270 ON SOILS AND MANURES. 



5. Sands are either found in beds, or on the sides of rivers ; but 

 the best kind for florists is what re generally termed drift sand, or 

 sand washed by heavy showers into ridges. 



Having thus noticed the primary kinds of soils, &c. used in 

 floriculture, it remains for me to state the preparations necessary 

 before they can be used. The proper time for collecting the dif- 

 ferent kinds of soils and vegetable manures is unquestionably in 

 autumn, after the beneficial rains and solar influence of the pre- 

 ceding summer, and that they may receive the requisite ameliora- 

 ting quality of the forthcoming winter. In getting the various 

 kinds required, care should be taken not to dig more than nine or, 

 at the furthest depth, twelve inches below the surface, as the soil, 

 laying lower, is more concealed from the sun and atmosphere, and 

 consequently not near so good. Let them be carted in fine, fair 

 weather, and thrown up in the compost ground in different heaps, 

 placing the greensward of the loams on the top, with the roots 

 uppermost, that they may the sooner decay. Thus let them 

 remain till winter, when they should be at different times turned 

 over, well chopping and mixing the sward with the soil. The 

 dungs, decayed vegetables, fallen leaves, and rotten wood, may be 

 treated in a similar manner. 



It is a customary manner amongst old cultivators to sift their 

 composts before using. This is, in a great measure, the cause of 

 exotics not succeeding, and appearing in health and vigour : for, 

 by the process of screening, all the stringy and fibrous rooty part 

 of the mould is lost, which is certainly the best part of it, as by 

 its means the compost is kept open and free for the young roots to 

 run in, and, without this part, the particles of the soil get close 

 together, and often bake as hard as a brick. Those persons that 

 have practised this method think it impossible to improve, but one 

 moment's reasoning with themselves will convince them thev are 

 in error. Manures, &c. must of course be coarsely screened, that 

 the stones, pieces of wood, &c. may be extracted ; but this oj^era- 

 tion must only be performed when the said kinds are wanted. 



If this communication be thought worthy of the Floricultural 

 Cabinet, it shall be seconded by another on the different kinds of 

 compost that may be obtained by mixtures of the above. 



f, V. ASHIOUD, 



Colston Hall, August Wth, 1834, 



