6 THE GARDENER. [Jan. 



ness for the wide-moutlied \\addling cliarioteer, and am pained at 

 heart to find the precious commodity fallen, or, as they say in Lanca- 

 shire, " slattered," on the road. Ah ! but once, that fastidious reader 

 will be pleased to hear, the man brought himself to sore shame and 

 confusion by this wild passionate affection. Eeturning on a summer's 

 afternoon from a parochial walk, I inferred from wheel-tracks on my 

 carriage-drive that callers had been and gone. I expected to find 

 cards in the hall, and I saw that the horses had kindly left theirs 

 on the gravel. At that moment, one of those 



" Grim spirits in the air, 

 Who grin to see us mortals grieve, 

 And dance at our despair," 



fiendishly suggested to my mind an economical desire to utilise the 

 souvenir before me. I looked around and listened ; no sight, no 

 sound, of humanity. I fetched the largest fire-shovel I could find, 

 and was carrying it bountifully laden through an archway cut in a 

 high hedge of yews, and towards a favourite tree of "Charles Lefebvre," 

 when I suddenly confronted three ladies, who '' had sent round the 

 carriage, hearing that I should soon be at home, and were admiring 

 my beautiful Roses." It may be said, with the strictest regard to 

 veracity, that they saw nothing that day which they admired, in the 

 primary meaning of the word, so much as myself and fire-shovel ; and 

 I am equally sure that no Rose in my garden had a redder complexion 

 than my own. 



And now, to be practical, what do I mean by farmyard manure — 

 when, and how, should it be used 1 



By farmyard manure I mean all the manures of the straw-yard, 

 solid and fluid, horse, cow, pig, poultry, in conjunction. Let a heap 

 be made near the Rosarium, not suppressing the fumes of a natural 

 fermentation by an external covering, but forming underneath a 

 central drain, having lateral feeders, and at the lower end an external 

 tank, after the fashion of those huge dinner-dishes whose channels 

 carry to the "well" the rich gravies of the baron and the haunch 

 (here that fastidious reader collapses, and is removed in a state of 

 syncope), so that the rich extract, full of carbonate of ammonia, and 

 precious as attar, may not be wasted, but may be used either as liquid 

 manure in the Rosary, or pumped back again to baste the beef. 



How long should it remain in the heap before it is fit for application 

 to the soil ? The degree of decomposition to which farmyard dung 

 should arrive before it can be deemed a profitable manure, must 

 depend on the texture of the soil, the nature of the plants, and the 

 time of its application."^ In general, clayey soils, more tenacious of 



* See the article on Agriculture, ' Encyclopsedia Britannica,' vol. ii. p. 300. 



