14 IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS. 



ing plenty of ashes with it, becomes a fine mould, 

 which I have ever found most excellent for all 

 flowers of the hardier kind. The black soil is the 

 richest in itself, and requires no assistance beyond 

 changing it about a foot in depth every three years, 

 as a flower-garden requires renewing, if a lady ex- 

 pects a succession of handsome flowers. The 

 ground should be well dug the latter end of Sep- 

 tember or October, or even in November, and if the 

 soil is not sufficiently fine, let it be dug over a se- 

 cond or third time, and neatly raked with a very 

 fine-toothed rake. 



Stony ground requires riddling well, and great 

 care must be taken to keep it neat by picking up 

 the little stones which constantly force themselves 

 to the surface after rains. Nothing is so unbe- 

 coming as weeds and stones in parterres, where 

 the eye seeks flowers and neatness. 



Almost every plant loves sand ; and if that can 

 be procured, it enriches and nourishes the soil, 

 especially for bulbs, pinks, carnations, auriculas, 

 hyacinths, &c. Let it be mixed in the proportion 

 of a third part to the whole. 



If dead leaves are swept into a mound every 

 autumn and the soap suds, brine, &c. of the house 

 be thrown upon it, the mass will quickly decom- 

 pose and become available the following year. It 

 makes an admirable compost for auriculas, &c., 

 mixed with garden or other mould. 



If the ground be a gravelly soil, the flower gar- 

 den should not slope, for stony ground requires all 

 the moisture you can give it, while the sloping sit- 

 uation would increase the heat and dryness. A 

 moist earth, on the contrary, would be improved by 

 being sloped towards the east or west. 



