70 MARKET NURSERY WORK 



turf. lyoam which falls apart when hit with a spade is not 

 our kind of loam, and we prefer it to need plenty of chopping 

 and if need be pulling to pieces by hand. Not dry and brittle, 

 but fat and adhesive. Speaking generally, it is the ground- 

 work of most of our composts, mod.ified in varying degrees 

 by proportions of the other soils. It is the heaviest of our soils. 



Leaf Mould. I/eaves of the oak, the beech, and Spanish 

 chestnut, etc., collected and laid in a great heap for two or three 

 years produce good rich leaf mould. Too light and too incon- 

 sistent to use alone, it imparts friability to loam, to say nothing 

 now of its chemical value. Because of its extreme lightness 

 it ought to be thoroughly decayed betore being considered fit 

 for use, and to avoid flakiness ought to be rubbed through 

 a J-inch sieve. It is never permitted to preponderate in any 

 compost, indeed the proportion should always be below one-half, 

 or even as low as one-fourth, this, however, depending upon the 

 kind of plants it has to be used for. As a natural plant food it 

 has a high value, and as a mechanical agent determining the 

 textural quality of the compost it has an equally high value. 



Manure. Well-rotted stable manure approximates very nearly 

 to the leaf mould in texture, but is too rich to be its substitute. 

 It has to be used very sparingly indeed for young stock, and with 

 discriminating judgment at all times. Manure from the cow 

 byre is its strongest form, used for strong constitutioned and 

 gross feeding plants such as the Chrysanthemum. This is a 

 heavy manure and cannot be used freely or for as many purposes 

 as the more innocuous stable manure. For small pots it is advis- 

 able to pass all manures through a sieve, but for 5-inch pots and 

 upwards we prefer not only the manure but all other soils, 

 save and except leaf mould, chopped up with a spade. Except 

 for seed sowing, we have a decided antipathy to fine soil. 



Sand. The sand we have in mind is clean silver sand. It 

 must be coarse, as its one object is to open the soil. There is 

 no feeding value in it, its effect being purely mechanical. But 

 though its functions are so limited, nothing can detract from its 

 importance. It assists the drainage, promotes the aeration of 

 the soil, admits the heat, opens the way for the roots so that they 

 can percolate more freely throughout the soil, helps to keep it 



