1 8 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



posed largely of muck or marl, though in some places they are 

 sandy. Much of the Everglades is rich, deep peat or muck, 

 with patches of sandy soil or rock. The Everglade soil and 

 most of the peat or muck throughout the state are fairly rich 

 in nitrogen and phosphoric acid, but are lacking in potash. Often 

 this lowland soil is sour, as is much of the pineland, and it can 

 be helped by applications of fertilizer which is rich in potash, 

 and by being worked. In places throughout the state the pine- 

 land is underlaid with hardpan, which tends to make the soil 

 sour, and with such land thorough drainage is necessary. In 

 the northern part of the state there are considerable areas of 

 clayey soil. 



It may seem that I have entered into quite a lengthy disserta- 

 tion on soils in a work devoted to ornamental gardening, but as 

 this is the foundation in which plants must be grown it is well 

 to understand something of soils in order to plant and cultivate 

 intelligently. 



The crying need of all our sandy pine land is humus. For this 

 reason every scrap of anything which, by its decay, will make 

 mould should, in some way, be given to the land. I consider 

 it nothing short of a crime against one's ground and plants to 

 burn or throw away any trash, dead limbs, wood or any vege- 

 table product. If one objects to putting grass, weeds and trash 

 around in his garden on account of their unsightliness he can make 

 a compost heap, which, when well decayed, will form an admira- 

 ble dressing for his plants and at the same time will help the soil. 

 Seaweed should be collected whenever it is possible and either 

 used as a mulch or in making compost. Broken limbs, trimmings 

 from trees and shrubs, grass, the refuse from waste baskets, 

 dead leaves, everything that will decay can be piled up where it 

 will not be unsightly and used in the good work when it is decom- 

 posed. If this heap can have a small amount of cottonseed 

 meal or bone meal sprinkled over it occasionally and if the whole 

 can be turned over once in a while, so much the better. Muck 

 and peat, if obtainable, are excellent for the soil or compost 

 heaps, so are all kinds of marine vegetation and all dead animals. 

 The Chinese, who have cultivated their lands from time imme- 

 morial, have never used commercial fertilizers of any kind, but 



