KEEPS ON HYACINTHS. 523 



tion of sand or of rotted loaves, because either of these arti- 

 cles may supply the deficiency of the other two. 



You must observe to proportion the quantity of these light 

 materials, according to the strength or lightness of your soil. 

 The heavier or stronger it is, the less cow-dung you must 

 use. 



Having prepared a spot in your garden, after the foregoing 

 manner, you may plant thereon greens, during the summer, 

 and Windsor beans in preference ; because these last serve 

 best to mix and unite the different materials, and thereby 

 form a natural soil, which ought to be your aim. For it is 

 necessary to be informed, that all composts that are not well 

 mixed, are of little or no use in gardening; 



Of Moisture or Wet — Wet or damp being the most de- 

 structive incident that can happen to hyacinths, great care 

 should be taken to protect them from it, by choosing the most 

 elevated spot in your garden ; if that is surrounded at a small 

 distance, with a shallow trench, it will be the better. Besides, 

 the bed wherein you mean to plant your hyacinths, ought to 

 be raised 7 or 8 inches above the level of the garden. Do 

 not imagine that this precaution is useless, with an idea, that 

 in England, and in many other places, they have little or no- 

 thing to fear from damp, because those countries are more 

 elevated, and lie drier than in Holland, — an opinion much too 

 prevalent, and too much disseminated among foreign amateurs, 

 and which occasions a loss to them of many bulbs. Among 

 all the treatises which have as yet appeared on the cultivation 

 of the hyacinth, none have made any observations, or at least 

 only very superficial ones, on this important circumstance of 

 damp, and that because they suppose foreign countries have 

 nothing to fear from it. 



Let us undeceive them, by pointing out to them, that, 

 damps and moistures are more detrimental in those countries 

 than in Holland. The truth is, the soil being prepared, as 

 we have already pointed out, is very light, consequently more 

 disposed to absorb those rains and snows which fall, from 

 the months of November to March, and particularly affects 

 these beds ; and the paths around them being more close and 

 compact than they are in Holland, the moisture cannot be 

 absorbed by them so quick, but remains upon the bed, and 

 contributes to render them so wet, that they absolutely be- 

 come mud, to the depth of 8 or 12 inches. 



