28 CALIFORNIA GARDEN FLOWERS. 



washed by subjecting it to heavy rains or it may be washed with a 

 hose or a small stream of water the point being to run away the 

 fine particles with the flow of the water. Both fine and coarse s-and 

 are useful, but the latter is preferable especially when sand is used 

 for propagation, as will be described in another chapter. 



Various granular materials may be used for the purposes which 

 sand serves, for they .act in the same way though not to the same 

 degree, and are therefore inferior. 



The writer has made a practice for the last twenty years of using 

 on flower beds all the sifted coal ashes taken from the house fires. 

 Coal ashes by themselves have no appreciable fertilizing value. They 

 do, however, have a very good effect if the cinders are sifted out and 

 the ashes which go through a quarter-inch mesh screen are dug into 

 a heavy soil. They make the soil more friable and overcome its 

 tendency to bake. We used the screened ashes as an absorbent under 

 the hen roosts and they went to the garden with a fertilizing quality. 

 Coal .ashes are not harmful unless used in such large quantities that 

 the soil becomes too loose and porous. 



Old plaster from house repairs and the refuse left in house building, 

 is good for garden use, tending to mellowness in two ways: by the 

 action of the lime (which will be mentioned presently) and of the 

 sand. It has always been considered a good dressing for garden land. 

 It is also a corrective of sourness but is much less active than fresh 

 lime, but it .acts in the same way to a limited extent. It can be freely 

 used if the land is heavy and needs friability; but should be well scat- 

 tered. 



Sawdust and fine mill shavings and old spent tan-bark are also 

 desirable in disintegrating heavy soils. They are not worth considera- 

 tion as a fertilizer, because they are so difficult of decay, even when in 

 the soil, and if the soil is light and loose in character it is apt to be 

 rendered much more so by this addition. In a heavy soil the addition 

 of a limited amount of fine shavings renders it more friable, but they 

 should be well distributed through the soil; masses of them generate 

 fermentation and mildew, which may injure rootlets of plants. 



Farm- Yard Manure. Precious to the plant-grower as a complete 

 food for plants and as an agency to improve the texture both of heavy 

 and of light soils, is the manure from farm animals; cow manure 

 being preferable for general garden uses and horse manure particularly 

 for hot beds, as will be stated in another chapter. Farm-yard manure 

 should be thoroughly decomposed for garden uses unless it be in 

 starting a garden on a heavy soil, when considerable quantities even 

 of fresh manure can be deeply plowed or dug into the soil at the be- 

 ginning of the rainy season, when considerable amounts of water may 

 be expected to enter the soil for several months. Fresh manure should 



