SOILS AND THEIR PREPARATION. 19 



foot of soil. Allowing for additions, such as broken 

 brick and manure, it will raise the bed to a nice height 

 above the level of the ground. Before replacing your 

 last foot of soil scatter some old, well-rotted manure, 

 burnt garden ash, or old leaf-mould, if you can spare it, 

 to the depth of two inches ; then throw back your top 

 soil and shape up your bed, leaving it to settle for a 

 few days before planting your Rose trees. A word 

 now as to top soil. The best that can be got is the 

 soil that lies three or four inches beneath the turf 

 of old pasture land; but if you are on a good loam, the 

 soil of your garden should sufifice, and, according to its 

 nature, so you can improve it. Try and keep the top 

 soil light and retentive of moisture. If there is too 

 much clay in your soil, dig into the surface some sand 

 or road grit that has been screened or sifted. When 

 you plant your trees the soil ought in dry weather to 

 easily break up and filter round the roots, but yet must 

 be trodden down firmly. If the garden soil has been 

 in cultivation for very many years, a coating of lime 

 well forked in will do it a lot of good. 



I am a great believer in the presence of sand in the 

 top soil, for it promotes root growth, and, provided 

 there is plenty of good loam, it can do no harm. People 

 have got it into their heads that Roses to do well must 

 be grown not on but in clay, and it is a very hard 

 matter to dispel this notion. There is only one thing 

 in clay that is of real benefit to the Rose, and that is 

 water. For this very reason, a percentage of clay in 

 the soil is beneficial. If then we add feeding properties 

 and good drainage, we are working on right lines. 

 Clay that has been exposed to frost and sun soon gets 

 into a friable condition, and is ready to dig into a light 

 soil during dry weather. On a clay soil, the most diffi- 

 cult problem to solve is drainage; in some places the 

 loam is so shallow that it is impossible to dig a bed 

 without, at certain times of the year, forming a 

 veritable pond. In this case field pipes should be in- 

 serted in a large bed, and if a fall cannot be secured, 

 then the bed must be raised well above the clay level. 



