MANURES 1 1 



gone for the straw to have lost all colour, or short 

 enough to be moved with a shovel or a spade, even 

 though it be laid in several inches thick, completely 

 disappears in the course of a year, and hardly any sign 

 of it except a darker colour to the soil remains." On 

 gravelly poor soil, even without the addition of any fresh 

 loam, a liberal top-dressing in this way, combined with 

 good manure beneath the roots, will produce an excellent 

 soil for standard Tea Roses and the top-dressing will 

 allow the use of liquid natural or artificial manures as 

 well. In such dry and porous soil some protection for 

 the surface of the ground is absolutely necessary and a 

 mulch of this kind is the best means. 



All Rose-growers are agreed as to the value as a 

 manure of night-soil, properly dealt with. The almost 

 criminal waste which goes on in nearly every village, 

 whereby tons of the finest natural manure are yearly 

 not only wasted, far worse made into a vehicle of 

 disease and death, is enough to break the heart of any real 

 garden lover. Every garden large enough to be called 

 a garden ought to have in it, in some convenient place, a 

 spot set apart for dealing with the night-soil from the house, 

 in the way described by Mr William Paul. A basin or 

 reservoir should be dug to hold a given quantity, and at 

 the bottom of it should be placed a layer of earth. 

 Upon this the night-soil is thrown and covered with a 

 sufficient layer of soil. When the pit is full, it should 

 be covered with a good thickness of earth, and left for 

 six months, another place being prepared for use in the 

 interval, then broken up and mixed according to its state, 

 blending dry soil, ashes or burnt earth with it during 

 the operation. It will be found to have become de- 

 odorised, and after another month's rest for the soil to 

 become well blended, it may be forked out on to the 

 soil in the ordinary way. Mr Paul says that he " cannot 

 conceive of any description of manure to surpass this," 



