80 How to obtain it. 
Such beds are excellent for water lilies and other strong growing 
plants. The whole of the pond bottom should have a final har- 
rowing, and be sown with grass seeds. In many cases the grass will 
produce a paying crop, and should be cut when ready. In some, 
it may be cut two or three times with advantage, and when no 
longer available for this purpose, a flock of sheep may be turned 
on to it for a short time, to crop it close. In this way a fairly 
good sward will be produced. 
When the pond is ready for refilling, which is best done in 
the spring, the bottom outlet should be closed, and, as the water 
rises, suitable aquatic vegetation should be planted at its margin. 
The object of this is to ensure the plants being submerged without 
loss of time. Aquatics rapidly shrivel, and become more or less 
injured if allowed to dry, or if exposed to wind or sunshine whilst 
out of the water. This may not necessarily destroy them, but 
care should be taken to avoid such occurrences. As the water 
continues to rise more planting should be done, and in this way 
a pond may be successfully stocked with a sufficient quantity of 
aquatic vegetation of the right kind. 
The same soil does not suit all plants. Some will grow 
readily in a sandy or gravelly bottom, whereas others will not 
succeed at all under such conditions. There are many ponds 
which have sufficient good soil left in them, even after being 
cleaned out, to do without much further preparation in the way of 
carting in additional earth. In many cases, however, it is not so, 
and this is one of the causes of failure I have met with. I have 
seen ponds with nothing but a mass of stones, many feet or even 
yards in depth, covering nearly the whole of the bottom, and in 
such ponds it is impossible to grow a sufficient crop of vegetation 
without first making proper beds for the reception of the plants. 
When the pond is nearly full the marginal plants should be put in, 
that is such as grow in very shallow water, or perhaps above water- 
mark occasionally. 
Where new ponds have to be made their construction can be 
carefully studied, and the land that is to be presently covered 
with water used to the best advantage. Sometimes it is needful 
to make them by digging, sometimes by means of an embankment, 
or by a combination of the two. This must depend a great deal 
