THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



105 



in his opinion, on the part of the patentees which, perhaps, will ere long be remedied ; but 

 it may be got at the manufactory, G8, Willow Walk, Bermondsey, in 1121b. bags, for 

 8s. Cd. per cwt., and these bags will be delivered at any London railway station free. 



So convinced is the writer of its value as a manure, and so great is liis faith in it, that, 

 having left his smoky London abode, and being now possessed of a small garden, he lias 

 just ordered five hundredweight of it for his own use, being resolved to outshine all his 

 neighbours at Croydon, Surrey. 



PROFITABLE GARDENING. 



CHAPTER IV. — DIGGING AND DRAINING (continued). 



I have yet a few words more to say 

 about digging, and I the more readily 

 expand this chapter because, on these 

 preliminary operations, the future suc- 

 cess of everything depends — good seed, 

 good soil, and good manure may all be 

 worthless if there be any compromise 

 with the spade, for the soil has powers 

 that we know nothing of till we try it 

 fairly. 



First of all, let me commend the 

 steel-digging forks that are now getting 

 into such general use. For all ordi- 

 nary digging they are better than 

 spades, because they break the soil 

 well, pass through it easily, and en- 

 able a man to perfom one-third more 

 work in a day than with a spade, but 

 when the ground is wet, and is being 

 ridged up for winter; a spade is best to 

 throw the soil up in solid cakes, in 

 which it gets better frozen, and can be 

 ridged up higher, and rougher than 

 when forked. 



The next point to be noticed is, that 

 all annual weeds, such as grass, ground- 

 sel, plantain, &c, should be turned 

 over into the bottom of the trench, 

 but all perennial weeds, such as couch- 

 grass, bearbind, &c, should be picked 

 out, and not a scrap of root allowed to 

 escape, and every bit burned. Have a 

 basket or barrow at hand as you dig, 

 to receive such things, and if you come 

 across any rubbish which a former 

 tenant may have buried, remove every 

 fragment of old iron, and. all other me- 

 tallic substances, for they poison the 

 ground ; but if brickbats and old mor- 

 tar abound, mix all but the largest 

 with the soil to enrich and sweeten 



it, removing only what really im- 

 pedes the working of the spade ; for 

 a deep soil, moderately mingled with 

 small building refuse, is kept open 

 and more fertile than one which is 

 made so fine as to run into a paste 

 every time it rains. A sapient writer, 

 in a popular cheap sheet on gar- 

 dening, advises the grower of edibles 

 to pass the whole soil of the garden 

 through a sieve. Sift the soil, indeed! 

 Why, it would run to mud after 

 the first shower — a condition which 

 the writer's brains must have been 

 in when he made such a guess, 

 after, perhaps, an experience of half 

 an hour in potting a geranium. Be- 

 sides, who could do it, unless he 

 were sure of living to the age of 

 Methuselah ? and then he would want 

 a permanent grant from the society 

 of sieve makers, to keep the experi- 

 ment going. Knock your soil about 

 well, never tread on it, nor dig it 

 when very wet, and in really stony 

 ground don't even Lake the stones 

 out, unless you can add fresh soil, 

 for in hot weather you will find,. 

 moisture under a stone, when else- 

 where the ground is parched into 

 pie-crust; but in making seed-beds 

 aud other fine work, a deep friable 

 soil, free from stones and rubbish, 

 is desirable ; and for all plants that 

 have tap-roots, brickbats, large stones 

 and other such matters, are objec- 

 tionable as causing the roots to fork, 

 asd preventing them from penetrating 

 deeply into the ground. 



In digging land that is lower on 

 one side than the other, it is easy 



