2J6 



THE FLORISTS MANUAL. 



agency in mellowing and fertilizing any 

 land unless it be a black muck. Farm 

 ers consider red clover a foot high 

 plowed in for wheat equal to an ordi 

 nary dressing of farm-yard manure. 

 Other pieces of your farm should be 

 after a year s tillage laid down with 

 timothy or redtop, and in two or three 

 years you have again a sod for your 

 roses. Even in country villages you 

 cannot always buy good soil. The 

 thrifty farmer does not want to skin his 

 land at any price, and the indigent 

 farmer, who is sure to have a big mort 

 gage on it, dares not or Mr. Mortgage- 

 holder will step in and forbid, and quite 

 right he should. The majority of un 

 thinking men are very glad to get the 

 loan on their property, but when in 

 terest comes due they turn round and 

 abuse the leaner for a Shylock. 



There is often a very poor provision 

 made for keeping soil over winter. 

 Flower growers who have large places 

 in the country don t feel this so much, 

 but even they need a shed under which 

 the soil can be hauled when it is dry 

 and in good condition. In the fall it is 

 a great help. If taken under cover in 

 October and no rain or snow falls on 

 it during winter it can be brought in, 

 even if frozen, at any time, and when 

 it thaws it will fall to pieces and be 

 mellow and usable in a short time; if 



in the open and saturated with water 

 when frozen and brought in, it will be 

 days and perhaps weeks before it can 

 be used. It takes a long time in winter 

 in our sheds to dry out. 



The plant man uses the great bulk 

 of his soil from March 1 to the middle 

 of April, and it is very seldom that 

 even at the latter late date our outside 

 soil heap is dry enough to handle, so 

 you should either have a shed with a 

 big supply, which can be got at during 

 any weather, or else an ample supply 

 stored in your potting sheds in fall, 

 enough to last you till about May 1. 

 We speak from experience and know 

 what it is to be running round in April 

 for a few loads of soil and offering as 

 much for a load as would have pur 

 chased ten in September. I don t like 

 soil under the benches if it can be 

 helped. 



Soil is much better mixed with ma 

 nure several months before using than 

 mixed on the potting bench just before 

 potting. A good pile of soil (sod if 

 possible) should be piled up in July or 

 August with a layer of manure every 

 six inches, about a fifth or sixth of its 

 bulk, built up square, three or four feet 

 high, and then thoroughly soaked, and 

 in four or five weeks chopped down and 

 thrown in a long ridge to shed the rain. 

 If you have time another turn over will 



be all the better and in a dry time in 

 October a good supply of this should be- 

 stored in your potting shed or some 

 place under cover. 



I make no pretense to any knowledge 

 of the chemical ingredients of soil, and 

 however desirable it would be that all 

 gardeners did have that knowledge, it 

 is not necessary to a practical acquaint 

 ance and use of soils. Soils the world 

 over have very much the same prop 

 erties. 



Broadly, they consist of two kinds 

 that made or deposited from vegetable 

 matter, like peat or what you will find 

 on the surface of clays, a few inches 

 of vegetable matter which is the de 

 posit of centuries of forest leaves; and 

 the others, clays and sands or loams, 

 are the grinding up of surface rocks 

 which have been largely distributed 

 and deposited during the glacial period. 



Feat, such as you- hear of in Europe, 

 and especially in Ireland, is largely the 

 growth of water mosses, perhaps the 

 growth of thousands of years. The re 

 mains of the moss can be plainly seen 

 near the surface, but a few feet down it 

 is so decomposed that it is not discern 

 ible. The German peat moss imported 

 largely to this country from Silesia for 

 horse bedding is sphagnum, hardly old 

 enough to call peat, for you can plainly 

 see the remains of the moss in it. Ja- 



The Cut Flower Display Case in an Up-To-Date Store. 



