MAKING READY 



leaf-mold from the woods. They are expensive, 

 too, and they are sometimes adulterated with 

 sand and plaster. As to special enrichments, for 

 certain plants, I opine that there is much non- 

 sense in that notion, and that the common ma- 

 nures are good enough for all the plants that 

 grow. During the winter the roots will be ab- 

 sorbing food, and should show vigor in the 

 spring, but if the soil is poor, if there is a time 

 of darkness and sour weather, or if any disease 

 of malnutrition takes hold on the roses and lilies, 

 let them have a trifle of stimulant: a few drops 

 of ammonia to a pail of water. Indeed, it is well 

 to give a little of this at intervals, say, once a 

 month, through the green season. 



Your farm can be worked with very little 

 machinery. You will need a hose, with a reel 

 to wind it on, a rotary nozzle for spraying the 

 grass, and the usual tip, which throws a fine mist 

 or a strong stream, according as you adjust the 

 cock. You will require a lawn-mower, which the 

 comic papers assure us is held in abhorrence by 

 male suburbanites, and not always without rea- 

 son, for the woman, in a cool and gauzy dress 

 who sits on the veranda while the slave of the 



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