SOILS. 'JJ 



we were wont to do in oui* school-days when the 

 festival of Fawkes drew nigh for a bonfire. Keep 

 the prunings of your Rosary, that new Roses, like 

 the Phoenix, may spring from the funeral-pyre ; 

 preserve all other prunings, decayed vegetables, 

 haulm, roots, refuse, rubbish, weeds: — 



" Since nought so vile, that on the earth doth live. 

 But to the earth some special good doth give," 



and when you have a goodly omnium gatJicrtun^ 

 make ready your furnace. Arrange your thorns 

 and more inflammable material as a base, then an 

 admixture of more solid fuel from your stores, 

 lightening and condensing alternately, and in the 

 centre disposing some large pieces de resistance, 

 such as old tree-stumps, useless pieces of rotting 

 timber, and the like, which, once fairly on fire, will 

 go smouldering on for a fortnight. On this heap, 

 well kindled, and around it, place your clay, re- 

 newing it continually as the fire breaks through. 

 The pile must be watched so that the flames may 

 be thus constantly suppressed, the clay burnt 

 gradually, and not charred to brickdust. " The 

 ashes of burnt soil are said to be best," writes 

 Morton, '' when they are blackest ; black ashes 

 are produced by slow combustion, and red ashes 

 by a strong fire." Blend these ashes with the 



