LILIES AND THEIR WHIMS 269 



that denotes the sterile, undigested soil unworked by 

 roots or earthworms, have it taken out to eighteen 

 inches in deptn and shovelled to one side. When the 

 bad soil is reached, which will be soon, have it removed 

 so that the pit will be three feet below the level. 



Next, let Barney collect any old broken bits of 

 flower-pots, cobbles, or small stones of any kind, and 

 fill up the hole for a foot, and let the broken turf come 

 on top of this. If possible, beg or buy of Amos Opie 

 a couple of good loads of the soil from the meadow 

 bottom where the red bell-lilies grow, and mix this 

 with the good loam, together with a scattering of bone, 

 before replacing it. The bed should not only be full, 

 but well rounded. Grade it nicely with a rake and 

 wait a week or until rain has settled it before plant- 

 ing. When setting these lilies, let there be six inches 

 of soil above the bulb, and sprinkle the hole into which 

 it goes with fresh-water sand mixed with powdered 

 sulphur. 



This bed will be quite large enough for a beginning 

 and will allow you four rows of twenty bulbs in a row, 

 with room for them to spread naturally into a close 

 mass, if so desired. Or better yet, do not put them in 

 stiff rows, but in groups, alternating the early-flowering 

 with the late varieties. A row of German Iris at the 



