SOILS AND POTTING. Ill 



find a secret and did until anotlier was disappointed in the same 

 way, and then, remembering that •' misery loves company," I 

 told how I had been deceived. 



On a gentleman's place there is always a good deal of turf 

 trimming to be done in spring time, grass edges to be neatly cut 

 off around the walks, and borders straightened. By taking a 

 generous slice where I dared, I usually managed to get together 

 enough for the season's use. I am less ambitious now ; if I get 

 half a dozen cartloads of turf, I mix with it two loads of my best 

 manure — sheep manure when I can get it. That which comes 

 from the Colorado ranches is just right for composting, being three 

 or four times as rich as other manures, and less is required on this 

 account. This I put in layers alternately with -pure ground bone. 

 The bone meal and sheep manure will start fermentation, and this 

 chemical action is valuable in more ways than one. Soil heated 

 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit is fatal to all insect life and weed seeds, 

 and further than this experience has shown that this chemical 

 action is necessary to render bone meal available as a plant food. 

 I have seen it used in a green state, but cannot say that I have 

 been pleased with it ; the odor is most disagreeable, and the 

 mouldy condition it assumes, which is, no doubt, a necessary 

 stage of its transition from a crude into a soluble plant food, is, to 

 say the least, unpleasant to look upon. Bone meal is slow in be- 

 coming available, but lasting when it is ; it should be worked into 

 the compost long before it is needed, as it is not fit for use until 

 fermentation has subsided. It should never be applied as a top 

 dressing. Before I knew this I thought it would be a good idea 

 to scatter a layer of bone meal on the bottom of fiats I was 

 working up for young Chrysanthemum plants. I intended they 

 should have a good start and was, I suppose, too liberal, for 

 in all my experience I never saw such a sickly looking lot of 

 plants. I examined them every day and tried my best, hoping 

 and believing they would come round. I waited almost too long. 

 Finally I potted them in fresh soil, and when taken out of the 

 bone meal compost I could almost have blown them over ; how 

 they managed to exist with so few roots is a mystery. 



I said a light soil is best for potted plants, but this is only my 

 experience ; where a man must, perchance, get along with a heavy 

 soil, and understands its management thoroughly, he may say as 

 much in its favor. Two or three years ago my employer dug 



