The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-11-19 00:00:00

Zffrtrultural anti 311ortintItural.

In his very clever little treatise upon the way to lay out
a small garden, Mr. Kemp, of Birkenhead-park, speaking
of suburban gardens, says :—" Perhaps a small garden in
the outskirts of a town should have more flowering plants
mid flowers cultivated in it than would be wanted in the
country, as the flowers are much valued, and produce a
more delightful contrast in such situations. It is very
doubtful, however, how far training climbers to town
houses, in the cottage or villa style, is accordant with good
taste, especially as they seldom look healthy or flower
freely. Consistently with a good supply of flowering
plants, moreover, a town garden cannot well have too
many evergreens, for they produce liveliness and verdure
at a season of the year when, in towns, the most leaden
dullness often reigns in the atmosphere." With one ex-
ception, we agree fully with Mr. Kemp, not only in the
above paragraph, but all through his work. The exception
we refer to is respecting climbers, for which we have a i
great fancy, and think that they are particularly consistent
with the suburban villa garden. Being generally decidu-
ous, they have much less chance of injury from smoke and
dust than the evergreens which are judiciously recom-
mended, and if they thrive at all, they usually produce a
great profusion of flowers, which, as Mr. Kemp justly ob-
serves, is a great desideratum in a garden near town.
Such advice as that given in the work above quoted is
particularly valuable, for n 3 one can doubt the necessity
of rendering the rus in urbe as gay as possible during the
short season it is capable of such culture, for owing to the
greater impurity of the atmosphere in such localities,
plants want the vigour to bring them forward in spring,
and enable them to endure the chilling winds of autumn,
so well as the same plants would do in the country. In
such gardens we strongly advise the owners to take more
care than is usually observable in the choice of the ever-
greens used for decoration. It is not uncommon to see
them chosen with so little taste that, instead of enlivening,
they produce a sombre and cheerless effect to which na-
kedness would be preferable. Of late years much atten-
tion has been paid to the propagation and cultivation of
variegated shrubs, and variegated evergreens are now
plentiful. A good admixture of these would be found to
have an excellent effect in the gardens described by Mr.
Kemp, whose work, we hope, will have the effect of ba-
nishing the miserably formal and meagre style of our
suburban gardeners. High keeping can be dispensed with
in the country, where nature can hardly be rendered more
attractive ; but the case is different near towns, where the
eye is seeking for relief from endless piles of brick and
mortar, and the wind delights in being reminded of the
glowing country. Although we have stated our liking for
climbers, we must be understood to mean only where
trellised verandahs admit of their being used without im-
mediate contact with the walls of the dwelling, which in
such houses should always be well kept, but never look
well if plants grow upon them, the rain always washing
off the dust which has settled upon the plants, and thereby
disfiguring the walls of the building.
Speaking of the impossibility of applying liquid manure
to the farm with any pecuniary advantage to the farmer,
the Editor of the Agricultural Gazette states, that it cer-
tainly ought to be collected in proper tanks, and after-
wards emptied upon the dung-heaps, for, as liquid ma-
nure, it cannot be profitably employed. He further says
of sundry other modern farming appliances :
" To a certain extent there is no doubt but that a
manure tank, an apparatus for cooking food for cattle,
and a hay-cutter may be useful. It is the over-estimate
which their advocates have formed of their value that we
complain of—it is their abuse and not their use that we
find fault with. In many instanees the persons who Inge
the immediate adoption of these improvements resemble
a child with a toy ; they are everything for the moment,
to be at once flung aside at the suggestion of something
new. In this way more than one matter has passed from
the recollection of these agricultural improvers. For in-
stance. we never hear the subsoil plough spoken of now,
though we entertain the highest opinion of its value when
judiciously used. In like manner many really useful sug-
gestions have been forgotten, through the disappointment
which followed the extravagant idea of their value enter-
tained by those who originated them. The latest form
which this search after novelties has taken, is the cover
for the manure heaps. It would certainly be useful to
provide such accommodation, but is a cover for the dung-
heap the first requisite of the present day ? For instance,
before provieing such a building, would it not be advisa-
ble to provide permanent sheds for corn and hay ? The
plain practical utility of such a suggestion has, we fear,
little charms for the advocates of covered dunghills.
Plans of farm buildings have already been published with
the latter duly marked, but we have never yet seen a hint
of the former, though we certainly think that shelter for
corn ricks is a much more important matter than a cover
for the dunghill."