Science and Practice Or Gardening: In which are Explained and Illustrated the Principles that Regulate All the Operations of Horticulture; Including Demonstrations of the Phenomena of the Germination, Growth, Diseases, and Death of Plants

Front Cover
Journal of Horticultural Office, 1862 - 381 pages
 

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 75 - Ammonia was set free | from these crystals by the addition of hydrate of lime. The inferior layers of snow which rested upon the ground contained a quantity decidedly greater than those which formed the surface. It is worthy of observation that the ammonia contained in rain and snow water possesses an offensive smell of perspiration and animal excrements, — a fact which leaves no doubt respecting its origin.
Page 127 - WE cannot suppose that a plant could attain maturity, even in the richest vegetable mould, without the presence of matter containing nitrogen ; since we know that nitrogen exists in every part of the vegetable structure.
Page 91 - The best natural soils are those of which the materials have been derived from different strata; which have been minutely divided by air and water, and are intimately blended together; and in improving soils artificially, the farmer cannot do better than imitate the processes of nature. The materials necessary for the purpose are seldom far distant : coarse sand is often found immediately on chalk ; and beds of sand and gravel are common below clay. The labour of improving the texture or constitution...
Page 322 - Thus, in the cool of a summer's evenmg the grass-plot is wet, while the gravel walk is dry ; and the thirsty pasture and every green leaf are drinking in the descending moisture, while the naked land and the barren highway are still unconscious of its fall.
Page 141 - ... 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 putrefying substances which are often the cause of the death of the irpongiolœ. Its porosilv, as well as the power which it possesses of" absorbing water with rapidity, and, after its saturation, of allowing all other water to sink through it, are causes also of its favourable effects.
Page 168 - ... power with which it is gifted. The violet rays of the spectrum have this power in the greatest degree ; and Sennebier has ascertained by experiment, that those rays have the greatest influence in producing the green colour of plants. When leaves are of any other hue than green, they are said to be coloured. This variegation is often considered to be a...
Page 88 - ... in a state fit for introsusception, yet not so superabundantly as to render it too luxuriant, if the object in view is the production of seed ; but for the production of those plants whose foliage is the part in request, as spinach, or the production, of edible bulbous roots, as onions, which have a small expanse of leaves, so as to be almost entirely dependent upon the soil for nourishment, there can scarcely be an excess of decomposed matter presented to their roots. Spinach, on rich soils,...
Page 258 - ... the regularity of the supply of moisture, without any chance of saturation ; the power of examining the state of the cuttings at any time, without injuring them, by lifting out the inner pot ; the superior drainage, so essential in propagating, by having such a thin layer of soil ; the roots being placed so near the sides of both pots ; and the facility with which the plants, when rooted, can be parted for potting off, by taking out the inner pot, and with a common table-knife...
Page 70 - If the extremity of a root is cut off it ceases to increase in length, but enlarges its circle of extension by lateral shoots. It is by their extremities, then, that roots imbibe food; but the orifices of these are so minute, that they can only admit such as is in a state of solution. Carbon, reduced to an impalpable powder, being insoluble in water, though offered to the roots of several plants, mingled with that fluid, has never been observed to be absorbed by them; yet it is one of their chief...
Page 249 - ... of a part. The white wax and the fat are to be first melted, and then the sealing-wax is to be added gradually in small pieces, the mixture being kept constantly stirred ; and lastly, the honey must be put in just before taking it off the fire. It should be poured hot into paper or tin moulds, and kept slightly agitated till it begins to congeal.

Bibliographic information