122 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



the larger part of the soil, and only a small proportion 

 of manure is needed. Measure the mixture, and to 

 each four quarts or four pecks add one quart or one 

 peck of the manure, using with it a little wood-ashes 

 and ground bones. 



For lettuce, cabbage, and other small plants in a 

 hot-bed or in a plant and forcing house where the 

 plants are cultivated in boxes or on benches, and for 

 rose-houses, cucumber and melon houses, a mixture 

 of equal parts of good soil from a field, coarse sand, 

 and old manure or some good complete commercial 

 fertilizer, should be used. The soil need not be sifted 

 except for small plants ; and, if common manure is 

 used, it need not be broken up so fine as for potting 

 soils. For roses the proportion of fertilizer should be 

 larger than for any of the common flowering plants. 

 In regard to the actual work of potting plants, we will 

 consider that in detail in the next book of the Chau- 

 tauqua Series. 



xxrv. MAKING NEW SOILS. It will often hap- 

 pen, that in building a house a bare or barren spot is 

 selected for the site ; and when the house is finished, 

 it is surrounded by barren, dusty gravel or sand, some- 

 times adorned with pieces of brick and other waste 

 materials left by the contractors. We must, of course, 

 furnish the place, and, if we do nothing more, have 

 a rug of grass put before the windows, and perhaps a 

 few ornaments in the way of shrubs or trees. Neither 

 plants, shrubs, nor grass will grow on such a spot ; and 

 a special soil must be prepared for them. First of all, 



