SWEET PEA QUARTERS OUTDOORS 49 



on to the quarters allocated to the Sweet Peas for the 

 succeeding season, a very liberal dressing of good, last- 

 ing manure. This latter should possess as many plant 

 food constituents as it is possible for it to contain. For 

 this reason, we are not disposed to recommend the use 

 of spent hot-bed manure or spent manure from a mush- 

 room bed. These are excellent materials to use for 

 mulching or for forking in in the spring, but for in- 

 corporation with the soil when the trenching is done, 

 we would rather use something better. The reader 

 should remember that the roots of the Sweet Pea will 

 have to draw very largely on these resources for their 

 food supply in the succeeding summer, and for this 

 reason it is imperative that the manure should be good 

 and lasting. Those who can afford it, may v/ith con- 

 siderable advantage add a free sprinkling of bone meal 

 when incorporating the heavy dressing of reliable stable 

 manure, at the time the quarters are being trenched. 

 We would point out the importance of using cow 

 manure with light, sandy, or peaty soils, incorporating 

 with this manure a dressing of superphosphate at the 

 rate of about one pound to eight square yards. This 

 will have the effect of making such soils more retentive 

 and cooler, and at the same time render them more 

 fertile. Garden soils of a heavy and retentive character 

 may be improved by the addition of horse manure and 

 other littery matter. Ashes that are procured from 

 burning the inevitable rubbish that accumulates in every 

 garden, may also be added to such soils with advantage, 

 all these tending to break up heavy soils, thus making 

 the latter better and more congenial for the roots of the 

 Sweet Pea to work in. We are not disposed to add 

 cow manure to soils of heavy texture. 



No matter at what period the trenching may be done 

 the surface soil should be left in a rough condition. To 

 break up the nodules of heavy soil into small particles 

 D 



