130 GROUND FOR A GARDEN. 



certain kinds of land. There are soils justly 

 termed " hungry, ungrateful." It is next to 

 impossible to make them rich, still more so to 

 keep them fertile. Manure goes through them 

 like a sieve, or money through a spendthrift's 

 hands. Enrich it as you please one season, 

 you get little advantage from the outlay the 

 following. That which should have given you 

 fatness year after year, has vanished, washed 

 down by the rains out of sight. It may 

 benefit land in China, but has little effect here. 

 And yet this sandy, gravelly ground, with a 

 leachy subsoil, is very abundant on our Atlan- 

 tic coast, and in many districts we can find no 

 other. It must be dealt with after its own char- 

 acter. We would advise the reader to shun 

 such land if possible, but if the fates decree 

 that he should cultivate land with a little more 

 of the curse on it than some other, the 

 following hints may be of use. If the soil is 



