The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-11-06 00:00:00

OPERATIONS FOR THE WEEK

Stove, Conservatory, ..S-c.—One of the best preparations
for winter is is a thorough cleansing and fumigation, espe-
cially in the greenhouse department, where insects are
easily destroyed before fireheat is used, but after it is once
applied they generate with extraordinary rapidity, and are
not easy to get rid of. In this department, too, mildew,
unless carefully guarded against, will be sure to make its
appearance, and in a few days will effectually ruin the
best grown plants.
Flower Garden.—Tulips should be got in immediately.
The London florists always used to make the 9th of No-
vember their planting day ; not that the 9th was better
than the Bth or 10th, but because it is always best to act
systematically, especially with florists' flowers. Many
persons plant ranunculuses this month, but they are far
better planted at the commencement of February, by
which all the risks of winter are avoided.

Kitchen Garden.—During the dull, damp weather of
this month much attention will be required amongst the
plants under frames and hand glasses. They must be as
carefully guarded from damp as from frost; indeed the
former is the worse of the two, and the more difficult to
conquer. Let the frames have all the air possible ;at the
same time they must be protected from rain completely.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A correspondent wishes to know where he can see
Huber's Leaf Hive. If any of our apiarian friends can
inform us, we shall feel obliged.
" T. S. Nevitt."—The following are six good hyacinths ;
—Sans Souci (double red), Alfred the Great (double blue),
Bouquet d'Orange (double yellow), Ne plus Ultra (double
white), Madame Zoutman (double pink), and L'Ami du
Coeur (single red).
" D. Nasmyth."—We shall resume our sketches of
gardens as soon as the spring commences, perhaps occa-
sionally during the winter ; but you are aware that there
is little to notice at this season.

MISCELLANEA.

Mr. Watson, of Kendal, remarks that observation has
convinced him that, in some instances, good lime will
continue to operate for fifteen or twenty years, where
there is an excess of inert vegetable matter in the soil. A
good dressing of lime, applied on the top sward of a plot
which grew little except heath, has more than doubled its
value. This was done about fifteen years ago, and has
completely eradicated the heath : the lime continues in
full action. The deep green hue and luxuriant appearance
of the land, in spring and autumn, form a striking con-
trast with the adjoining unimproved land. The texture
of the herbage, which is rich and sweet, has been entirely
changed. The soil is a thin, moorish loam, in a high cli-
mate, resting on the grauwacke formation. Some patches
of impoverished land, (of unreclaimed heath,) from which
nearly the whole of the vegetable turf had been cut and
carried away, had a small quantity of lime, in addition to
the sprinkling of ashes from paring and burning. The
consequence was, that these very inferior patches pro-
duced double the quantity of grain and straw to any
other portion of the field when in crop ; and in after
years, the herbage was of finer texture and more luxuriant.
Mr. Watson states his belief that " bad 150 or 200 bushels
of lime per acre been applied, the cost of which, inclu-
ding cartage, would not have exceeded as many groats, an
adequate return, at least, would have been the result in
the first crop."—Journal of Royal Ag, icultural Society.
The action of charcoal consists primarily in its pre-
serving the parts of the plants with which it is in contact
—whether they be roots, branches, leaves, or pieces of
leaves—unchanged in their vital power for a long space of
time, so that the plant obtains time to develop the organs
which are necessary for its further support and propaga-
tion. There can scarcely be a doubt, also, that the char-
coal undergoes decomposition, for after being used five or
six years it becomes a coaly earth, and if this is the case,
it must yield carbon, or carbonic oxide, abundantly to the
plants growing in it, and thus afford the principal sub-
stance necessary for the nutrition of vegetables. In what
other manner, indeed, could we explain the deep green
colour, and great luxuriance of the leaves, and every part
of the plants, which can be obtained in no other kind of
soil, according to the opinion of men well qualified to
judge ? It exercises, likewise, a favourable influence, by
decomposing and absorbing the matters excreted by the
roots, so as to keep the soil free from the putrifying sub-
stances which are often the cause of the death of the
spongiolie. Its porosity, as well as the power which it
possesses of absorbing water with rapidity, and, after the
saturation, of allowing all other water to sink through it,
are also causes of its favourable effects. These experi-
ments show what a close affinity the component parts of
charcoal have to all plants, for every experiment was
crowned with success, although plants belonging to a great
many different families were subjected to trial.—lrish
Farmers' Gazette.

Farm-yard manure is, doubtless, a most excellent sub-
stance as a food for plants. We know of no material that
possesses so many good qualities and real intrinsic merits,
whether of natural or artificial production. for one espe-
cial reason, viz.: It contains almost all the substances
that are necessary for the food of the different crops raised
by farmers ; but still it has a fault, that is, a want of
strength in two of its most important ingredients—in
phosphate and in ammonia; if it contained more of these
two substances, then nothing could be compared to it.
In order, therefore, to improve farm-yard manure in this
particular, we would recommend that it should be mixed
with such materials as will yield the above substances to
it. The most common are night-soil, bones, guano, and