NEW HORTICULTURAL FERTILISER

Dunstan Times, Issue 636, 26 June 1874, Page 3

NEW HORTICULTURAL FERTILISER

Some time sinoo, attention was called to a new chemical fertiliser, for horticultural purposes, suggested by Dr Jenne!, of Paris. Les Mondes, of a recent date, in commenting on results obtained by its use says it represents the fertilising principles of at least one hundred times its weight of concentrate! animal manure, and supplies to the plants nitrogen, phosplm, us, potash, sulpher, and iron in a completely soluble state. The compound consists of 4IK) parts of nitrate of'ammonia, 250 p:vts of nitrate of potash. 50 pa ts muriate of ammonia. GO parts sulphate of lime, and 40 parts sulphate of iron. These ingredients are pulverised and mixed. One drachm of this powder (about a tea-spoonful) is then dissolved in a quart of water, and a wineglassful of the solution given two or three times a week, in accordance with the health and luxuriance of the vegitation. The plants may be placed in any kind of errth, however poor, even pnre sand, or may not he potted at all. It is stated that certain flowers, the fuchsia for example, may bo cultivated without earth by simply placing the stalk in a jar at the bottom of which is an incu or so of water, just sufficient to cover the ends of the roots. To the fluid a proportionate quantity of the fertiliser is added, as above specified, once in eight days. The foliaceous development of th* plants treated with the substance is said to he most wonderful, and yet the rapid growth of the leaves does not interfere with the most luxurious flowering. To this wo may add that quite recently we have tried a compound hastily composed of the majority of the substances above detailed, merely as an experiment, on a smalljsiekly fuchsia. The plant was drooping, , and little else remained than a halfdry stalk. After two applications of the fertiliser, its effect was apparent, and at the end of ten days, during which probably half a pint of the solution had been supplied to the earth, new shoots had sprung out, leaves formed, and the entire plant hail become perfectly loaded down jwith buds.