>r<ay  7,  1903. 
JOUUXAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AXD  COTTAGE  GARDEXER, 
403 
Gardeners’  Commissions. 
“C.,’’  in  his  letter  on  this  subject  (page  378),  says:  “If  any¬ 
one  is  entitled  to  discoimt,  it  assnro'dly  is  the  man  who'  pays  the 
bill.”  Exactly  so;  and  taking  it  for  granted  that  employers 
are  entitled  to  their  five  per  cent.,  let  them  deduct  the  same 
at  settlement,  and  that  settles  the  matter  sO'  far  as  master,  man, 
and  seedsman  are  concerned.  In  vie-w  of  approaching  legislation 
on  the  matter,  a  little  discussion  should  not  only  do  no'  harm, 
but  some  amount  of  good  may  result ;  for  if  the  Bill  passes,  into 
law,  what  has  been  customai'y  will  then  bo  criminal ;  that  is, 
if  a  clear  understanding  does  not  exist  between  master  and 
man.  And  my  object  in  adding  to  this  discussion,  from  a 
gardener’s  point  of  view,  is  to  strongly  advise  all  brethren  of 
the  craft  who  feel  themselves  affected  by  it  to  clear  the  way 
by  having  a  prompt  understanding  with  their  employers,  and 
let  that  settle  it,  yea  or  nay.  And  let  that,  too,  include  the 
Christmas  box,  for  I  fail  to  see  the  nice  distinction  drawn  by 
“  0.”  between  that  and  the  discount,  for  the  latter  can  be 
easily  nierged  into  the  “  annual  present  at  Christmas  time, 
which,  if  given  freely  by  the  tradesman,  may  be  accepted  with¬ 
out  any  dishonourable  reflections.”  Certainly,  if  allowed ;  if 
not,  then  the  difference  is  but  that  ’twixt  tweedledum  and 
tweedledee.  However,  as  “  C.”  implies,  that  is  more  a  matter 
of  the  cook  or  butler’s  concern  than  of  the  gardener.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  whole  subject  of  “secret  commissions” 
concerns  gardeners  but  very  little;  but  that  little  may  be 
sufficiently  momentous  to  them  to  put  the  matter  on  a  proper 
footing  when  our  Government  have  made  their  broom  for 
cleansing  the  Augean  stablest,  where,  indeed,  the  question 
appears  to  have  originated.  Gardeners  generally  are  aware 
that  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  and  practise  it,  and  if  this  dis¬ 
cussion  does  no  further  good,  it  has  at  least  shown  that  many  in 
particular  have  practised  honesty  from  principle,  which  is  in¬ 
finitely  superior  to  policy;  at  least,  so  it  appears  to — Quiz. 
Saperphospliates. 
In  reply  to  Mr.  W.  Taylor  (page  379)  I  have  little  doubt  that 
his  soil  is  very  deficient  in  available  lime,  and,  therefore,  bone- 
meals,  or  dissolved  bones,  are  of  greater  benefit  than  mineral 
superphosphates.  I  would  advise  not  to  use  M.P.L.  without  the 
addition  of  some  quicklime.  To  understand  the  matter  aright, 
we  must  consider  some  of  the  changes  experienced  by  soluble 
phosphate  of  lime  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  soil.  This 
compound,  as  it  exists  in  the  manure,  is  tcx)  acid  in  character  to 
at  once  enter  into  the  circulation  of  plants  ;  hence,  when  put  into 
the  soil  it  must  undergo  some  preparatory  change  whereby  its 
acidity  is  neutralised  before  it  is  taken  up  by  plants.  What, 
then,  is  the  nature  of  this  change  ?  All  fertile  soils  fix  and  retain 
phosphates  from  solution  in  water,  but  this  property  varies  in 
degree  in  different  classes  of  soil.  Numerous  investigations  have 
distinctly  proved  that  the  complete  absorption  of  phosphates 
generally  takes  a  much  longer  time  than  is  the  case  with  potash 
or  ammonia ;  a  soil  which  would  take  up  either  of  the  latter  in  less 
than  forty-eight  hours  has  been  found  to  require  over  twenty-six 
days  to  completely  absorb  soluble  phosphate  of  lime  from  solu¬ 
tion.  This  fact  leads  chemists  to  believe-that  the  absorption  of 
phosphates  is  owing  to  a  different  cause  from  that  to  which  the 
rapid  fixation  of  the  other  substances  is  due. 
In  a  series  of  experiments  on  the  behaviour  of  .superphosphate 
of  lime  towards  different  soils  it  was  found  that  the  absorption  of 
the  phosphate  was  more  rapid  and  complete  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  lime  present  in  the  soil ;  calcareous  soils  took  a  much 
shorter  time  to  complete  the  proce.ss  than  clays  or  sands.  The 
inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  observation  is  that  lime  is 
intimately  connected  ivith  the  fixation  of  the  soluble  pho.sphate. 
Hence  the  demand  for  basic  superphosphate  which  has  recently 
been  put  upon  the  market.  How,  then,  does  the  lime  act?  It 
acts  bv  combining  chemically  with  the  acid  phosphate  to  form  a 
much  less  soluble  and  more  neutral  combination  known  as  dibasic 
phosphate  of  lime,  a  compound  in  which  the  proportion  between 
base  and  acid  is  as  two  to  one.  Thus,  we  learn  that  the  fixation 
of  soluble  phosphate  present  in  mineral  superphosphate  is  com¬ 
plete  only  when  it  has  by  union  with  an  additional  quantity  of 
lime  been  converted  into  dibasic  phosphate,  and  that  the  gradual 
absorption  of  soluble  phosphate  by  soils  generally,  is  due  to  their 
containing  too  .small  a  proportion  of  lime  to  effect  the  quick  con¬ 
version  into  dibasic  phosphate. 
From  some  experiments  with  Cambridge  coprolites  it  was 
found  that  on  .soils  deficient  in  lime,  the  ground  undissolved 
phosphate  brouglit  a  much  larger  crop  of  Turnips  than  did  the 
acid-dissolved  phosphate.  In  the  following  .■^ca.son  Oats  were 
sown,  when  the  raw  phosphate  was  superior  to  tin  dissolved. 
In  1880  Mr.  Thursfield,  of  Harrow,  recorded  c  'rtain  oxpt'riments 
extending  over  a  number  cf  years,  in  which  he  found  a  decided 
advantage  in  the  mannrial  value  of  mineral  superphosphate  by 
adding  1  ton  of  <iuarter-inch  hones  to  2  toms  of  superphosphate. — 
J.  J.  Willis,  Harpenden. 
Hedge  Proning. 
For  the  last  two  or  three  months  the  farmers  in  this  and, 
probably,  in  other  counties  have  been  worried  a  good  deal  by 
receiving  from  district  surveyors  notices  to  make  or  cut  down 
the  hedges  adjoining  the  roads.  Why  this  zeal  no  one  knows, 
because  I  venture  to  say  in  nine  cases  out  of  tcir  the  hedges  do 
not  require  making  or  cutting  down.  Where  is  the  autliority 
requiring  hedges  to  be  cut  unless  overhanging  and  doing  injury 
to  the  roads? 
It  appears  to  me,  sir,  that  the  councils  and  their  surveyor.s 
know  not  the  laiv.  Why  this  feverish  anxiety  to  keep  all  shade 
from  the  roads?  In  the  summer  a  lovely  shade  does  them  good, 
and  is  a  pleasant  shelter  to  those  using  them.  In  the  road  from 
South  to  North  Moulton  the  hedge  has  been  cut  down  for  a  long 
distance  on  a  level  with  the  road,  to  the  great  danger  of  man 
and  beast,  and  to  the  annoyance  of  most  people.  If  the  district 
councils  and  their  surveyors  would  only  give  their  attention  to 
the  roads  and  remove  the  heaps  of  mud  thereon,  and  clean  out 
the  Avater-tables,  the  ratepayers  would  be  better  served  and  get 
something  for  their  money.  May  I  suggest  that  the  so-called 
right  of  the  district  councils  to  act  as  they  do  should  be  disputed? 
How  much  longer  will  the  farmers  stand  this  sort  of  thing? 
Thej^  should  combine  for  their  own  protection  in  this  and  other 
matters. — North  Devon. 
Back  to  the  Land. 
The  above  is  becoming  an  oft-repeated  cry.  One  meets  with  it 
in  the  newspapers  and  various  publications,  and  hears  it  from  the 
lips  of  nearly  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  people.  On  page  374,  in 
his  able  article,  “  H.  D.”  alludes  to  the  pos.sibilities  of  men  being 
allowed  to  take  up  small  plots  of  land  as  a  solution  of  this  really 
national  question.  Pigs,  poultry,  and  fruit  are  recommended  as 
a  cbmbination,  and  though  the  idea  is  by  no  means  new,  there  are 
cloubtless  numbers  of  men  quite  ready  to  fall  in  with  the  sugges¬ 
tion,  if  given  facilities  for  so  doing  ;  and  in  .some  such  direction 
as  this  lies  the  hope  of  the  future.  It  is  hopeless  to  expect  able- 
bodied  men  to  work  on  farms  at  the  low  rates  prevailing  in  some  dis¬ 
tricts,  and  it  is  the  best,  the  strong,  healthy  men  who  are  wanted 
on  the  land,  to  maintain  and  hand  on  to  their  successors  the  be.st 
traditions  of  British  manhood.  Then  give  this  class  of  men  the 
opportunity  many  of  them  seek.  But  how  ? 
In  the  face  of  modern  commercial  progress  our  land  laws  are 
an  anachronism,  and  to  our  vaunted  civilisation  a  disgrace.  A 
striving  earnest  ivorker  may  for  a  tenn  of  years  obtain  a  small 
holding.  Possibly  on  his  entry  he  finds  it  in  bad  condition,  poor, 
weed-ridden,  incapable  ahno.st  of  giving  a  return.  Bj^  dint  of 
much  toil  he  remedies  the.se  faults,  and  it  may  be  toivards  the  ter¬ 
mination  of  his  lease  he  commences  to  get  something  out  of 
the  land  to  repay.  What  is  his  ultimate  reward?  In  nirie  cases 
out  of  ten  an  increase  of  rent,  or  he  mu.st  give  up  his  holding  and 
seek  a  fresh  field  for  his  energy.  I  am  well  aware  that  I  am  citing 
nothing  new  ;  few  of  us  can  be  ignorant  of  the  state  of  affairs 
existing.  There  are  some  who  tell  us  that  landlords  are  only  too 
glad  to  get  a  good  tenant,  and  by  no  means  would  they  drive 
one  such  away.  Tliis  may  be  true  in  some  cases,  but  the  latter 
has  few  safeguards,  and  is  frequently  too  much  dependent  on  the 
will  of  the  former. 
“  H.  D.”  speaks  of  the  extension  of  the  area  under  fruit  cul¬ 
ture.  Eniess  we  can  find  means  of  profitably  drying  fruit  during 
gluts,  and  also  bringing  coimumer  and  producer  closer  together  by 
quicker  and  cheaper  transit,  and  the  elimination  of  intervening 
charges,  I  am  firmly  convinced  that  it  is  useic.ss  to  greatly  extend 
fruit” culture  in  this  country.  If  the.se  difficulties  can  be  dealt 
with,  as  no  doubt  they  will  in  time  to  come,  I  would  .say  plant  as 
many  trees  as  you  like.  Deep  thinkers  on  this  subject  are  nearly 
all  a^greed  that  some  fonn  of  peasant  proprietorship  is  the  only 
way  To  effect  a  general  return  of  woi’kers  to  the  land  “that  cries 
for  the  tiller.”  For  thi.s,  men  need  capital,  if  only  of  small 
amount;  they  need  easier,  simpler,  facilities  for  obtaining  land, 
either  leasehold  or  freehold,  and  they  need  to  be  given  a  feeling  of 
security  in  investing  their  money  and  labour.  Truly  the  theme 
“  Back’to  the  Land.”  bristles  with  difficulties,  as  your  correspon¬ 
dent  rightly  remarks;  but  with  all  the  apparently  impossiblo 
obstacles  in  the  way,  some  of  us  may  yet  live  to  .see  the  steady  but 
.sure  return  of  the  workens  who  wdl  assist  IMother  l^arth  to  yield 
her  increase  in  the  coming  years  as  their  forbears  did  in  the  past. 
— Provincial. 
