MANURES 



95 



three feet, a really heavy dressing of farm-yard manure 

 should be well incorporated — say about a ton to every 

 two hundred square yards. The manure should not 

 be buried, but should be intimately mixed with the 

 whole depth of soil. A light sandy soil will take a 

 heavier, and a heavy soil a lighter dressing than the 

 average one suggested. The beds should be manured 

 and otherwise prepared sometime before the planting 

 is to take place, as many plants and especially many 

 bulbous plants cannot stand the proximity of fresh and 

 rank manure. 



When the ground is thus properly prepared at the 

 start, little more actual cultivation is needed in the case of 

 most hardy herbaceus plants beyond annual top dressing 

 with manure, occasional loosening of the surface soil 

 where not covered by dwarf plants, weeding, and 

 occasional thinning or division of big clumps. When- 

 ever a plant is taken up, the opportunity should be 

 seized to add a fork-load of rotten manure to the spot 

 vacated. Top dressings should as far as possible be 

 placed round plants in early spring, just before new 

 growth starts, as the manure is then soon covered and 

 concealed by foliage. 



Bone meal, finely-broken bones, small quantities of 

 guano, and even carefully-applied nitrate of soda (half- 

 an-ounce to the square yard) have their respective values, 

 but the novice will be wise in placing reliance on farm- 

 yard manure for the bulk of his plants. 



