Cultivation of the Carnation and Picotee. 363 



ers ; but they must not be deprived of air. Some use paper 

 caps in form of an umbrella, fixed upon sticks. The winter 

 protection need only be afforded to the choicest sorts, which 

 ought never to receive the slightest check at any period of 

 their growth, in order to bloom them to perfection ; but for 

 the ordinary kinds, by adopting the mode of propagation 

 prescribed in the earlier portion of this article, every piping 

 will produce a beautiful plant, that will generally endure the 

 severest winter, either in pots or on the borders, without any 

 protection whatever, except securing them from violent wind, 

 which sometimes proves very destructive, particularly on the 

 breaking up of a frost, when the ground is very tender, and 

 before the sap regains its proper circulation in the plants ; 

 and this is generally effected by having the pots previously 

 placed in a sheltered situation, and those upon the borders 

 tied with a shred of matting to a small neat stick thrust into 

 the ground sufficiently deep to be firm. But their successful 

 cultivation will greatly depend on the proper preparation of a 

 suitable soil-heap ; for Avithout a rich and properly made com- 

 post it will be almost impossible to produce the vigorous and 

 healthy plants or the beautiful and flagrant blooms that are 

 entirely the amateur's object to possess ; for to expect that 

 this can be effectually accomplished by merely planting them 

 in any particular compost alone will be followed with disap- 

 pointment. For a general compost the following will be 

 found admirably adapted to the cultivation of the carnation : 

 Take any convenient, quantity of turf, three or four inches 

 thick, from an upland pasture, the procuring of which is at- 

 tended with least difficulty when such a field is under the 

 operation of the plough ; lay it together in a square flat top ; 

 heap for two or three months with an equal quantity in bulk 

 of rotten stable-dung regularly mixed with it ; and after that 

 time let it be cut down in thin slices well chopped with the 

 spade, frequently turned over, and in due time exposed as 

 much as possible to be sweetened by the frost, but in open 

 weather always left on a ridge, to throw off superfluous wet, 

 until it has become a regular heap of mould of nearly twelve 

 months' standing, or until both dung and turf are sufficiently 



