SOILS AND POTTING. 107 



MEETING FOR LECTUEE AND DISCUSSION. 



Saturday, March 20, 1897. 



A meeting for Lecture and Discussion was holden today at 

 eleven o'clock, the President, Francis H. Appleton, in the 

 chair. 



The following paper was read by the author : 



Soils and Potting. 



By T. D. Hatfield, of Wellesley. 



The subject which your Committee on Lectures has been kind 

 enough to choose for me is generally considered by gardeners as 

 the most important one they have to deal with. This is true, but 

 we must not narrow the question down to one simply of garden- 

 ers' methods, for many of us are farmers as well, cultivating a 

 great variety of plants, and we wisli to consider whatever in this 

 connection affects our material welfare. 



Gardeners seldom fully agree about the proper soil for any 

 crop. Few of us find ourselves having the same conditions of 

 soil to deal with. Our soil may be heavy or light, the land high 

 or low, and with every variation of exposure. We go from 

 one place to another, and often wonder at our neighbor's success 

 when we should consider failure certain. I have received plants 

 with the soil so stiff that I wondered how they ever dried out 

 when once wet ; and from another place where the soil would 

 appear to be about the same as our swamp mud. An acquaint- 

 ance of mine tells me that at one place where he was gardener, in 

 the neighborhood of Cape Ann, the only bit of potting soil he 

 could hnd was turf from what had at some time been a salt marsh. 

 After it was broken up, and the air and frost went through it, 

 he found he could grow almost anytliing, from a geranium up to 

 an azalea. Everybody finds a way of dealing witli the problem 

 before him. 



Sometimes we find ourselves with a garden lot so springy that 

 nothing can be done in the way of cultivating it until very late 

 in the season, and again with a soil so dry that we must irrigate 

 for all except early crops. A dry soil is easily worked, but more 

 difficult to keep in condition for supporting crops, because it holds 

 sustenance poorly. Frequent manuring is required to keep it in 



