Rambling in cultivated spots renders one almost forgetful of cultivating
friends. On the subject of “manure,” the editor of the _Every-Day Book_
has no competent knowledge; he has not settled in his own mind whether
he should decide for “long straw or short straw,” and as regards himself
would willingly dispose of the important question by “drawing _cuts_;”
all he can at present do for his country readers, is to tell them what
lord Bacon affirms; his lordship says that “muck should be spread.” This
would make a capital text or vignette for a dissertation; but there is
no space here to dissertate, and if Messrs. Taylor and Hessey’s _London
Magazine_, for May, had not suggested the subject, it would scarcely
have occurred. There the reviewer of “Gaieties and Gravities” has
extracted some points from that work, which are almost equal to the
quantity of useful information derivable from more solid books--here
they are:--
_Gaieties._
“Residing upon the eastern coast, and farming a considerable extent of
country, I have made repeated and careful experiments with this manure;
and as the mode of burial in many parts of the Continent divides the
different classes into appropriated portions of the churchyard, I have
been enabled, by a little bribery to sextons and charnel-house men, to
obtain specimens of every rank and character, and to ascertain with
precision their separate qualities and results for the purposes of the
farmer, botanist, or common nurseryman. These it is my purpose to
communicate to the reader, who may depend upon the caution with which
the different tests were applied, as well as upon the fidelity with
which they are reported.
“A few cartloads of citizens’ bones gave me a luxuriant growth of London
pride, plums, Sibthorpia or base money-wort, mud-wort, bladder-wort, and
mushrooms; but for laburnum or golden chain, I was obliged to select a
lord mayor. Hospital bones supplied me with cyclamen in any quantity,
which I intermixed with a few seeds from the Cyclades Islands, and the
scurvy-grass came up spontaneously; while manure from different fields
of battle proved extremely favourable to the hæmanthus or blood-flower,
the trumpet-flower and laurel, as well as to widow-wail and cypress. A
few sample skulls from the poet’s corner of a German abbey furnished
poet’s cassia, grass of Parnassus, and bays, in about equal quantities,
with wormwood, crab, thistle, stinging-nettle, prickly holly, teasel,
and loose-strife. Courtiers and ministers, when converted into manure,
secured an ample return of jack-in-a-box, service-apples, climbers,
supple-jacks, parasite plants, and that species of sun-flower which
invariably turns to the rising luminary. Nabobs form a capital compost
for hepatica, liver-wort, spleen-wort, hips, and pine; and from those
who had three or four stars at the India-house, I raised some
particularly fine China asters. A good show of adonis, narcissus,
jessamine, cockscomb, dandelion, money-flower, and buckthorn, may be
obtained from dandies, although they are apt to encumber the ground with
tickweed; while a good drilling with _dandisettes_ is essential to those
beds in which you wish to raise Venus’s looking-glass, Venus’s catchfly,
columbines, and love-apples. A single dressing of jockies will ensure
you a quick return of horse-mint, veronica or speedwell, and
colt’s-foot; and a very slight layer of critics suffices for a good
thick spread of scorpion senna, viper’s bugloss, serpent’s tongue,
poison-nut, nightshade, and hellebore. If you are fond of raising
stocks, manure your bed with jobbers; wine-merchants form the most
congenial stimulant for sloes, fortune-hunters for the marygold and
goldenrod, and drunkards for Canary wines, mad-wort and horehound.
Failing in repeated attempts to raise the chaste tree from the bones of
nuns, which gave me nothing but liquorice-root, I applied those of a
dairy-maid, and not only succeeded perfectly in my object, but obtained
a good crop of butter-wort, milk-wort, and heart’s-ease. I was equally
unsuccessful in raising any sage, honesty, or everlasting from monks;
but they yielded a plentiful bed of monk’s hood, or jesuit’s bark,
medlars, and cardinal flowers. My importation of shoemakers was
unfortunately too scanty to try their effect upon a large scale, but I
contrived to procure from them two or three ladies’ slippers. As
school-boys are raised by birch, it may be hardly necessary to mention,
that when reduced to manure, they return the compliment; but it may be
useful to make known as widely as possible, that dancing-masters supply
the best hops and capers, besides quickening the growth of the
citharexylum or fiddle-wood. For your mimosas or sensitive plants there
is nothing better than a layer of novel-readers, and you may use up the
first bad author that you can disinter for all the poppies you may
require. Coffee-house waiters will keep you supplied in cummin;
chronologists furnish the best dates, post-office men serve well for
rearing scarlet-runners, poulterers for hen-bane, tailors for cabbage,
and physicians for truffles, or any thing that requires to be quickly
buried. I could have raised a few bachelors’ buttons from the bones of
that class; but as nobody cares a button for bachelors, I did not think
it worth while. As a general remark it may be noticed, that young people
produce the passion-flower in abundance, while those of a more advanced
age may be beneficially used for the elder-tree, the sloe, and
snapdragon; and with respect to different nations, my experiments are
only sufficiently advanced to enable me to state that Frenchmen are
favourable to garlic, and that Poles are very good for hops. Of mint I
have never been able to raise much; but as to thyme, I have so large a
supply, as the reader will easily perceive, that I am enabled to throw
it away; and as he may not possibly be in a similar predicament, I shall
refer him for the rest of my experiments to the records of the
Horticultural Society.”
* * * * *
It is noticed by Dr. Forster, that about this time the purple goatsbeard
_tragopogon porrifolius_ and the yellow goatsbeard _tragopogon
pratensis_ begin to blow; and that of all the indices in the HOROLOGIUM
FLORÆ the above plants are the most regular: they open their flowers at
sunrise, and shut them so regularly at mid-day, that they have been
called by the whimsical name of _go to bed at noon_. They are as regular
as a clock, and are mentioned as such in the following verses:--