THE Pi^SY. 173 



flowers, require the richest of plant food. In other words, 

 you must not put too much water in their coffee. The 

 sap of the soil on which they live, should be as rich and as 

 concentrated as you can make it. Such a soil would ap- 

 pear to be very moist, while in point of fact it may hold 

 comparatively little water. It will simply hold more 

 water during dry weather than a soil that has not been 

 so heavily manured. The probabilities are, that this 

 effect is produced by the formation of nitrates, by the 

 oxidation of the nitrogenous matter in the heavily man- 

 ured soil. 



If this is the true explanatu n, what we want to pro- 

 duce the largest and best pansies is, first, a soil thoroughly 

 underdrained, at least three feet deep ; secondly, a soil 

 that is carefully spaded two feet deep and a good wheel- 

 barrowful of manure to each square yard of ground, 

 thoroughly worked into the soil, a foot or fifteen inches 

 deep. Then work into the surface soil all the rich, well- 

 rotted manure, say from an old hot-bed, you can make it 

 hold. Few people know how much manure they can 

 work into the soil until they set about the work in 

 earnest. Mark you, the manure must be well incor- 

 porated with the soil with a potato hook or hoe, as you 

 would a heap of mortar ; work it and keep working it 

 until there is not a lump of soil, or manure left bigger 

 than a grain of mustard seed. 



On such a soil sow the seed, or set out the plants as 

 soon as the weather is warm and settled in the spring, 

 but it is best not to be in too great a hurry. The plants 

 may be set out in rows nine inches apart each way. Or 

 if preferred, plant in rows fifteen inches apart, leaving 

 one plant every five or six inches in the row. If seed is 

 sown in such a bed as I have described, I would sow in 

 rows a foot apart, and drop the seeds one to two inches 

 in the row. The drill mark should not be over half an 

 inch deep. Cover the seed by patting the surface of the 



