MANURING AND POTTING. 25 



nre good stimulants for the growth of plants in common 

 garden soil, but in .no case should it be used unless three 

 years old, or your soil will be rilled with weeds. To ma- 

 nure a garden will require some judgment ; to manure the 

 same soil every season is as bad as no manure at all ; chang- 

 ing the crop is preferable, as some seed will deteriorate 

 more than others ; for instance the Rocket Larkspur never 

 ought to be sown in the same bed two seasons in succession. 

 It will frequently happen by over manuring the garden the 

 soil becomes black, and many suppose the soil extremely 

 rich when it is the reverse ; so much manure being laid on 

 the soil the water becomes saturated in the soil as to make 

 it so sterile that plants cannot exist in it. When such is 

 the case it will be necessary to use lime as a manure to 

 counteract the humic acid contained in the soil, caused by 

 the superfluous use of the stable manure. Manure from the 

 stable should never be used with lime, as one destroys the 

 effect of the other, nor until it has been regularlyfermented. 



Stable manure is required more plentifully for pot cult- 

 ure, as the frequent watering of the plants in pots will nat- 

 urally wash the substance from the plants ; the frequent 

 watering of pot plants also makes it indispensi ble to shift 

 the soil often ; this is termed repotting which is performed 

 once or twice a year, and the best time to effect this is 

 spring and fall, and the best soil for that purpose is a maid- 

 en soil. This is a term used by gardeners, and can be ob- 

 tained from the commons or old meadows by taking off the. 

 turf, then dig three or four inches below; this will const;* 

 tute maiden soil, and if inclined to clay add a small portion 

 of sand. 



Some plants require a richer soil than others ; when that 

 3 



