yd A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



have won the premier prizes at our chief " All-England " 

 shows. On one side of the brook the ground is naturally 

 a strong, red, tenacious clay ; on the other, a very light, 

 weak, porous loam, with a marly subsoil. 



The first thing to do with a cold adhesive clay is to drain 

 it, and to drain it well. When water stagnates around the 

 roots of a plant, they cannot receive the air or the warmth 

 which are alike essential to their health, nay life. Cut your 

 drains, with a good fall, straight, and 4 feet deep ; and do 

 not forget, when you have made them, to look from time 

 to time, in seasons of wet, whether or no they are doing 

 their duty. Use tiles, not fagots, which soon, in most cases, 

 become non-conductors. 



Having provided channels of escape for the superabun- 

 dant moisture, make it as easy as you can, in the next 

 place, for the moisture to reach them. Trench your 

 ground, and, by exposing it to atmospheric influence, make 

 it as porous and friable as you can. Then consider what 

 additions you may introduce to its improvement. "Any- 

 thing," writes Morton, in his work upon the Nature and 

 Property of Soils, ''which will produce permanent friability 

 in clay soils — such as sand, lime, burnt clay, loose light 

 vegetable matter, or long unfermented manure — will alter 



