36 



GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



certainty. Fine charcoal can be obtained in considerable 

 quantities from tbe old bearths wbere it has been buried, 

 also the refuse of smith's shops, founderies, and machine 

 shops. All the refuse of the garden that will not decay, 

 pea-brush, trimmings of trees, cabbage and corn stalks, to- 

 gether with tanbark, saw-dust, fresh shavings may be 

 collected, the coarser materials placed at the bottom and 

 set on fire when the heap is building, then covered with 

 the finer, beating all well together, cover it well with short 

 moist, rubbish weeds and clods. Bermuda grass turf is the 

 best material for this purpose if you are troubled with it. 

 Thrust a stake in different places that the fire may run 

 through the entire heap, and if it breaks out in any of 

 these, stop them with rubbish or earth and make holes in 

 a new place. When finished and the fire put out, store it 

 up for use. The roasted turf as well as the charcoal is a 

 most valuable manure, especially for roses. 



Beside charcoal, there are many other vegetable sub- 

 stances of great value, as absorbents of the fertilizing salts 

 and gases that would otherwise escape from animal 

 manures. Carbonaceous matter of every sort should be 

 provided for this purpose. Gather the leaves of trees of 

 all kinds including pine straw. They contain all the sub- 

 stances necessary for the growth of the plants from which 

 they fall, and in the proportion needed for new growth. 

 Throw them into the stables and yards, moisten them and 

 sprinkle them with the lime and salt mixture, and if kept 

 in a damp state and turned over once or twice, they form 

 the best manure known for all kinds of trees and shrubs, 

 and indeed afford all the necessary constituents organic 

 and inorganic of all cultivated plants. 



Another valuable absorbent is swamp muck. Gather 

 the black earth of swamps, place in piles and let it dry 

 out the superfluous moisture, haul it to the compost heap 



