CULTURE IN GARDENS, ETC. 85 



" The finest crop and the best mushrooms I ever saw 

 were grown in the open ground, and without any protec- 

 tion at all. I will tell you how it happened. Some 

 years back I had the charge of the garden of a noted 

 hunting establishment in Northamptonshire, one of the 

 aids to success being that the manure of an average of 

 nearly fifty highly-fed horses went to the garden, the 

 owner remarking that, whatever other things I might run 

 short of, there would be plenty of ' muck/ Well, the 

 best of the hunters during the summer were soiled in 

 loose boxes, principally under cover, and in these boxes 

 the manure was allowed to accumulate until it began to 

 grow too hot for the feet of the horses ; then it was in- 

 dispensable that it should be removed. About midsummer 

 it so happened that nearly three acres of ground had 

 been cleared of the spring crop, spinach, early peas, 

 beans, &c., and I had determined to devote the whole 

 plot to winter brassicas, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, &c. 

 The ground was brashy and very poor, and consequently 

 I determined to clear the boxes and put the whole of 

 the manure upon it. It was carted away so rich 

 in ammonia that the men who loaded it shed tears, 

 not from sentiment, but from compulsion; and when 

 the manure was spread upon the surface it was nothing 

 less than a foot thick so thick, that the proprietor 

 said it was impossible for it to be dug into the 

 ground. However, clearing a trench at one end of the 



