vi A Treatise on Vegetation, ^c. 



be horfe dung; to thefe add a cartful of fine white fand, 

 or of rough land from a frefh river ; after your different 

 heaps are riddled and made 6ne, mix them in the precife 

 proportion here mentioned, and they will be fit tor ufe 

 in fix months, obferving to tofs them up every fortnight, 

 that the different matter of which your heaps conllft may 

 be equally mixed ; and this you are to be particularly 

 attentive to. 



Ccnipojl for Hyacinths, fee their Culture^ ^c. p. 263 

 272 and 305. 



The Compoft ufed for Hyacinths, to bring them to 

 their greatert perfe6tion, being very different from what 

 has hitherto been ufed, I Ihall be very particular in giv- 

 ing direQions how it muft be made up, which will lead 

 me to coniider a little more fully the different foils which 

 are to be met with. This noble flower may properly be 

 called a native of Holland, fince, from the feeds gather- 

 ed from plants which grew there, there have, within 

 thefe fifty years, been raifed upwards of eight hundred 

 different forts. To have them therefore in perfe6tion 

 in thefe climates, we muff imitate the Dutch foil as near 

 as we can. 



In Holland their natural foil is fand and mofs, or a 

 black rich fallow. The white fand there is naturally 

 mixt, and makes a third part of this fallow ; about two 

 feet below this, there is a fattiffi fubllance always nou- 

 riffiing what is planted in it ; and indeed there is no in- 

 terruption of growth, nor want of a nourifhing fap, dur- 

 ing the whole year, except when their fevere froils pre- 

 vent the exertion of the foil to forward vegetation. 



One would imagine that plants would fuffer in fuch 

 ground, by being too wet below, and by the rains from 

 above; but it is quite otherwife ; the fand in the loil 

 above, dries up the rains which fall, whilfl: the glutin- 

 ous fat matter below is continually fending up its vege- 

 tative qualities; and in cafe the heat in Summer fhould 

 parch what grows near the furface, quantities of cow 

 dung are ufed to cool the fandy furface. This dung, hav- 

 ing this excellent quality, that, covered but with four 



inches 



