cold  clays.  One  or  other  of  the  manures  is  all 
ut  indispensable  in  a  garden.  With  a  supply  of  steamed  boneflour  or 
phosphatic  guano  and  dung  a  gardener  need  trouble  himself  but  little 
about  other  fertilisers. 
_0ie  effect  of  potash,  the  third  of  our  elements  of  fertility, 
lule  positive  is  known ;  but  in  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  that 
where  dung  is  at  all  regularly  used  little  is  required  in  the  way  of 
specifac  potash  dressings.  But  where  dung  is  not  employed,  or  where 
^  ^’"bt  sandy  nature  and  likely  to  be  deficient  in  potash, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  apply  kainit  at  the  rate  of  4  lbs.  or  5  lbs.  per 
square  rod  every  second  or  third  year,  preferably  putting  it  on  in  the 
winter  or  late  autumn. 
In  some  orchards  and  gardens  dung  cannot  be  obtained.  In  such 
cases  it  i.s  necessarj^  to  obtain  as  a  basis  for  the  manuring  some  slowly 
acting  nitrogenous  body  of  an  organic  origin,  such  as  meatmeal,  fish 
guano,  or  rape  dust,  digging  this  into  the  ground  at  the  rate  of  8  lbs. 
to  lbs.  per  square  rod  in  the  winter.  With  it  should  go  4  lbs.  to 
pfiosphatic  manure  like  steamed  boneflour  or 
phosphatic  guano,  and  kainit  every  other  year  or  so.  Finally,  as  the 
plants  are  beginning  to  grow  a  little  active  nitrogen  in  the  shape  of 
sulphate  of  ammonia  or  nitrate  of  soda  may  be  used  along  with 
superphosphate.  The  gardener  wmrking  without  dung  should  lose  no 
opportunity  of  taking  catch  crops  of  Mustard  or  Vetches,  and  digging 
them  into  the  soil.  The  land  may  be  brought  into  splendid  condition 
by  heavily  manuring  with  artificials  for  a  crop  of  this  ^ort,  and  turning 
it  in  a  month  or  two  before  the  ground  is  wanted  again. 
The  Use  of  Artificial  Manures. 
A  few  general  directions  may  be  civen  for  the  use  of  artificial 
manures.  Ihe  best  returns  are  obtained  by  applying  them  to  growing, 
rather  than  established,  plants.  I  have  seen  recently  planted  Straw¬ 
berries  enormously  benefited  by  a  dressing  of  artificial  manures  that 
produced  no  sensible  effect  on  two  or  three  year  old  plants  alongside.  As 
to  quantities,  1  oz.  per  square  yard,  or  2  lbs.  per  square  rod,  is  equal 
to  about  3  cwts.  per  acre.  This  may  be  taken  as  an  outside  quantity 
to  use  of  the  rich  and  active  nitrogenous  manures  like  sulphate  of 
ammonia  or  nitrate  of  soda ;  of  more  slowly  acting  manures  like  the 
guanos,  two  or  three  times  the  quantity  may  be  used. 
For  plants  in  pots  it  is  better  to  use  manures  in  solution — for 
example,  nitrate  of  soda  and  superphosphate,  or  1  oz.  of  sulphate  of 
ammonia  and  3  czs.  of  superphosphate  dissolved  in  10  gallons  of 
water  makes  an  excellent  liquid  manure  for  finishing,  when  buds 
are  opening  or  fruit  is  sAvelling-.  If  a  compost  is  to  be  enrichel, 
let  the  slowly  acting  forms  of  nitrogen,  like  the  guanos  or  meat 
meal,  be  used  with  phosphates  to  correspond,  and  let  the  manure 
be  mixed  with  the  soil  some  time  before  the  compost  is  wanted,  for 
the  early  stages  of  the  decomposition  in  the  soil  of  these  manures 
are  injurious  to  tender  rootlets. 
Plant  Ash  Fallacies. 
As  to  the  nature  of  the  manure  required  for  this  or  that  crop 
little  can  be  said  ;  the  gardener  has  not  at  his  service  the  know¬ 
ledge  that  the  farmer  possesses  of  the  specific  requirements  of  his 
crops ;  it  is  only  for  the  farm  crops  that  systematic  trials  have  been 
carried  out,  like  the  fifty-year-old  experiments  at  Hothamsted,  and 
the  many  other  stations  that  have  grown  up  in  England  and  else¬ 
where.  From  these  experiments  and  their  extension  by  the  practical 
experience  of  many  years  we  now  know  with  a  reasonable  degree  of 
accuracy  the  specific  requirements  of  each  crop  on  the  farm,  whether 
its  manure  should  be  mainly  nitrogenous  or  mainly  phosphatic, 
whether  potash  is  wanted  or  not  whereas  we  have  nothing  but 
general  grounds  upon  which  to  distinguish  between  the  requirements 
of  a  Cabbage  or  an  Apple  tree,  an  Onion  or  a  Eose.  It  is  little  use 
analysing  the  plant  to  get  this  information  :  the  proportions  of 
nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash  in  a  plant  are  not  the  proportions 
in  which  these  substances  should  be  supplied  in  order  to  best  feed  the 
plant.  What  is  present  in  the  smallest  proportions  is  often  the 
particular  substance  the-  plant  most  wants ;  it  is  only  present  in 
small  proportions  because  the  plant  finds  a  special  difficulty  in  getting 
it  from  the  soil.  As  an  instance  of  this  common  fallacy  of  supposing 
the  composition  of  a  plant’s  ash  gives  any  guide  to  its  manuring. 
Swedes  may  be  taken:  1  acre  of  average  Swedes  removes  from  the 
soil  98  lbs.  of  nitrogen,  33  lbs.  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  149  lbs.  of 
potash.  This  material  would  be  contained  in  5|-  cwts.  of  nitrate  of 
soda,  2^  cwts.  of  superphosphate,  and  11  cwts.  of  kainit;  yet  the 
ordinary  manure  for  Swedes,  one  tested  by  many  years  of  experience 
and  scores  of  experiments,  is  something  like  4  cwts.  of  superphosphate 
and  1  cwt.  of  nitrate  of  soda  per  acre. 
E.xperiments. 
Only  actual  experiments  can  teach  us  the  requirements  of  our 
garden  crops,  and  experiments  of  a  systematic  sort  are  few  in 
number.  We  shall  have  in  time  results  from  the  Experimental 
Fruit  Farm  the  Duke  of  Bedford  has  started  at  Woburn  ;  in  a 
commercial  way  we  have  the  trials  conducted  by  Ur.  Bernard  Dyer 
at  Hadlovv  for  the  Permanent  Nitrate  Committee,  but  as  yet  these 
and  other  trials  are  young,  and  have  not  reached  permanent  con¬ 
clusions.  Meanwhile  every  gardener  should  have  a  little  experimental 
plot  in  his  own  garden ;  he  will  learn  much  about  his  crops,  and  he 
will  learn  what  no  one  else  can  teach  him — i.e.,  the  special  character¬ 
istics  of  the  soil  he  is  working  on.  Such  a  plot  costs  but  little  trouble 
and  becomes  more  valuable  every  year.  An  arrangement  like  the 
following  gives  perhaps  the  readiest  information — seven  plots  side  by 
side,  each  1  square  rod  in  extent :  — 
Plot  1,  Gets  no  manure. 
Plot  2,  Gets  an  all-round  manure.  A  pound  of  sulphate  of 
ammonia  as  a  top-dressing,  4  lbs.  superphosphate  or  basic  slag,, 
according  to  the  soil,  and  2  lbs.  kainit. 
Plot  3,  Gets  an  e.xcess  of  nitrogen,  using  3  lbs.  of  sulphate  of 
ammonia  instead  of  1  lb.,  as  in  the  previous  dressing. 
Plot  4,  Gets  no  phosphate — the  dressing  of  plot  2  without  the 
phosphate. 
Plot  5,  Gets  an  excess  of  phosphate,  the  dressing  of  plot  2,  with 
12  lbs.  of  phosphate  instead  of  4  lbs. 
Plot  6,  Gets  no  potash,  the  dressing  of  plot  2  without  the 
potash. 
Plot  7,  Gets  excess  of  potash — the  dressing  of  plot  2,  with  6  lbs. 
of  kainit  inslead  of  2  lbs. 
On  some  soils  it  may  bo  well  to  try  an  eighth  plot  with  lb.  of 
sulphate  of  iron  added  to  the  dressing  of  plot  2. 
If  only  a  number  of  gardeners  would  put  down  a  little  trial  ground 
of  this  kind,  growing  various  crops  upon  it  from  year  to  year,  and 
reporting  their  results  to  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  we  should 
not  long  remain  in  our  present  ignorance  of  the  specific  needs  of  our 
garden  plants.  This  paper  has  been  confined  to  its  particular  subject 
— the  use  of  artificial  manures  in  a  garden — nothing  has  been  said 
about  cultivation,  the  foundation  of  all  gardening  ;  nothing  about  dung,, 
which  may  be  regarded  as  the  basis  of  all  manuring ;  nothing  about 
the  use  of  lime :  these  are  all  points  that  cannot  be  neglected.  No¬ 
artificial  manure  w'  11  make  up  for  slovenly  cultivation,  rather  they 
demand  greater  care  in  this  direction :  but  the  object  of  the  paper  has 
been  to  indicate  and  explain  the  fact  that  artificial  manures  give 
additional  scope  to  the  gardener’s  art,  and  that  in  the  hands  of  a  skilful 
man  they  may  be  used  to  still  further  combat  the  difficulties  that, 
arise  from  soil  or  climate. 
[Some  time  ago,  durinjg  a  discussion  on  analysis  and  manuring  m 
our  columns,  the  paper  of  Mr.  A.  D.  Hall,  the  accomplished  Principal 
of  the  South-Eastern  Agricultural  College  at  Wye,  was  frequently 
referred  to.  We  were,  in  consequence,  desired  by  some  of  our  readers 
to  publish  Mr.  Hall's  paper.  This  we  could  not  do  at  the  time,  but 
we  take  the  substance  of  it  now  from  the  recently  issued  R.H.Si. 
Journal,  and  an  attractive  and  interesting  issue  it  is. 
It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Hall  states,  “It  is  of  little  use 
analysing  a  plant  to  get  to  know  its  exact  requirements,  for  what  is 
present  in  the  smallest  proportions  is  often  the  particular  substance 
the  plant  most  wants,  and  could  not  obtain  in  larger  quantity  because 
not  in  the  soil.”  Superficial  so-called  scientists  may  do  worse  than 
ponder  over  that  pronouncement. 
As  to  “  experiments,”  we  are  disposed  to  think  that  those  conducted 
as  suggested,  though  interesting  and  instructive  to  the  individual 
conductors,  are  not  calculated  to  be  of  such  general  service  as  is 
indicated.  In  Mr.  Gordon’s  able  and  comprehensive  paper  in  the 
same  issue  of  the  R.H.S.  Journal,  he  says:  “When  trials  of  manure 
are  made,  care  should  be  taken  to  select  land  of  uniform  quality,  for 
when,  as  sometimes  happens,  the  experiments  are  conducted  on  lands 
that  were  cropped  and  manured  in  several  different  ways  in  the 
previous  year,  the  results  are,  if  not  actually  misleading,  of  no  practical 
value.”  We  should  like  to  know  what  Mr.  Hall  thinks  of  that  aspect 
of  the  case,  which  does  not  appear  to  be  treated  in  his  admirable 
paper. 
Instead  of  a  number  of  gardeners  experimenting  with  manures  on 
such  soils  as  they  happen  to  have,  without  definite  knowledge  of  their 
manorial  contents,  and  reporting  to  the  R.H.S.,  we  cannot  help  thinking 
it  would  be  better  for  the  R.H.S.  to  conduct  its  own  experiments  on  a 
strictly  scientific  basis. 
Though  Mr.  Gordon  has  made  a  strong  point  in  the  sentence  above 
cited,  it  is  materially  discounted  in  his  proposition  that  the  results  of 
County  Council  experiments  on  allotments  should  be  reported  to  the 
R.H.S.  for  collation.  Divergencies  in  soil  constituents  are  greater  on 
allotments  than  almost  anywhere;  the  small  experiments  in  question 
are  conducted  for  the  information  of  the  allottees  in  the  respective 
centres,  and  are  of  little  use,  because  of  soil  variations,  to  outsiders. 
This  is  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Hall’s  proposition  that  if  a  gardener 
has  a  well  conducted  experimental  plot  “  he  will  learn  Avhat  no  one 
else  can  teach  him.”  Is  not  the  converse  of  this,  “  and  what  he 
cannot  teach  anyone  else  ivho  works  under  fundamentally  different 
soil  conditions  ?  ”] 
