RAISING PLANTS IN NURSERIES. 197 



one Held crop, and again use the soil during two or three 

 years for nursery purposes. 



The manure can he supplied by growing a leguminous 

 crop, such as lupine or lucerne, and ploughing it in instead 

 of removing it. 



In many nurseries considerable quantities of mild manures 

 are used, such as leaf mould, compost, burnt turf, and also 

 charcoal refuse. The leaf mould is taken from the forest, or 

 specially prepared from dead leaves, needles, forest plants, 

 etc., which are heaped together and allowed to decompose, 

 generally with the addition of a certain amount of quicklime. 



Compost is a mixture of humus and soil. It is generally 

 made into heaps, some quicklime added, and then allowed 



to season, the heaps being turned over from time to time; it 

 should not be used for a year or two. To prevent the com- 

 post being washed out by rain water, it is sometimes stored 

 in pits instead of heaps. 



Burnt turf is produced by cutting sods of turf, best from 

 loamy soil, in spring, allowing them to dry, the grassy side 

 downwards, and then burning them in heaps either alone, or 

 better intermixed with brush wood or fagots (Fig. 50).* In 

 constructing such a heap, some brushwood is placed in the 

 centre (a) and covered wuth perhaps four layers of sods (h), 

 then comes a second layer of wood (c), followed by three or 

 four more layers of sods {d). A narrow channel (m) is kept 

 open from the wood in the centre to the circumference, by 



* After Heyer. 



