DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



other nurserymen again, who say that it would 

 be decidedly to their interest to induce garden- 

 ers in this way to buy of them, but that tlicy 

 have uiiiformily refused to do so, because they 

 could not quite reconcile the transaction with 

 their notions of integrity, and that they were 

 also unwilling to do anything of which an em- 

 ployer would disapprove if lie knew it. 



Now this difference in practice left me still 

 in the dark, so I wrote to an old and intimate 

 friend in the nursery business in England, beg- 

 ging him to tell me what is the practice there. 

 He says very frankly and in confidence, so I will 

 not mention his name, that it is a uniform prac- 

 tice to allow such discount to gardeners, but 

 that they generally make it up by a slight ex- 

 tra charge upon the plants. So I find that we 

 novices, who do notknow sufficient to purchase 

 our own plants, are obliged to suffer in some 

 measure. 



I am half inclined to make it a rule with my 

 next gardener, that I shall have the benefit of 

 all the bargains he can get out of the nursery- 

 men. In my ignorance of the rules of horticul- 

 tural trade, I may however be wrong in my no- 

 tions, and should like very much to have your 

 opinion and that of gentlemen employing gar- 

 deners, as to the correctness of these things. 

 Yours very truly, A Lover of Flowers. 



Remarks — If a gentleman don't take interest 

 enough in his garden to purchase plants him- 

 self, or won't pay his gardener's travelling ex- 

 penses when he sends him to select them, he 

 cannot fairly complain if the gardener gets his 

 rights by a commission from the nurseryman. 



But the srjstem is a bad one, because it leads 

 to a kind of premium paid by the nurserymen 

 to get custom ; the result of which is, that the 

 gardener goes to the nursery where he can get 

 the most commission, instead of that where the 

 best plants and trees are to be found. Ed. 



To Improve Stiff Clay Soils. — Dear Sir: 

 Among the many useful directions and hints for 

 the improvement of soils, which I find in four 

 volumes of your Magazine, I see nothing that 

 fully answers my purpose, and not having the 

 time to seek and read other works, take the li- 

 berty to ask your advice. 



desired to raise in a garden containing 

 third of an acre, fruit, ornamental shrubs, 



flowers and vegetables; a very limited variety 

 of the latter, however. The land has been un- 

 der cultivation two years, having previously 

 been mowing land. It was quite "springy," 

 which has been rcme<lied by deep draining. 

 Little manure of any kind has been used — but 

 trenching and frequent digging has been adop- 

 ted — and last autumn some ten loads of fine 

 sand were mixed with, say one-quarter of an 

 acre of the soil, which yet remains clayey, 

 coarse, and cakes badly on the surface after 

 rain. The following is the result of an analysis 

 of equal weights of loam and subsoil mixed, 

 that being about the proportion of each in the 

 part which I have broken up — the loam being, 

 say a foot in depth, and the ground dug a foot 

 deeper than that — the sub-soil turned up and 

 mixed. 



One hundred parts, (dried and mixed as 

 above.) yield — 



Insoluble earthy matters, 85.400 



Organic matter, 7 . 800 



Lime, 224 



Alumina, 3.200 



Per oxide of iron, 2.300 



Magnesia, 256 



Chloride of sodium, traces, 



Phosphoric acid, 253 



99.4.33 

 I presume you will remark here a deficiency of 

 alkalis and phosphates. 



Will you oblige me with your advice as to the 

 proper substances to be used to supply the 

 lacking ingredients, and at the same time ren- 

 der the earth more friable; for after all, my 

 plants grow pretty well if the soil is stirred as 

 often as it is watered, but the seeds push through 

 the surface crust with an effort that is pain- 

 ful to witness. 



My pea patch, (sowed just before the late 

 heavy storm,) has the baked and cracked ap- 

 pearance of a dried bed of mortar. In making 

 your suggestions, will you be so good as to re- 

 member that articles which may be obtained of 

 the dry salters are much more accessible to me 

 than wood ashes, peat, &c., which every farmer 

 in the country can easily obtain, but which are 

 less abundant here than guano. Very respect- 

 fully yours, E. R. Boston, April 28, 1851 



We answer in brief — burn a portion of the 

 clay next autumn — by which process you both 



