202 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



swallow up endless quantities of marl, manure, and 

 vegetable humus. A clay soil is also much richer in itself 

 when it has been improved than a sandy soil is, it retains 

 a lot of valuable plant food. 



Chalky Soils : The improvement of soils resting on chalk 

 or limestone is a matter of some difficulty, seeing that often 

 one-fifth of their weight consists of carbonate of lime. 

 Digging and enriching with manure, road-scrapings, etc., 

 is useful and should always be carried out. However, 

 it will be well to give a more particular method. In the 

 chapter on artificial fertilisers I referred to a manure called 

 superphosphate ; this is most useful on land which contains 

 too much carbonate of lime. It should be applied in the 

 autumn at the rate of 2-3 ozs. per square yard, well 

 forked in ; and another dressing of not more than 2 ozs. 

 per square yard can be given the following spring. Such 

 land will be rich in phosphate ; and Lupins, Galegas, and 

 Sweet Peas, should do extremely well in it. 



I have heard of another treatment, upon which, how- 

 ever, I can express no opinion. It is as follows. Dilute 

 strong hydrochloric acid with four times its volume of water 

 and sprinkle over the ground. The soil, I understand, must 

 be dug over at once, and the ground is said to be much 

 improved. But nothing must be planted or sown there 

 for several weeks. It is well to point out that this acid is 

 dangerous stuff unless great care is taken. It will burn a 

 hole in clothes, causes bad wounds on the flesh, though it is 

 not quite so bad as nitric or sulphuric acid. It is well to 

 pour it into the water, not water into it, and the water 

 should be cold. 



Manures containing decomposable lime are unsuitable 

 for application to a chalky soil, and should never be 

 used. 



Humic Soils : Something has already been said about 

 these in Chapter XIX, where I pointed out how undesirable 

 summer feeding was for plants grown in such soils. The 

 word humus is explained more fully in the next chapter. 

 Soils sometimes contain as much as 20 % of humus which 



