THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



65 



thickly, and roll in during the driest 

 weather you can get for the purpose, 

 and on old and ungenial soils, and 

 especially in renovating a sour mangy 

 grass-plot in town, give a good top- 

 dressing of fresh earth before sowing. 

 The wretched specimens of grass in the 

 London squares only want a little 

 fresh soil from the country spread over 

 them, and rolled in, to make them 

 once more bright and verdurous. 

 When you have got your lawn, you 

 must keep it with care, the mowings 

 and rollings must be frequent, and on 

 dry, barren soils, and in towns, where 

 grass is expected to live on nothing, 

 and to bear weekly scrubbings with 

 birch-brooms all through the dry, hot 

 weather, a sprinkling of nitrate of 

 soda or guano, and an occasional 

 drenching with water will well repay 

 the trouble, though on a fresh, sound 

 soil manure is a positive injury, be- 

 cause productive of a coarse growth. 



One word more to those who lament 

 that the moss will obtrude itself on the 

 turf. Be thankful. Doesn't the moss 

 make it cool and soft all the summer 

 time, instead of jarring your feet at 

 every step, as the horrid London grass- 



plots, that have been consolidated with 

 half a century's rolling and trampling 

 do ? Be thankful that your soil pro- 

 duces moss, and make no fear of boast- 

 ing that you breathe a pure air, for 

 you never see moss where there is 

 much smoke or noxious gases of any 

 kind, and there are but few soils which 

 it takes to kindly ; but when it does, 

 it completes the luxury of the velvet 

 carpet, making it as deliciously soft 

 as a down bed, so that if you would 

 roll about on it in ecstacies at the 

 glory of the summer, you are in no 

 danger of bruising your elbows and 

 scapulas. To be sure, the moss must 

 not get the mastery of you, but a fair 

 bottoming of it promotes the growth of 

 the finest grasses, and if you give the 

 gardener orders not to shave too close 

 during hot, dry weather, you may 

 keep greenness about you when other 

 people's lawns are brown ; and you 

 will find the moss preserve the grass, 

 keep away the weeds and worms, and 

 offer you a daily invitation to tread on 

 its soft, elastic herbage — 



" And as thy foot there treads, 



Thou see's a present God-hke power, 

 Imprinted on each herb and flower." 



McEWEN ON STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



In the three departments of flower, 

 fruit, and vegetable culture, there are 

 three separate subjects, in the treat- 

 ment of which success is a very deci- 

 sive mark of good practice. To grow 

 Roses, Strawberries, and Cauliflowers 

 to perfection needs more than an ordi- 

 nary amount of skill and perseverance, 

 and these three may be taken as the 

 representatives of high culture in each 

 of these branches of gardening. To 

 grow a dish of fine strawberries, 

 whether in their natural season in the 

 open ground, or at any other time by 

 the aid of artificial heat, is no mean 

 horticultural task, and as this fruit is 

 so highly prized, we hail with pleasure 

 the appearance of a treatise on its 

 culture from the pen of the superin- 

 tendent of the gardens of the Horti- 



cultural Society.* Mr. McEwen is 

 essentially practical ; a single page 

 suffices him for introduction, and for 

 such botanical particulars, as he deems 

 requisite. 



The treatise is, in every sense, a 

 working book, and we do not hesitate 

 to say, the best on the subject ever 

 produced. 



As we have now arrived at the sea- 

 son, when forcing begins, and as many 

 cultivators are now forming planta- 

 tions, we present the subjoined 

 extracts as those most likely to be use- 

 ful at the present time. After des- 

 cribing the mode of forcing in the stove, 

 and comparing its advantages and dis- 

 advantages, Mr. McEwen gives the 

 following directions for the forcing of 

 the strawberry in common frames : — 



* Fruit Culture ; or, the Culture and Forcing of Fruits. No. 1. — The Strawberry. 

 By George EcEwen. Second Edition. Groombridge and Sons. 



