94  JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE 
ns  that  these  substances  must  have  had  their  origin  in 
vegetation  which  once  grew  upon  the  land.  Some  soils 
which  are  called  alluvial,  possess  a  subsoil  fertility  of  such 
a  rich  character,  that  they  are  believed  to  be  deposits 
derived  from  the  remains  of  vegetation  washed  from  other 
soils  that  existed  at  a  higher  level. 
This  teaches  us  that  fertility  of  soil,  by  which  we  mean 
its  power  to  feed  growing  plants,  is  due  to  organic  residues 
of  previous  generations  of  plants,  which  have  become  mixed 
with  certain  mineral  substances  derived  from  the  rocky 
portion  of  the  earth’s  surface.  The  most  important  of  these 
mineral  ingredients  is  potash,  phosphates,  and  lime. 
Magnesia  is  also  derived  from  the  decomposition  of  rocks, 
and  sometimes  in  such  large  quantities  that  the  soil  where 
it  abounds  is  very  injurious  to  nlant  life. 
We  thus  learn  that  the  soil  is  the  medium  in  which  the 
conversion  of  any  form  of  nitrogen  compound,  whether  of 
animal  or  vegetable  origin,  into  ammonia  and  nitric 
nitrogen  is  effected.  This  nitric  nitrogen  is  partly  absorbed 
by  growing  plants,  partly  fixed  by  the  soil,  and  partly  also, 
if  opportunity  offers,  carried  away  by  running  drainage 
water.  The  action  of  the  soil,  however,  does  not  stop  here. 
Multitudes  of  living  and  active  organisms  constantly  pre¬ 
sent  in  it,  transform  with  great  rapidity  the  ammonia  from 
decaying  matter  into  nitrates,  in  which  form  cultivated 
plants — fruits,  flowers,  and  vegetables — greedily  absorb  and 
convert  it  to  their  uses. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  nitrifying  organisms  cannot 
carry  on  their  work  unless  they  are  furnished  with  some 
alkaline  ingredient  to  neutralise  the  nitric  acid  as  it  is 
formed.  This  is  cleaidy  shown  in  the  Rothamsted  experi¬ 
ments,  One  field  is  devoted  to  a  four-course  rotation  of 
crops.  One-third  of  the  acre  has  received  no  manure  what¬ 
ever  for  fifty-four  years  ;  while  another  portion  receives 
once'  in  each  four  years  a  full  mineral  manurial  supply  of 
potash,  phosphates  and  magnesia,  but  no  nitrogen. 
The  third  crop  of  the  rotation  is  Red  Clover,  which  some 
authorities  say  requires  no  manure  because  it  can  obtain 
all  its  wants  from  the  soil  and  atmosphere.  But  what  are 
the  actual  facts  1  On  this  Rothamsted  soil,  even  in  rotation 
of  crops,  Clover,  which  is  a  nitrogen-collecting  plant,  cannot 
succeed  in  a  mineral-exhausted  soil,  and  consequently  pro¬ 
duces  only  about  three-quarters  of  a  ton  of  hay  per  acre, 
and  frequently  fails  altogether,  while  the  adjoining 
portion  of  land  to  which  is  applied  the  full  mineral  manure, 
but  no  nitrogenous  food,  yields  about  three  tons  of  Clover 
hay  per  acre.  That  is  to  say.  mineral  alkaline  food  being 
provided  for  the  sustenance  of  the  micro-organisms,  they  in 
their  turn  collect  the  atmospheric  nitrogen,  besides 
oxidising  and  setting  free  the  inert  locked  up  organic  nitro¬ 
genous  compounds  that  are  present  in  the  soil,  and  offer  it 
in  a  soluble  and  useable  form  to  the  higher  plants. 
Leaf  moulds,  which  are  very  extensively  used  in  horti¬ 
culture,  are  from  their  very  nature  essentially  rich  in 
humus,  and  consequently  of  organic  nitrogen  ;  but  the  nitri¬ 
fication  of  this  organic  nitrogen  is  sometimes  rendered 
difl&cult  by  the  excess  of  humic  acid  which  exists  in  abund¬ 
ance  in  most  peaty  and  leafy  moulds.  The  constituent  may 
be  either  lime,  magnesia,  or  potash. 
In  a  great  many  fertile  garden  soils  the  conveyance  of 
calcareous  (chalky)  matterfe  by  the  frequent  waterings  with 
what  are  called  “  hard  waters,”  suffice  to  keep  up  a  suffici¬ 
ency  of  lime  ;  but  in  leaf  and  peat  moulds,  which  contain 
such  an  excess  of  organic  matter,  the  mineral  bases  rendered 
soluble  by  nitrification  get  rapidly  used  up,  and  these 
moulds  in  consequence  become  overcharged  with  acidity,  to 
the  injury  of  the  plant.s,  necessitating  the  supply  of  some  potash 
salt.  Carbonate  of  potash,  a  constituent  of  wood  ashes,  is  found 
to  be  excellent  for  this  purpose,  or  kainit  salt,  a  cheap  form 
of  potash  ;  either  of  which  tends  to  accelerate  the  nitrifica¬ 
tion  in  an  extraordinary  manner.  In  some  experiments 
carried  out  by  Mr.  G.  Trauffaut,  of  Paris,  carbonate  of 
potash  applied  as  manure  to  leaf  mould  was  found  to  in¬ 
crease  the  nitric  nitrogen  by  nine  per  cent,  in  one  case,  and 
by  five  per  cent,  in  another ;  while  an  addition  of  lime 
raised  the  nitrogen  scarcely  a  quarter-of-one  per  cent. — 
J.  J.  Willis,  Harpenden. 
AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
July  30,  1903. 
Old  Time  Gardening. 
A  Country  Garden. 
Bacon’s  presentation  of  a  garden  was,  by  his  own  acknowledg¬ 
ment,  suitecl  to  the  establishment  of  a  prince.  But  we  are  happy 
in  also  having  the  garden  of  an  ordinary  country  gentleman 
described  by  one  of  themselves,  whose  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
as  exhibited  in  his  works,  pictures  at  least  a  section  of  that  class 
in  a  not  unpleasing  light.  Of  the  identitj'  of  the  writer  we  are 
cognisant  only  of  his  name' — William  Lawson — and  that  he  lived 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stockton-on-Tees.  He  would  appear  ta 
have  been  still  living  in  1623,  but  the  greater  part  of  his  life  mu.st 
have  been  spent  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  ,  „ 
In  “  Tlie  New  Orchard  and  Garden  ”  (1618)  and  The  Country 
Housewife’ .s  Garden  ”  (1617)  is  included  an  epitome  of  gardening 
as  practised  in  Yorkshire  at  the  period  referred  to.  Other  works 
on  gardening  had  been  produced  previous  to  those  of  Lawson  s, 
but  they  were  all  notoriously  what  we  should  now  call  piracies,  or 
were  acknowledged  translations,  and  therefore  nothing  was  truly 
English  about  them  save  the  language.  On  the  other  hand, 
nothing  in  Lawson’.s  works  occur  that  is  not  original,  and,  best 
of  all,  thoroughly  English.  As  a  writer,  he  possessed  the  high 
quality  of  the  Elizabethan  age,  though  the  style  is  somewhat 
antiquated  for  the  period.  The  books  were  extremely  popular, 
and  numerous  editions  w^ere  published  during  the  seventeenth 
cGiitury,  tli0  best  edition  being  that  of  1623^  the  niistakeiS  of  the 
first  having  been  rectified  in  this.  t  , 
As  usual,  the  garden  and  orchard  were  attached  to  the  house, 
one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  of  an  orchard  in  Lawson’s  opinion 
being  the  view  from  the  windows,  and  the  sweet  smells  that  were 
wafted  through  the  casements  to  the  inmates  of  the  bedrooms. 
A  quaint  engraving  imports  the  author’s  idea  of  what  an  orchard 
and  garden  should  be.  As  usual  it  was  extremely  formal,  with 
straight  walk.s,  many  steps  showing  it  lay  on  a  sloping  ground, 
conduits,  garden  house,  and  a  river,  which  Lawson  considered 
almost  essential  to  a  good  garden.  . i  i 
Flowers  were  cultivated  in  knots,  as  well  as  along  the  sides 
of  walks,  and  in  borders  where  they  intermingled  with  Goose¬ 
berries  and  other  dwarf  fruits.  Banks  and  seats  weie  planted 
with  Camomile  and  other  sweet  smelling  flowers,  where,  like 
Jessica  and  her  husband,  our  author  \vould  with  his  friends,  sit 
of  an  ■evening,  inhaling  the  fragrant  air,  melodious  with  the  song 
of  the  nightingale,  the  blackbird,  and  the  throstle ;  nor  jhd  h® 
despise  the  “  gentle  Robin  recl-brest  and  the  silly  Wren,  with  her 
distinct  whistle  like  a  sweet  Recorder.”  A  maze,  too,  was  an 
essential  feature,  and  besides  this,  he  recommends  that  “your 
Gardiner  frame,  your  lesser  wood  to  the  shape  of  men  armed  in 
the  field  ready  to  give  battell ;  or  swift  running  greyhounds ;  or 
of  well  sented  and  true  running  Hounds  to  cha.se  the  Deere  or 
hunt  the  Hare.”  You  see  there  was  not  a  little  poetry  in  the 
old  man,  nor  was  he  destitute  of  dry  humour,  for  he  concludes  : 
“  This  kinde  of  hunting  shall  not  wa.ste  your  come,  nor  much  your 
coyiic.^^ 
Though  Lawson  does  not  describe  how  these  warriors, 
“  guiltless  of  their  country’s  blood,”  and  these  curiously  sensitive 
vegetable  animals,  were  to  be  framed,  his  contemporary  Mark¬ 
ham  (1616)  does,  and  by  means  of  engavings  shows  that  the 
topiarist  first  of  all  erected  a  framework  of  wood,  to  winch,  by 
the  aid  of  proper  implements,  he  deftly  trimmed  vegetation  into 
shape.  In  passing,  it  may  be  said  that  this  method  continued 
in  use  all  through  the  seventeenth  century  ;  that,  like  knots  and 
mazes,  growth  was  clipped  two  and  three  tinies  a  year,  and  con¬ 
sequently  it  was  always  neat,  nor  could  possibly  merit  the  scath¬ 
ing  remarks  made  upon  it  by  Addison,  the  chief  point  of  whose 
criticism  turned  on  the  untrimmed  appearance  of  the  ob;jects 
pilloried.  Other  features  include  a  mountj  “a  true  Dyall  or 
Clocke  and  some  Anticke  workes,  and  especially  silver  sounding 
musique  mixt  instruments  and  voices.’  “  How !  he  exclaims, 
“  will  you  be  rapt  with  delight!  ”  For  exercise  it  is  recommended 
to  have  with  the  orchard  a  bowling  alley,  “or  rather  a  paire  of 
Buts  ”  But  above  all  plenty  of  flowers,  Roses,  Woodbine,  Cow¬ 
slips,  Primroses,  Violets,  and  “thousands  more  ’  were  to  be 
plots  furthest  from  the  house  were  devoted  to  vegetables, 
the  names  and  methods  of  cultivating  these  being  explained  in 
“The  Country  Housewife’s  Garden,”  which  is  generally  found 
bound  up  with  the  “  New  Orchard.”  The  varieties  and  kinds  are 
those  usually  found  in  earlier  lists,  and  we  discover  one  or  two 
indications  of  the  localitv  where  the  writer  lived,  as,  for  instance, 
when  speaking  of  Cole,  he  says,  “Our  country  housewives  give 
their  pottage  their  name  and  call  them  Caell 
“  too  strong  for  mine  Housewife^s  pot/’  is  snitable'  to  Ale 
therewith  against  the  plague.”  “  Peny-royall  or  Pudding  Grasse, 
we  are  assured,  is  “good  for  the  pot,  or  haokt  meete,  or 
Haggas  Pudding.”  Onions  were  sown  “all  the,  summer  long  for 
Sallets,  a.s  also  young  Parsley,  Sage,  Chibals,  Lettice,  Sweet 
Sicilly,  Fennell,  '&c.”  ,  ,  ,  r  -n  »  •  i  + 
It  is  recommended  to  “  tread  the  tops  of  Parneps  in  order  to 
make  the  roots  bigger,  and  the  seeds  should  be  selected  from  the 
middle  of  the  Cyme,  because  these  are  the  best,  and  were  called 
