98 ON THE CARNATION. 



heaps should be often turned, and especially in frosty weather, when 

 a vigilant look-out must be kept for the brandling or wire-worm. 



The compost I would recommend is two barrowsful of good rotten 

 turf, well-broken with the spade; two barrowsful of very rotten 

 horse-manure from a melon or cucumber bed ; one barrowful of 

 either rotten leaves, sticks, or thatch, and one barrowful of wash- 

 sand from a road-side. 



All this should be well mixed and repeatedly turned, so that the 

 incorporation may be complete. The turf ought, every bit of it, to 

 go through the hand, and the lumps pulled to pieces to detect the 

 hidden foe : and though only one brandling may be found, still you 

 may consider yourself amply repaid for your trouble. The soil 

 having been well turned, about a fortnight before the time of plant- 

 ing the layers out, which is generally about the latter end of March, 

 sometimes sooner or later, according to the season, I put plenty of 

 drainage in the pots and fill them to the rim with the compost, which 

 will then subside before I plant ; and in order that the soil may be 

 perfectly clear, or to make assurance doubly sure, I insert pieces of 

 carrot and slices of potatoes, to entrap any grubs or insects which 

 may have before escaped. But a more certain way than this has lately 

 been adopted by an old friend of mine. He puts about two pecks of 

 soil at a time into his side oven, and, after subjecting it to a heat 

 destructive to vitality, whether in the shape of worms or eggs, he 

 removes it, and subjects another parcel to the same process, till he 

 has sufficient for his use ; and, in this part of the country, where 

 side ovens constitute the principal feature in the cottager's fire-grate, 

 and where, of course, there is a constant and abundant heat, a great 

 deal can be effectually cleaned with no other expense than the 

 trouble. All this may to some growers appear needless, and a trouble 

 which the difference will not repay ; but it is punctuality and care 

 in small matters, attending to the minutiae of the thing, which very 

 often enables the grower of fifty pairs to beat the careless cultivator 

 of five hundred, and at the same time prevents the loss and mortifica- 

 tion of seeing layer after layer of some favourite sort go in rapid 

 succession. If this then can be prevented, I think it will be 

 acknowledged that no trouble is too great that will accomplish it. 



I now come to the planting of the layers out in the pots, supposing 

 that the soil is cleared of destructive insects. They should be set a 



