Two] 5>0tlfi 19 



retain the moisture in the muck, excellent results may 

 be secured. The bed may also be partly filled with 

 muck and covered with loam, the whole object being 

 to prevent the muck drying out into hard lumps, as 

 it will, when green, on exposure to sun and air. The 

 following spring the loam may be spaded into the 

 muck, giving a warm, mellow, exceedingly rich soil 

 that will grow anything. The importance of starting 

 out with good soil cannot be too strongly urged. It 

 seems at first sight to call for a considerable expendi- 

 ture of time and money especially where the earth 

 must be purchased and the labour paid for but in the 

 long run it is a decided saving. 



With unsuitable soil there must be many failures, 

 resulting in loss of both plants and seeds, and this in 

 itself is no small expense. The labour of caring for 

 such a garden is many times greater, for the top- 

 dressing of manure required produces an incessant 

 crop of weeds, which must be removed, not once, but 

 many times during the summer, while beds filled with 

 leaf-mould or muck need but one or two weedings. 

 The weeds which grow naturally in these soils do not 

 flourish in the open ground. A few Smartweeds and 

 Nettles may be expected in the one case, and Violets 

 and Spring-beauties in the other. In the manured 

 garden soil an endless procession of Purslane, Malice, 

 Ragweed and the like must be constantly watched for. 

 The presence of clay and gravel in the soil always 

 renders it hard and given to caking, necessitating fre- 



