INTRODUCTION. XXXVU 



the surface is not a very commendable 'practice. In a 

 well-filled border there should not be much room to use 

 the spade between the plants, except among the grosser 

 and more vigorous subjects of the back line or two in 

 wide borders ; and the practice of digging among the 

 closer planted and less vigorous ones of the front lines 

 can be of no possible use but that of cutting up their 

 roots, which, if desirable at all, should certainly be con- 

 ducted with some judgment and selection, not wholesale 

 and indiscriminately. If there is any necessity for cur- 

 tailing the vigour and rampant encroachments of indi- 

 vidual species or varieties, by all means let it be done 

 by direct assault on their own persons, but spare their 

 weaker neighbours. There are many vigorous encroach- 

 ing species, which it will be a benefit to the border gen- 

 erally to lift and replant annually ; the operator, how- 

 ever, always using his judgment as to when and to what 

 extent the necessary crippling should be administered. 

 In spaces left for the filling in of temporary occupants 

 in summer, the spade may be used during winter in the 

 interests of these occupants ; but for no other purpose 

 than this, and that of reducing the vigour of overgrown 

 plants, should it be employed in the mixed border annu- 

 ally. A dressing of any light well-made compost, such 

 as garden refuse, if it is not teeming with the legacies of 

 seeding weeds, or leaf-mould and maiden loam in about 

 equal proportions, may be annually applied to the sur- 

 face during early winter, any time before that in which 

 the earliest spring flowers begin to throw up. Winter 

 being the period most suitable for effecting any changes 

 that may be desirable in the position of the components, 

 no favourable opportunity should be allowed to pass by 



