By the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert. 



L65 



post the first season, when the fresh manure might be inju- 

 rious to them. The choice bulbs are taken up every year, and 

 the soil that lay amongst the fibres is then carefully brought 

 up to the surface. The beds should be deep enough to prevent 

 a possibility of the fibres coming nearly in contact with the 

 natural soil. 



I believe that English sea-sand, or that which the London 

 nurserymen obtain from the neighbourhood of Croydon, 

 will suit the cultivation of Hyacinths as well as that of Haar- 

 lem. Where the leaves of elm, &c, cannot conveniently be 

 kept distinct, I imagine that other leaves will serve the pur- 

 pose as well, if they are left a much longer time to rot ; and 

 even old tan, if thoroughly decayed and pulverised, may 

 be used instead of leaves, since the Dutch have tried it with 

 success. The difficulty is to obtain in this country cow- 

 dung without straw : it may however be collected in the 

 fields, although being the produce of green food, and dried 

 before it is collected, it will not perhaps have the same virtue 

 as that used by the Dutch ; and if it is necessary to use that 

 from the farm yard, it should be taken as free from straw as 

 possible, and from the cow-house door, without any mixture 

 of other dung, which would be prejudicial ; and it must be 

 completely decayed before it is used. The mischief occa- 

 sioned by the fermentation of half rotten straw, and the too 

 great heat of horse-dung, &c, is a contagious decay amongst 

 the bulbs, which will spread throughout the bed : the cause of 

 this decay appears to me to be a fungus, the spawn of which 

 is nurtured in the dung. The Dutch, with alUheir precau- 

 tions, are very much troubled by this disease; the only reme- 

 dy for which is the removal of the distempered bull), and 



