128 THE AURICULA. 



Auriculas grow very well in this mixture, which I 

 conceive, upon the whole, a very good one ; but they 

 should be top-dressed about six weeks before they 

 come into bloom, with compost of a stronger and 

 more active manure. Emmerton's compost, of goose- 

 dung and blood, night-soil, loam and sugar-bakers* 

 scum, of each one-third, is well calculated for top- 

 dressing in February. 



Whoever grows Auriculas in low situations, will 

 perhaps do well to use old frame-dung instead of 

 cow-dung, because it dries sooner than cow-dung, 

 which is better calculated for elevated situations. 

 The circulation of air is always brisker on the hills 

 than in vales ; and, besides, I am inclined to attri- 

 bute the rot, which in moist summers and autumns 

 very frequently attacks the Auricula, to too great a 

 portion of cow-dung in the compost. 



Where a large stud of Auriculas (to use a York- 

 shire term) is kept, it seldom happens that the 

 same sort of compost precisely is made use of two 

 years together ; this is very often my case. I fre- 

 quently, as opportunities occur, deposit in the same 

 heap the dung of sheep, horses, cows, poultry, 



