SOILS, AND HOW TO CULTIVATE THEM 41 



If the soil has been dug out to a depth of two or three feet a layer 

 of nibble brick ends broken fairly small may be placed at the 

 bottom, and over this again a layer of old decaying turves if 

 such are available. Upon this foundation some of the best of 

 the excavated soil may be deposited, and with this should be 

 incorporated a generous quantity of well-seasoned farmyard 

 manure. For the top layer to the depth of at least a foot good 

 loam should be supplied. This, if possible, should be what is 

 known as the " top spit " from an old meadow. It can be dug 

 out a spade deep after the surface turf has been removed, and it 

 will be found to be the finest growing material it is possible to 

 obtain. A piece of ground prepared in this way, with a light 

 surface dressing of old manure applied in early winter, .and 

 forked in during the spring months, will provide a medium for 

 the cultivation of flowers and vegetables that will last for years 

 without any radical disturbance. 



For flinty, stony soils the most obvious remedy that suggests 

 itself is the right one. This is their removal as time and op- 

 portunity permit. It will occur frequently enough to satisfy 

 the most ardent desire for their disappearance, for with each dis- 

 turbance of the soil they will in some mysterious manner work 

 their way to the surface and invite instant removal. And unless 

 they are removed, there need not be any assured hope that it 

 will ever be possible to make a satisfactory seed-bed in such stony 

 and flinty soil. 



A sandy soil means a light and a dry soil. For general pur- 

 poses it is less desirable in an ordinary small garden than any 

 other variety. Its composition is such that the passage of water 

 through it is too rapid and too free ; it is not therefore sufficiently 

 retentive of moisture, and it follows that such plant foods as the 

 ground contains will speedily be washed away. An adequate 

 supply of moisture is as great a necessity of plant life as sunshine 

 itself, and if light, sandy soil is to be made a suitable medium for 

 the cultivation of flowers and vegetables its capacity for retaining 

 moisture must be improved. The quality of cohesion is lacking, 

 and this can best be rectified by the incorporation in the soil of 



