IV 



PLANTING 55 



weather should continue very dry watering may be 

 desirable ; and if the plants have good green leaves on 

 when put in, the heads should be watered at once on 

 unpacking, and the plants well watered and syringed 

 immediately after planting. 



It is easy to imagine a beginner having some uneasy 

 reflections after following the above instructions. ''I 

 have planted my roses only four inches deep, and 

 trained the roots horizontally, as certainly seems right 

 from the analogy of fruit trees and from what I know 

 of the advantage to roots of the fertilising influences 

 of sun, air, and the surface bacteria. But all my 

 manure, and I gave a great quantity of valuable stuff 

 to my Teas, has been buried from eight to twenty-four 

 inches deep, and what is the use of all that manure 

 there, if the roots are not to be allowed to go down 

 to it?" 



Here comes in another important principle, to illus- 

 trate which I will take as my text the soil in which 

 hyacinths and other bulbs are grown in immense 

 quantities in Holland for sale. This soil is extremely 

 valuable, as the profit on the cultivation in good hands 

 may reach quite £50 an acre. And what is it ? Pure 

 sand and nothing else for a depth of four feet or more, 

 which no English farmer would take rent free. Yet 

 the hyacinth must have plenty of water. We all know 

 that in a hyacinth glass a fine plant and noble flower 

 may be produced from the bulb with nothing but water 

 given. We also know from this glass culture that the 

 roots of hyacinths do go down some depth, considerably 

 more than the height of the glass. And it should 

 further be stated that the sand in the soil spoken of 

 rests upon a water-bearing stratum of clayey peat, in 

 fact the general water level of the whole country. But 



