86 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



when the soil is heavy and tenacious in texture it should be 

 applied in a partially decomposed state in the autumn or 

 early in the winter, immediately before the ground is 

 trenched or otherwise broken up. If, on the contrary, the 

 soil is light, apply the manure in the spring, and use it in an 

 advanced stage of decomposition. A lengthy reference to 

 the use of manure in the flower garden is not necessary, 

 but it may perhaps be well to mention that the decomposi- 

 tion of manure of the kind recommended proceeds slowly 

 in heavy soils, whilst in lighter soils the decomposition pro- 

 ceeds with considerable rapidity. As lighter soils have but 

 indifferent retentive properties, some of the food elements are 

 washed down by the rains and carried off by the drainage 

 system in the course of the winter. Hence it is that heavy 

 soils are most successfully manured in the autumn and 

 light ones in the spring, and that in the latter case the 

 material should be in a sufficiently advanced stage of decay 

 for the plants to obtain the requisite supplies of food when 

 their roots begin to run freely in the soil. 



If the advice here given with regard to breaking up the 

 soil by digging or trenching is acted upon, the weather by 

 the beginning of March will have so pulverised the surface 

 of heavy soils that the lumps will fall to pieces when 

 crushed with the back of a rake or other implement. Quite 

 early in the month dig the quarter with the fork or spade, 

 preferably the former, and drive the tool straight down tc 

 a depth of fully 12 inches, and in the process of digging 

 break up the larger lumps. Light soil should be dug over 

 or trenched to a depth of 2 feet at the end of February or 

 the beginning of March, and before digging is commenced 

 sufficient decayed stable or farmyard manure should, as in 



