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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER 
November  5,  1903. 
Pear,  Passe  Colmar. 
This  is  a  Pear  of  medium  size,  with  fine  melting  fruits, 
though  their  appearance  is  not  very  attra9tive.  The  tree  forms 
either  a  good  pyramid  or  bush,  being  particularly  prolific  on  the 
latter  in  warm  sheltered  gardens;  but  wherever  the  aspect  ot 
the  garden  is  exposed,  a  wall  should  be  given.  The  true  season, 
when  the  fruits  are  at  their  best,  is  December,  though  they  are 
also  used  in  dessert  a  month  earlier.  Ihe  ‘  Iruit  Manual  says 
of  it:  -‘This  is  of  Belgian  origin,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been 
raised  by  M.  Hardeiipont,  of  Mons,  in  Hainault,  in  1/58,  and 
has  for  many  years  been  cultivated  in  Belgium  under  different 
names  It  was  first  received  in  this  country  by  R.  VV  ilbraham. 
Esq.,  of  Twickenham,  and  by  him  given  to  a  person  named 
Chapman,  a  market  gardener  at  Brentford  Bnd,  Islcttoith,  A\ho 
cultivated  it  extensively,  and  attached  his  own  name  to  it. 
The  fruit  was  sold  for  2os.,  and  the  trees  for  21s.  each. 
Autumnal  Strawberries  in  Cornwall. 
It  occurs  to  me  that  as  I  live  on  the  north  coast  of  Cornwall, 
on  a  heavy,  though  sandy,  clay,  and  therefore  under  very  diffeient 
conditions  with  regard  to  climate,  soil,  and  situation  to  those 
obtaining  at  Sproughton,  Suffolk,  my  experience  with  the  Per¬ 
petual  Strawberries  may  be  of  some  interest.  I;  have  had  ample 
opportunities  of  comparing  my  Strawberries  with  my  fathers, 
and  though  my  method  of  cultivation  differs  slightly,  I  think  my 
results  are  equally  satisfactory.  I  don’t  get  quite  such  an  abun¬ 
dant  display  of  fruit  as  I  saw  at  Sproughton  in  September  last 
but  I  get  an  astonishing  quantity.  On  the  whole  they  are  of 
larger  size,  and,  I  should  like  to  say,  of  better  flavour;  but  on 
that  point  !  am  hardly  an  impartial  judge;  all  the  things  m  my 
garden  taste  better  than  other  people’s— to  me.  I  grow  my 
plants  in  rows  (St.  Joseph  1ft  apart,  St.  Antoine  2ft  apart), 
and  I  don’t  allow  any  runners  at  all.  At  Sproughton  I  think  I 
am  right  in  saying  that  runners  are  allowed  the  first  year— to 
make  the  magic  circles  of  your  illustration — and  not  afterwards. 
I  consider  that  by  my  method  I  arrive  in  the  first  year  M  the 
same  position  as  Sproughton  is  in  the  second  year,  with  the 
additional  advantage  of  having  my  plants  in  orderly  rows.  This 
makes,  it  seems  to  me,  the  keeping  down  of  runners  and  picking 
of  fruit  an  easier  matter,  though,  of  course,  it  necessitates  a 
larger  original  stock  of  plants.  i  . 
I  do  not  support  the  fruit  above  the  leaves ;  they  do  better, 
in  this  climate,  under  their  shelter.  Slugs  w'ere  a  terrible 
nuisance,  but  a  brood  of  very  young  ducks,  turned  out  for  a 
fortnight  in  spring,  when  the  blo.ssoms  are  ju.st  starting,  will 
effect  a  complete  cure,  especially  if  the  ground  is  gently  Dutch- 
hoed  once  or  twice  in  'their  presence ;  they  do  no  harm  to  the 
Strawberries.  My  bed  has  lasted  three  years,  and  shows  no  sign 
of  deterioration,  but  I  am  turning  the  cage  into  a  hen  run  this 
year,  which  I  consider  should  make  a  good  “  alternate  crop.  I 
grow  St.  Joseph  and  St.  Antoine  only,  and  I  have  grown  the 
latter  .since  it  first  came  out.  I  bought  originally  six  plants, 
one  of  which  was  an  ordinary  Royal  Sovereign,  and  confined 
their  attention  at  first  to  making  runners.  They  did  that  well, 
and  their  numerous  progeny  have  all  been  Perpetual.  They  are 
more  Perpetual,  wdth  me,  the  older  they  get,  but  are  very  leafy, 
and  the  fruit  is  not  much  larger  than  a  St.  Joseph  when  it  really 
gets  under  way.  I  had  an  accidental  seedling,  clearly  crossed 
Avith  Latest  of  All,  a  bed  of  which  was  next  door,  and  this  was 
quite  Perpetual,  large,  and  of  excellent  flavour ;  but  it  took  such 
an  extraordinary  time  ripening  that  I  have  not  encouraged  it. 
— P.  H.  Foster-Melliae. 
Farmyard  Manure. 
The  substance  that  goes  by  the  name  of  farmyard  manure, 
fold  manure,  dung,  or  muek,  chiefly  consists  of  (a)  the  material 
that  was  used  as  litter,  usually  straw,  sometimes  peat,  fern, 
sawdust,  &c.  ;  (b)  the  food  that  passed  through  Die  animals 
in  an  undigested  condition  and  has  been  voided  in  the  .solid 
form ;  and  (c)  the  urine,  which  contains  that  part  of  the  food 
which  the  animals  digested  but  did  not  retain  in  their  system. 
The  urine  also  contains  the  ivaste  of  the  tissues  of  the  animal’s 
body.  The  proportions  of  these  parts  will  vary  with  circum¬ 
stances.  For  instance,  when  it  is  the  object  of  the  farmer  to 
break  down  as  much  straw  as  possible,  a  relatively  large  amount 
of  the  farmyard  manure  will  consist  of  litter,  but  where  litter 
is  used  very  sparingly — as  in  upland  dairies — the  manure,  will 
consist  very  largely  of  the  solid  and  liquid  excreta. 
All  food  contains  more  or  less  ivater ;  even  in  such  .sub¬ 
stances  as  grain  or  cake  one-seventh  or  one-eighth,  while  in 
others,  like  turnips,  nine-tenths  is  pure  water.  Neglecting 
this  Avater,  it  may  be  said  that  for  eA'ery  lOOlbs  of  food  that 
an  animal  consumes,  about  501bs  reappear  in  the  dung  or 
urine  ;  the  other  501bs  being  burned  up  in  its  system,  becoming 
gas  or  water,  or  being  stored  up  in  its  body  as  bone,  flesh,  fat, 
hair,  &c.  A  well-groAvn  bullock  or  cow — AA’eighing,  say,  9cwt 
— will  consume  daily,  if  on  full  ration,  about  241b  of  absolutely 
dry  food,  as  for  example  : . — 
66  lb.  Roots  (90  per  cent,  water)  . .  . .  =  5'6  lb.  dry. 
6  lb.  Cake  or  .Meal  (12  per  cent,  water)  ..  =  6‘3  ,, 
16  lb.  Hay  or  Straw  (16  per  cent.  Avater)  ..  =  13‘4  ,, 
Total  . .  24-3  lb.  of  dry  matter 
One  half  of  this,  say,  12Ibs,  wdll  reappear  as  manure,  and 
to  this  has  to  be  added  the  Avhole  of  the  dry  matter  in  the 
litter,  say,  lOlbs,  making  the  daily  output  of  dry  matter  in 
farmyard  manure  22lbs.  Needless  to  say,  it  may  be  much 
more  or  much  less,  depending  on  the  age  and  size  of  the 
animals,  and  on  the  Avay  in  Achich  they  are  fed  and  littered. 
Ordinary  farmyard  manure  is,  of  course,  not  dry ;  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  it-  contaiiLS  about  75  per  cent,  of  AV’ater.  The  daily 
output  AA'ill  therefore  AA’eigh  not  221bs  but  881bs,  say  fewt.  Thus 
on  a  six  months’  keep  the  amount  of  farmyard  manure  yielded 
Avill  be  about  7  tons.  This  calculation  applies  to  full-grown 
cattle  ;  if  the  stock  consists,  as  it  generally  does,  of  a  fair  pro¬ 
portion  of  younger  ainimals,  the  output  per  head  may  be  only 
3  or  4  tons.  It  follows  that  on  a  farm  with  a  mixed  stock  of 
50  head,  comprising  3  or  4  horses,  enough  dung  should  be  pro¬ 
duced  during  Avinter  to  give  a  dressing  of  10  or  12  tons  per 
acre  to  about  15 — 20  acres  of  land,  or  3 — 4  acres  less  when 
allowance  is  made  for  loss  during  storage. 
From  the  manurial  point  of  view  the  three  substances  that 
are  of  most  importance  in  the  food  are  nitrogen,  phosphoric 
acid,  and  potash.  Although  only  one>-half  of  the  solid  matter 
in  the  food  reappears  in  the  manure,  at  least  three-quarters 
of  the  nitrogen,  and  nine-tenths  of  the  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash,  are  voided.  These  proportions  AA’ill  be  considerably 
reduced  in  the  case  of  very  young  animals,  and  increased  in 
the  case  of  fattening  cattle.  Of  the  nitrogen  that  passes 
through  an  animal  a  large  proportion  finds  its  Avay  out  iij  the 
urine  than  in  the  solid  excreta.  The  same  is  true  of  the  potash, 
whereas  the  phosphoric  acid— i.e.,  the  phosphates — are  chiefly 
voided  in  the  dung.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  two  of  the  three 
valuable  elements  of  plant-food  are  more  abundant  in  the 
liquids  than  in  the  solids  of  animal  excreta,  and,  not  only  so, 
but  pound  for  pound,  the  substances  in  the  liquids  are  much 
more  valuable  for  crops  because  they  are  much  more  readily 
available.  The  Rothamsted  experiments  have  shown  that  much 
of  the  nitrogen  in  the  solid  part  of  dung  can  hardly  be  said  to 
be  of  any  use  to  plants,  whereas  the  nitrogen  of  the  liquid 
portion  is  almost  as  active  and  therefore  as  A’aluable  as  nitrate 
of  soda  or  sulphate'  of  ammonia. 
In  a  ton  of  ordinary  farmyard  manure  there  is  as  much 
nitrogen,  phosphate,  and  potash  as  in  twelve  or  fifteen  shillings’ 
worth  of  artificial  manure,  and  if  a  ton  of  dung  is  not  usually 
valued  at  even  half  these  figures  this  is  chiefly  because  a  large 
part  of  the  three  substances  mentioned  never  becomes  available, 
or  is  lost  before  crops  can  make  use  of  it.  True,  a  ton  of 
farmyard  manure  is  more  expensiA’e  to  handle  than  2cwt  or 
3cAA’t  of  artificials,  and  this,  of  course,  reduces  its  relative  value : 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  farmyard  manure  has  a  beneficial 
influence  on  crops  just  because  it  is  a  heavy  bulky  substance, 
so  that  these  tAvo  considerations  may  be  held  roughly  to  balance 
or  cancel  each  other. 
Variation  in  the  Quaiity  and  Character  of  Dung. 
This  is  affected  by  the  kind  of  food.  Food  rich  in  fertilising 
materials,  especially  nitrogen,  produces  rich  dung.  The.  kind 
of  animal — horses  produce  dry,  hot  dung  that  ferments  and 
acts  quickly,  but  does  not  last  long,  AA’hereas  the  dung  of  cattle 
and  pigs  is  cold,  slow-acting,  and  more  durable.  The  dung  of 
young  .stores  and  dairy  cows  is  rather  poor  in  all  the  important 
elements  of  plant-food,  because,  in  the  former  case,  these 
elements  have,  to  a  relatively  large  extent,  gone  to  form  bone 
and  muscle,  Avhile  in  the  latter  case  they  haA'e  found  their'  way 
into  the  milk.  For  instance,  to  quote  the  Rothamsted  figures, 
AA’hile  the  excreta  of  a  fattening  bullock  getting  decorticated 
cotton  cake  Avill  contain  about  97  per  cent,  of  the  nitrogen, 
96  per  cent,  of  the  phosphoric  acid,  and  99  per  cent,  of  the 
potash  present  in  the  cake,  the  corresponding  figures  for  a 
milk  coAA’  are  only  87  per  cent,  for  the  nitrogen,  89  per  cent, 
for  the  pho.sphoric  acid,  and  86  per  cent,  for  the  potash.  This 
means  that  for  every  31bs  of  nitrogen,  41bs  of  phosphoric  acid, 
and  lib  of  potash  that  the  fattening  bullock  abstracts,  the 
milk  cow  appropriates  131bs,  lllbs,  and  141bs  respectively.  The 
age  of  the  dung. — Rotten  dung  is  richer  and  more  active,  pro¬ 
vided  it  has  been  properly  “  made,”  than  comparatively  fresh 
