THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 197 



and even greater advantages are secured by a top- 

 dressing of barn-yard manures and composts to 

 the heaviest of clay. The surface of such soils, 

 left to Nature, becomes in hot, dry weather like 

 pottery, baking and cracking, shielding from dew 

 and shower, and preventing all circulation of air 

 about the roots. A top-dressing prevents all this, 

 keeps the surface open and mellow, and supplies 

 not only fertility, but the mechanical conditions 

 that are essential. 



If we are now ready to begin, let us begin right. 

 I have not much sympathy with finical, fussy gar- 

 dening. One of the chief fascinations of garden- 

 ing is the endless field it affords for skilful sleight 

 of hand, short-cuts, unconventional methods, and 

 experiments. The true gardener soon ceases to be 

 a man of rules, and becomes one of strategy, of 

 expedients. He is prompt to act at the right 

 moment. Like the artist, he is ever seeking and 

 acting upon hints from Nature. The man of rules 

 says the first of July is the time to set out winter 

 cabbage; and out the plants go, though the sky be 

 brazen, and the mercury in the nineties. The gar- 

 dener has his plants ready, and for a few days 

 watches the sky. At last he perceives that rain 

 is coming; then he sets out his plants, and Na- 

 ture's watering starts them, unwilted, on their new 

 growth. 



