1'20 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. II. 



crops, and most difficult of eradication, but I do not 

 know that I ever observed them upon any soil that 

 would not amply reward the careful cultivator. It is 

 also quite certain that they are never found prevail- 

 ing upon well cultivated land. 



I know some farmers w^ho class unsparingly 

 together " Poppies and Poverty," but this conclusion 

 ought not to be without reservation. There is no 

 doubt that this weed (Papaver rhceasj prevails and 

 seeds most abundantly upon very poor sandy or 

 gravelly soils, but I know it will be in profusion also 

 even in the best land, with the exception of that 

 which is veiy heavy. On the latter I do not re- 

 member having ever seen the poj)py veiy numerous. 

 Sprit fJimcus articulatusj. Purple sandwort (Aren- 

 aria rubra), and Sweet Gale (Myrica gale), are un- 

 erringly indicative of a poor siliceous soil resting on 

 a porous substratum. 



II. The soil itself. — The most fertile soils have the 

 greatest difference of colour between the extreme 

 surface, after it has been exposed for some days to the 

 atmosphere, and that portion which is taken fresh 

 from a few inches below that surface. 



I am not aware of having ever met with a fertile 

 soil that retained, after exposure to the dry air, the 

 same coloiu*, after the lapse of forty eight hours, that 

 it had when freshly turned up. Such a soil mvariably 

 becomes much lighter coloiu'ed. 



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