28 PRACTICAL GAEDENING. 



The scrapings of banks and ditclies, althougli often foul as 

 regards the seeds of weeds they contain, are rich and valuable, 

 and should lie by themselves, to be apphed to such crops as 

 will give opportunity of weeding easily. The richness of this 

 generally compensates for the extra trouble it gives. To this 

 heap may be added all the weedings of your garden, because 

 the heap "v\ill always be known as a foul one, and the use of 

 it may be confined to such particular quarters as may be con- 

 v^eniently cropped with strong growing subjects, that ynW 

 admit of hoeing repeatedly ; for instance, beet-root, potatoes, 

 savoys, brocoli, and cabbage, being properly grown wide 

 enough apart to keep the hoe at work at aU good opportu- 

 nities, the ground may be a little foul without hurting them ; 

 whereas with small crops, such as onions, weeds would be very 

 troublesome. Besides, the crops we have mentioned do well 

 on strong ground, and are not easily discommoded with a few 

 intruders, and -u'eeds are easily removed without disturbing 

 the plants. 



Application op Dressing. — In dressing ground generally, 

 you have first to consider the state it is in ; next, the nature 

 of the crop to go on ; lastly, the sorts of dressing you have at 

 command. If you have any light soil, and you could obtain 

 Marl, or rich Loam, a Httle of that mixed with your manure 

 would be of the greatest service ; if you can get no marl, dress 

 it with the compost that you have been mixing with lime. 

 The quantity also must be dependent upon your requirements 

 from the land ; you may dress land with the strongest of 

 manure if you are going to sow onions, plant asparagus, or 

 grow beet-root, sea-kale, or pickling cabbages : they are all 

 very hungry, and not very particular. Lay the quantity you 

 intend to put in all over the surface, and let it be tui-ned in 

 nearly a spit deep, or if it be well decomposed, let it be 

 forked in and mixed with the top spit of earth ; but where 

 attention is paid to the general conditions of ground, the 

 dunging or dressing is supplied periodically, without any 

 regard to the particular crop to follow immediately ; and so it 

 is buiied to do its part towards fertilizing the soil for the 

 future, while the dressing previously buried is supplying the 

 immediate wants of the crop ; and the difference between 

 putting it a spit deep and mixing it altogether directly is 

 simply called for by the state of the ground : if poor, mix it; 

 if in good heart, we have only to keep it so, and therefore 



