88 BOOK OF OLD-FASHIONED FLOWERS 



But, though moisture is essential to the health of plants, 

 the presence of stagnant water is little less fatal than 

 drought. If we find that a hole dug in our gardens to 

 the depth of two feet soon contains water not obtained 

 from above, we may usually assume that drainage is 

 required. 



If our soil be too light (i.e. sandy) we may improve it 

 by the addition of dried and powdered clay, meal and 

 organic manure, from cowshed or stable ; if it be too 

 heavy (^i.e. containing an excess of clay) we may make it 

 more suitable for our garden use by mixing with it 

 sand, ashes, lime, gritty road-scrapings, or old 

 mortar. 



We all know how very much hotter in summer and 

 colder in winter is a starched linen shirt than is one 

 made of flannel or of some cellular open-woven fabric. 

 This is of course due to the fact that the former is the 

 better conductor of heat. In like manner, a loose, 

 cellular, open-woven," porous soil is a much worse 

 conductor of heat than the caked and baked soil which 

 we often see in ill-kept gardens. 



The roots of plants like coolness in summer, but in 

 winter they desire all the warmth that they can obtain. 

 Hence the desirability of always maintaining the surface 

 of the ground to the depth of an inch or two in a loose 

 open condition by means of the hoe. This is of value 

 also in checking evaporation, for, by keeping the surface 

 inch of soil loose and fine, the capillary connection 

 between the air and the deeper layers of soil is broken. 

 Surface mulchings of litter, moss, leaves or manure 

 act in the same way as does the simpler mulch of hoed 

 soil. Of course the process of top-dressing with leaves 

 or farm-manure, in order to add to the soil the food 

 elements which they contain, is quite a different matter, 

 and cannot be replaced. 



Very few gardeners can be said to make anything 



