204 



THE FLORISTS' MANUAL. 



what, not being a farmer I only knew 

 by report, that a growth of a foot of 

 clover plowed under is a wonderful 

 agency in mellowing and fertilizing 

 any land unless it be a black muck. 

 Farmers consider red clover a foot 

 high plowed in for wheat equal to an 

 ordinary dressing of farm yard 

 manure. Other pieces of your farm 

 should be after a year's tillage laid 

 down with timothy or red top, and in 

 two or three years you have again a 

 sod for your roses. Even, in country 

 villages you cannot always buy good 

 soil. The thrifty farmer does not 

 want to skin his land at any price, and 

 the indigent farmer, who is sure to 

 have a good sized mortgage on it, dare 

 not or Mr. Mortgageholder will step 

 in and forbid, and quite right he 

 should. The majority of unthinking 

 men are very glad to get the loan 

 on their property but when interest 

 comes due turn round and abuse the 

 loaner for a Shylock. 



There is often a very poor provision 

 made for keeping soil over winter. 

 Flower growers who have large places 

 in the country don't feel this so much, 

 but even they need a shed where the 

 soil can be hauled under when it is dry 

 and in good condition. In the fall it is 

 a great help. If taken under cover in 

 October and no rain or snow falls on 

 it during winter it can be. brought in 

 even if frozen at any time, and when 

 it thaws it will fall to pieces and be 

 mellow and be usable in a short time, 

 but if in the open and saturated with 

 water when frozen and brought in in 

 frozen chunks it will be days and per- 

 haps weeks before it can be used. How 

 long it takes in winter in our sheds to 

 dry out. 



The plant man uses the great bulk 

 of his soil from March 1st to middle 

 of April, and it is very seldom that 

 even at the latter late date our outside 

 soil heap is dry enough to handle, so 

 you should either have a shed with a 

 big supply, which can be got at during 

 any weather, or else an ample supply 

 stored in your potting sheds in fall, 

 enough to last you till the first of May. 

 We speak from experience and know 

 what it is to be running round in April 

 for a few loads of soil and offering 

 as much for a load as would have pur- 

 chased ten in September. I don't like 

 soil under the benches if it can be 

 helped. 



Soil is much better mixed with 

 manure several months before using 

 than mixing on the potting bench just 

 before potting. A good pile of soil 

 (sod if possible) should be piled up in 

 July or August with a layer of manure 

 every six inches, about a fifth or sixth 

 of its bulk, built up square, three, or 

 four feet high, and then thoroughly 

 soaked. And in four or five weeks 

 chopped down and thrown in a long 

 ridge to shed the rain. If you have 

 time another turn over will be all the 

 better and in a dry time in October a 

 good supply of this should be stored in 

 your potting shed or some place under 

 cover. 



I make no pretense to any know- 



ledge of the chemical ingredients of 

 soil, and however desirable it would 

 be that all gardeners did have that 

 knowledge, it is not necessary to a 

 practical acquaintance and use of soi's. 

 Soils all the world over have very 

 much the same properties. 



Broadly, they consist of two kinds, 

 that made or deposited from vegetable 

 matter, like peat or what you will find 

 on the surface of clays a few inches 

 of vegetable deposit which is the de- 

 posit of centuries of forest leaves; and 

 the others, clays and sands or loams, 

 is the grinding up of surface rocks 

 which have been largely distributed 

 and deposited during the glacial 

 period. 



Peat, such as you hear of in Europe, 

 and especially in Ireland, is largely 

 the growth of water mosses, perhaps 

 the growth of thousands of years. The 

 remains of the moss can be plainly 

 seen near the surface, but a few feet 

 down it is so decomposed that it is 

 not discernible. The German peat 

 moss imported largely to this country 

 from Silesia for horse bedding is 

 sphagnum, hardly old enough to call 

 peat, for you can plainly see the re- 

 mains of the moss in it. Jadoo is 

 simply that with some chemical fer- 

 tilizer injected into it. 



Plants of the Heath family like this 

 peat because their fine roots work 

 easily in it and it retains moisture, 

 but it is not always an infallible guide 

 that nature can not be improved on, 

 and because you find a plant strug- 

 gling along in a certain soil in a state 

 of nature is no proof that with a 

 richer and better soil it will not im- 

 prove. 



There are extensive sphagnum bogs 

 scattered over this country, and it is 

 likely there are some that if drained 

 would afford us the same excellent 

 material that is found in Europe, and 

 notably in Bagshot, Surrey, where the 

 rhododendrons are cultivated by the 

 hundreds of acres in such excellence 

 and profusion. 



The bulb fields of Holland are a 

 black peat or muck. Perhaps that 

 country and Belgium, called the low 

 countries because most parts are many 

 feet below the level of the sea, was 

 fifty thousand years ago one vast moss 

 bog, and most likely it was, for there 

 are the remains of ancient primitive 

 man who built his hut on stilts and 

 lived on the shallow lakes and sub- 

 sisted' on Crustacea, for there are the 

 remains of his kitchen refuse. The 

 Hollander and Belgian would not raise 

 such crops were he not to saturate the 

 soil with manure every third year. 

 This peat is useful, and we see by the 

 splendid azaleas, etc., that they grow 

 that it suits them, but it is not indis- 

 pensable and our most important 

 plants can be grown without it. 



Where our soil is sand or clay we do 

 not avail ourselves of what we might, 

 and that is leaf-mould. Hundreds of 

 us see thousands of loads of leaves of 

 maple, oak, and elm burnt up every 

 autumn when if they were collected 

 and mixed or covered with sufficient 



earth or manure to keep them from 

 blowing away they would be invalu- 

 able for many of our plants. Roses 

 and carnations do not need them but 

 all our hard wooded plants that like 

 peat, and our begonias, fuchsias, ferns, 

 in fact any of the soft wooded plants, 

 would be benefited by their use. It 

 is a tedious job raking them up, but in 

 many of our streets and parks and 

 cemeteries they are raked up for you. 

 In the country you can always find 

 in some hardwood forest places where 

 the wind has laid up for years de- 

 posits of these leaves, and you should 

 always have a good supply on hand. 



When leaves are collected the same 

 fall that they drop it will take' two 

 years before they are fit to use, and 

 more than that, unless they get fre- 

 quent turning. I would consider a 

 heap of maple leaves well rotted by 

 frequent turnings and to which had 

 been added when first collected a third 

 or fourth of their weight of cow 

 manure, a regular heap of gold dust 

 for adding to your loam for "cycla- 

 men, or most any other plant. 



Refuse hops turned frequently make 

 a good substitute for leaf-mould, and 

 I have even used it on carnation 

 benches in the old days of La Purite 

 and Edwardsii with the very best re- 

 sults. 



We value the hotbeds not only for 

 their use in raising plants cheaply and 

 well in the spring but the "by- 

 product," the old bed put up in a pile 

 and the following spring and summer 

 turned over and chopped down once 

 or twice, makes the most useful in- 

 gredient for our potting soil. In fact, 

 for geraniums, coleus, cannas and 

 most bedding plants it is all you want 

 added to your loam if you are minus 

 that good pile that I first spoke of. 



There are great growing qualities 

 in clay soils, even in clay taken a foot 

 below the surface, as we have often 

 seen proved by rose growers, but it 

 should, if necessity compels its use, 

 be exposed a winter to the frosts, and 

 when used must needs have consider- 

 able manure to make it mechanically 

 right. Clay alone will go down too 

 solid and be too retentive of moisture, 

 and for our plants in pots would be 

 not at all desirable. 



The worst of all soils is a gritty 

 sand, and you sometimes find this on 

 the surface. Our cuttings grow in 

 sand for a short while but soon show 

 the need of something better. When 

 sampling soil if it feels gritty to the 

 hand don't have anything to do with 

 it; it is mostly particles of sand what- 

 ever its appearance. If a soil feels 

 smooth, or as it is technically called, 

 "silky," you have the right stuff. 



Sometimes we have to avail our- 

 selves of soil that has been cultivated 

 as a garden for yearsj If you know 

 that it has been well supplied with 

 manure it will grow most of your 

 plants, for it is rich. But there is 

 something about sod that has been cut 

 a few months that is not equalled, by 

 any soil that has been tilled, however 

 much manure has been used. The 



