200 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



beds to be sown and planted : if used carefully a fine surface 

 can soon be obtained. 



For myself I condemn the use of the sharp, long-toothed 

 iron rake. These iron rakes which amateurs are told are 

 " the very thing," are to me abominations. Their long 

 teeth hinder the production of an even surface, the sharpness 

 of the teeth enables leaves or weeds to choke them every 

 few minutes, and their general awkwardness prevents the 

 gardener making long sweeps or reaches with them. They 

 are often very narrow, and the teeth so close together that 

 it is hard to remove a stone which may be caught in 

 them. 



The blunt short-toothed iron rakes are bad enough, but 

 not so bad as the above. To my mind, a wooden rake is 

 far the best, a rake made entirely, teeth and all, of wood. 

 The teeth should be about in. or more across, rounded, 

 but not pointed, and placed about 2 ins. apart. The bar 

 holding the teeth may be about i ft. long, fitted to a handle 

 5-6 ft. long. Ash handles are the best. 



A wooden rake of this kind is a capital tool, and will 

 quickly bring a bed to a fine surface. Seeds can be raked 

 in better with wooden than iron rakes, and covered to a 

 more even depth. 



Improvement of a Sandy Soil : A sandy soil is a poor 

 dry soil which is hard to improve. The best method is to 

 trench it and work in a lot of manure and leaves in the early 

 winter and to " clay " or " marl " it immediately. Clay 

 and marl are usually delivered in big lumps. These should 

 be broken up so that they do not exceed 6 in. blocks, and 

 put on the land i ft. or more apart each way. The frost 

 will disintegrate them, and they can then be easily broken 

 up in the early spring with the spade and dug in to the depth 

 of i ft. Marling has to be renewed during several years 

 before the soil is got into a reasonable condition. 



If clay or marl is not obtainable, then it is inadvisable 

 to dig or trench in the early winter. It should be done at 

 the latest possible moment in the winter, and a liberal 

 amount of manure put in. The reason for this is that the 



