HARD PRESSED AND POROUS SOILS. 



225 



foot, and the ground about them rendered 

 very hard. I pointed out to my father that 

 the potatoes dug out of this strip were full 

 one-third larger than the others, and in([uired 

 the reason. He gave it as his opinion, that 

 the action of the plough, — drawing the ma- 

 nure towards the headlands, and the soil, from 

 the same cause, being deeper there, the pro- 

 duction of superior potatoes was the consc* 

 quence. This partly satisfied me ; but I never 

 could entirely disconnect the idea of the big 

 lumps of hard solid earth from the large po- 

 tatoes. 



The year following, another circumstance 

 recalled this observation. My father's vege- 

 table gardener, in drilling in some onion seed, 

 spilled some on the alleys between the beds. 

 In forming these alleys, the ground was, of 

 course, much trodden ; but the accidentally 

 spilled seed produced onions twelve and .four- 

 teen inches in circumference, which, in that 

 latitude (Isle of Wight,) was above the ave- 

 rage. Sometime after that, I observed a si- 

 milar circumstance attending a crop of car- 

 rots. Those which had grown in the neigh- 

 borhood of some gooseberry trees, where the 

 soil had been trodden down while gathering 

 the green fruit, were much finer than the 

 others. To get some explanation of these 

 effects, I studied Lee and Lindley, Main, 

 Rennte, and whatever other writer on vege- 

 table physiology I could lay my hands on ; 

 but the conclusions my facts seemed bent on 

 leading me to, were so opposite to every prin- 

 ciple seemingly laid down by these writer.*!, 

 that I then doubted the accuracy of my youth- 

 ful judgment, and suffered the subject to 

 sleep in my breast for some time. 



Shortly after I became attached to the 

 Royal Gardens at Kew, the question of the 

 " one-shift," against the old or " progressive" 

 system of potting plants, was started by Mr. 

 W. P. Ayres, of Brookland, near London. 

 While the discussions on these questions were 



pending, one of my most intelligent corres- 

 ponding friends, then attached to the Royal 

 Gardens of Frogmore, wrote me an account 

 of a visit to one of the ablest advocates of the 

 one-shift systam. He highly eulogized the 

 appearance of the heaths j but at the same 

 time, he suggested that the success many of 

 the one-shift men had met with, in the fine 

 growth of their plants, was owing more to the 

 greater care taken to render the mechanical 

 condition of the soil more perfect, than the 

 followers of the "progressive" usually took. 

 He particularly stated that the soil used by 

 this grower was rammed into the pots most 

 intensely; and that from ^•lat he there saw, 

 he was satisfied that this was an essential 

 point in the cultivation of the heath. They 

 who were at Kew at the same time as I, will 

 recollect the amusement the practice of our 

 working foreman afforded us, in pounding and 

 hannncring the soil so vehemently around the 

 plants he re-potted — so different from the 

 practice we had experienced elsewhere. Yet, 

 that amusement over, I am sure they will 

 agree with me, that the majority of the plant? 

 in the Kew Gardens (though from the im- 

 mense number of plants grown there, fine 

 specimens must want room,) make as thrifty 

 and as handsome .shoots as any similar plants 

 in any collection, 



I will detail but one more fact, as I fear 

 I am wearying your patience, When fore- 

 ' man to !Mr. Buist, at his fine new establish- 

 ment at Rosedale, two or three miles from 

 Philadelphia, it was necessary to pot between 

 two or three hundred dwarf roses in wid-win- 

 ter. It so happened, that from circumstances 

 attendant on the formation of a nursery of 

 such a large extent as this, the only soil we 

 could use at that moment was frozen through. 

 It was thawed by the fire, and, of course, be- 

 came perfect mud. This was mixed with one- 

 half rotten dung, and placed in the pots around 

 the roots quite full, without being subjected 



