THE CARNATION. 21 



and quality of your loam or mould : this I hold ex- 

 tremely essential to be attended to. 



Kirwan, in .his Treatise on Manures, expressly 

 states,, f That the proportion of each ingredient, and 

 f the general texture of the soil, must be such, as to 

 ' enable it to admit and retain as much water as is 

 ' necessary to vegetation, and no more.' 



The simple earths or soils, it is well known, vary 

 greatly in regard to their retentive powers of pre- 

 serving moisture. The time that I generally set 

 about mixing the compost is towards the end of the 

 summer, when the melons and cucumbers have done 

 bearing, whose beds furnish me with the dung 

 proper for my purpose. 



Requiring a large quantity of mould, for I mostly 

 bloom about 500 pots of Carnations, I take in the 

 following ratios : 



1 Load of fresh yellow loam, 



\ Ditto of common black earth or garden 

 mould, 



2 Ditto of rotten horse-dung, 



4 Large barrows of coarse sand from some 



