SOILS FOR POTTING. 55 



private gardener, perhaps, falls back on his employer, 

 and ascribes the unhealthy condition of his plants to the 

 effect of his not being able to procure such and such soil, 

 which, he says, is necessary to some class of plants, and 

 excuses his failures thereby. The young florist, beginning 

 business in some country town, with restricted means, 

 and with limited knowledge of what he is undertaking, 

 looks upon this august authority in despair, and his heart 

 sinks within him when he knows that no silver sand is 

 within a thousand miles of him, and he is told, without 

 qualification, that it is necessary for his propagating 

 bench, or as an ingredient in his potting soils. He begins 

 without it, and as he will possibly make some failures, 

 these failures are laid at the door of the soil or sand 

 that he has been obliged to use, while the chances are, 

 twenty to one, that they were not. Not the least satis- 

 faction I have in writing this book is, that of being able 

 to attempt the simplification of many of our operations 

 to such an extent as to put the means of doing the work 

 within the reach of every one. Not the least simple of 

 these operations is the preparation of our potting soil. 

 We have, we may say, only one heap a big one at that 

 but it contains only two ingredients, rotted sods, from a 

 loamy pasture, and rotted refuse hops from the breweries, 

 or, in lieu, rotted cow or horse manure, in about the pro- 

 portion of two of the sods to one of the hops or manure. 

 The sods are cut during the spring or summer, and laid, 

 with grassy sides together, so as to decompose, and the 

 heap is repeatedly turned until it becomes friable. The 

 rotted refuse hops (one year old), or rotted manure, is 

 then added, either at once or when the soil is wanted for 

 potting. For small pots from two to four inches \ve 

 run it through a sieve of one-half inch meshes, which 

 thoroughly incorporates the parts ; for larger pots, it is 

 not necessary to run it through a sieve, unless, perhaps, 

 for the sake of thoroughly mixing, it may be quicker to 



