ON NURSERY GROUND, MANURES, ETC. 39 
bushels of rotted weeds; these should be formed into a heap 
of alternate layers of lime and weeds; in a few days, when 
the heap has swelled out, it should be carefully turned over 
and intimately mixed while it is in a hot state, so that all the 
seeds of weeds may be completely destroyed. This mixture 
may be applied at the time of transplanting in the nursery, or 
at the time of digging for seed-beds. In the latter case it 
forms a good top-dressing, by applying it thinly on the sur- 
face of the ground immediately after the ground is dug, and 
before it is raked for seed-heds; about ten tons of mixture 
per acre will be sufficient, and at that rate it may safely be 
repeated every three or four years. If a much greater quan- 
tity is applied, the intervals in its application should be 
longer, unless the ground is rather strong and stiff. 
Leaf mould is a valuable manure for seedling crops, if it 
is well dissolved, and has been exposed to the atmosphere by 
repeated turning. It is sometimes to be obtained in pits 
and hollows, in hardwood plantations, into which the leaves 
drift in rough weather; and it may be carted out, nearly 
made, from time to time, as it accumulates. 
It should be turned over twice or thrice, with an interval 
of two or three months, before being applied, that it may be 
thoroughly dissolved ; it is best adapted for seed-beds, and the 
mode of application is that recommended for the lime mix- 
ture, as a top manuring laid on between the digging and 
raking of the ground. It forms a fine mixture of soil for 
seeds, and is not apt to cake or harden on the surface after 
heavy rain, which hardening is much against the growth of 
small seeds. 
Peruvian guano cannot be recommended as a nursery 
manure. In some soils and seasons it excites a rapid but 
rather feeble growth; and in late seasons plants stimulated 
by it are apt to fail in maturing their young wood, and are 
consequently more liable to the influence of frost. Plants 
appear to require nourishment of a more steady, bulky, and 
permanent nature, though not so stimulating, in order to pro- 
duce well ripened wood, full and sound, with their terminal 
buds well developed. Pines and firs grown on very poor 
