Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 559 



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cabbage and broccoli stalks, old pine-apple stems, and, in short, 

 vegetable rubbish of any kind. Put it together, first placing 

 some straw to set it on fire, and still shaking in a little straw, 

 as you continue increasing the heap, on the side at the bottom 

 of the heap you intend setting fire to, so that the fire can run 

 into the middle of the heap after setting fire to it; taking care 

 as you form your heap to beat it tightly and firmly together. 

 When the heap is formed, cover it over with short close moist 

 rubbish of any sort from the rubbish heap, such as short grass, 

 weeds, and earth ; so as to keep the fire from flaring through 

 at any place round your heap for any length of time. As soon 

 as the fire breaks through in a blaze or flare, throw on more 

 short rubbish, so that you keep it from blazing, and keep in it 

 as much smoke as you can. It is necessary to thrust a stake or 

 broom-handle into the heap in different places to entice the fire 

 regularly all over it ; but as soon as the fire blazes through these 

 holes stop them up, and make others where you think it not 

 burning. When it is finished, collect the whole of the charred 

 rubbish, ashes, &c, together, and put it into old cement casks, 

 old packing-boxes, sacks, or anything you choose. Put these 

 casks or boxes into a dry place, and use it when wanted, 

 taking care to pick out or sift out any pieces of charred wood, 

 which there will be if you char large wood. These can be 

 broken up with a hammer for potting and other uses if wanted, 

 which I shall treat of when I reach the different houses of 

 plants. 



I will here make a digression on Devonshire Farming. I 

 cannot help mentioning the vast quantity of the very best of 

 manure that the farmers in this neighbourhood lose every day. 

 For example, we will suppose that this day there are some 

 of them busy fetching lime for wheat, taking for this purpose a 

 team, man, and boy, a whole day to get home a waggon-load of 

 lime. Now, there have been heavy showers falling on their 

 dung yards all the time that they were fetching the lime, and 

 the very essence of their stock of dung has been running away 

 into the river or out into the street, or into some place where it 

 is never made use of; and thus they are perhaps losing four 

 times the value of the very load of lime they have been fetching- 

 home. This puts me in mind of brewing, and then throwing 

 the liquor away, and keeping the grains to make use of as 

 a luxury. I am sorry to say, but truth it is, that the most 

 slovenly way of farming I ever saw is that of Devonshire. I 

 have noticed one thing particularly, which is, that they keep the 

 docks growing until the seed is ripe, and then cut them off, 

 and carry them to the hedge-side, or throw them into the 

 middle of the road, for the horses' feet to thrash out the seed, 

 and mix it up amongst the very mud they scrape up to take 



