136 



THE GREEN-HOUSE. 



and other garden refuse ; add further turfs from any 

 grassy surface not a clay— if peaty turfs so much 

 the better, or of the tussocks of meadows, and such 

 tufts of grass and grassy roots as are found by ditches : 

 add anything else of the vegetable kind that can be 

 got: then, when all is collected that it is thought can 

 be got together at the time, turn the heap over, and 

 mix the whole well together. This done, get an 

 equal bulk of fresh stable-dung and mix along with 

 the heap, in the form of a bed, either to be covered 

 with earth and a frame, or with earth and hand- 

 glasses. An excellent hot-bed will thus be produced 

 the first season ; and in the second, if the top earth, 

 in which the plants were grown, and dung, and com- 

 position are all mixed together and turned over once 

 a month or six weeks, then the third year there will 

 be produced an excellent vegetable mould fit for any 

 purpose, but particularly suited for American plants. 



Quick-lime is sometimes wanted in green-house 

 gardening, for forming lime-water to destroy worms 

 and other vermin, and to wash the flues and walls in 

 some places ; but as this article cannot long be kept 

 fresh, it is better to get it as wanted from the dealers, 

 than to lay in a stock of it. . 



Scoria or smiths' ashes, soapers' waste, or any 

 vitreous gravelly matter, will be wanted for forming 

 a platform impervious to earth-worms, on which to 

 set the plants during the time they are out of doors 

 in the summer months. If wanted, however, it is 

 chiefly on the first formation of the platform, and a 



