THE GERANIUM AND ITS CULTURE. 



73 



I'i;;. 14 — The Geraniuvi. 



even this could hardly occur. Provision, 

 however, must be made for further mix- 

 ture ; but it may be necessary to provide 

 for cases in which this compost of rotten 

 turves cannot be had : and in this case, you 

 must provide clean loam, remembering that 

 the top spit of a pasture is always prefera- 

 ble to any other, and that it must not be too 

 stiff. In this case, you ought to prepare 

 even the staple heap so as to be as nearly 

 a substitute for the rotted turf as possible. 

 This may be done by putting a three-inch 

 layer of the loam, and three inches of old 

 cow-dung, and repeating these layers till 

 the heap is as high as you intend to make 

 it. Let this lay a year together, and chop 

 it down, as in the case of turf, throwing it 

 into a heap, to be packed, however, as you 

 proceed, in the same way as before directed. 

 The cow-dung is as nearly a compensation 

 for the decayed vegetable, and the con- 

 tinued dressing that a pasture has from the 

 animals which feed, as can be found, and 

 such a compost will grow almost anything. 

 But it maybe necessaiy to use the plain 

 loam, as you get it, instead of waiting a 

 Vol. III. 5 



couple of years for it. In this case, all the 

 other matters used with it must be tho- 

 roughly decomposed. Mr. Beck, who has 

 been very successful, forms his staple heap, 

 as we shall call the principal soil already 

 described, by means of a top spit of turfy 

 loam, in alternate layers with the muckings 

 out of a stable, allowed to lie in a heap till 

 the straw is decomposed. There will not, 

 however, for general purposes, be found 

 much difference in the growing qualities of 

 the three heaps; and a fourth may be 

 made, in the want of having pure loam 

 without the turf being rotted, by putting 

 half loam, one-fourth leaf mould, and one- 

 fourth decomposed dung from an old melon 

 bed. This should be well mixed and 

 turned over as often as possible before 

 nsing, and it must be used as a substitute 

 for the other heaps, which we shall, for the 

 sake of being understood, call loam. The 

 other ingredients to provide himself with, 

 are turfy peat, with the vegetable fibre 

 among it, and silver sand. Thus prepared, 

 we will venture to say, we shall be able to 

 do without bone-dust, and other nostrums, 



