230 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



and throughout 1914 I found that plants of various kinds 

 thrived on it very well indeed ; moreover, it kept the pests 

 down remarkably well. At the same time I experimented 

 with scrapings from tarred roads, digging them in freely, 

 and here I also found that plants grew very well. All my 

 experiments with sweepings from tarred roads indicated 

 that this material is as valuable as heretofore, and 

 harmless so far as tar is concerned to all except delicate 

 plants. It is the oil and grease from motor vehicles which 

 is harmful. 



The time to collect road-scrapings is in the summer or 

 autumn. Stipulate with the road-man that he should 

 avoid oil and grease but should collect as much manure 

 and road-edgings (turf) as possible. In the autumn the 

 sweepings will not be quite so rich, but will contain a 

 quantity of tree leaves as well as manure, and if the road- 

 man has been burning some of the leaves, the " scrapings " 

 will contain the ashes which are rich in potash and most 

 improving to the " scrapings. 1 ' 



The main constituents of road scrapings are fresh horse 

 and cow dung, hay, straw, grass, turf edgings, and leaves. 

 They may be dug deeply into the ground for summer crops 

 at once, but it is better to stack them in a corner away 

 from trees to decompose and become mellow. They are 

 inclined to ferment, but that does not matter. Slops 

 may be poured into a hole in the heap in dry weather to 

 assist decomposition, and the heap may well be turned 

 over once or twice during the summer months. 



When collected in the autumn, the material should be 

 stacked for about a month, and then it can be dug in deeply, 

 or used for manuring the lower spits in trenching. 



Tanners' Refuse : This consists chiefly of bark, and is 

 not nearly so valuable for the garden as some suppose. It 

 can be mixed with equal quantities of animal manure or 

 soft garden rubbish and, after mellowing down for a month 

 orjtwo, dug into the garden. 



P^Spent Hops from the Brewery : These are not much good 

 alone, but if a quantity can be had cheaply and ordinary 



