Soils 



English method of stacking sods and manure and turning them over fre- 

 quently can scarcely be improved upon so far as practical results are concerned, 

 providing the work is properly done. But it is an expensive method, and 

 on account of the larger amount of manual labor involved, the proper treat- 

 ment of such soil heaps is apt to be neglected, in which case the center of the 

 heaps will become sour and the value of the soil lessened. There are advo- 

 cates of the system of piling sods, as well as the preparation in the field by 

 ploughing under the sod and harrowing in the manure. It is important to 

 have the soil used for bench culture well enriched with thoroughly decom- 

 posed manure some time before putting the soil on the benches. In the 

 preparation of compost heaps, an old sod lot will furnish the best material. 

 The sod may be pared off to the depth of four to five inches and built up in 

 layers on a heap, in the proportion of a layer of soil four inches in thick- 

 ness to a layer of manure one inch in thickness, building up the heap layer 

 upon layer until it is about the height of a man's shoulder. This should be 

 done in the early fall, previous to the season when the soil is to be used. A 

 good plan is to make up these heaps during the months of September and 

 October, allowing them to stand well into December, when they should be 

 turned over in a thorough manner and the manure well incorporated with the 

 soil. The heap should be turned once or twice during the winter, and again 

 the first thing in the spring, with an additional turning before the time for 

 filling the benches is at hand. In the preparation of such soils, lime and salt 

 may be used to advantage. Lime may be applied to all such composts where 

 the basic soil is deficient in that material. It is sometimes employed in the 

 air-slacked state and mixed with the compost at the last turning over in the 

 fall. In soils deficient in lime, a bushel of the latter to thirty or forty bushels 

 of soil may be used, and five to six pounds of common salt to the same 

 quantity of soil may be also added. Hardwood ashes can likewise be used in 

 the preparation of such compost heaps, but I have failed to see much material 

 benefit from the employment of such ashes. Where the soils are inclined to be 

 too heavy, hardwood ashes will tend to produce a good mechanical condition. 

 The chief value of hardwood ashes seems to be in the amount of potash they 

 contain, but it is usually more expensive to purchase potash in the form of 

 hardwood ashes than it is to buy it as sulphate or muriate of potash. Soils 

 containing a large quantity of vegetable fiber, such as sod roots, are vastly 

 superior for carnation culture to those which have been cultivated so long 

 as to exhaust the vegetable fiber, and for this reason it has been our practice 

 to seed down a certain area of land each year to be kept under sod until 

 needed. This is done for the purpose of supplying the bench soils with an 



