ss 



THE PRACTICAL GARDENER. 



either to the rubbish-heap, or most generally thrown out into 

 the woods, and therefore lost for ever. In most cases, the 

 ground should be thrown up as rough as possible, presenting 

 as large a surface to the action of the air as possible. Where 

 the soil is of a stiff clay, no operation that can be performed 

 within a garden, can be of such effectual use, as fallowing. It 

 not only pulverizes the soil, but effectually clears it of weeds. 

 When once weeds of the rooting sorts, such as, Ranunculus, 

 Triticumi and some others, overrun a stiff clayey soil, no 

 means can be adopted so likely to be attended with success in 

 eradicating them, as fallowing ; and that process is not to 

 be confined merely to digging over the ground, and leaving it 

 in that state for months, till it becomes as bad as it was at 

 first, but it must be followed up by repeated digging, raking, 

 and hoeing, and never allowing the roots time to draw any 

 nourishment fi'om, nor to re-establish themselves in the 

 ground; this will at length exhaust them, and clear the ground 

 of them entirely. Supposing, therefore, that no other advan- 

 tage were obtained, that no nutritive matter was imbibed from 

 the atmosphere, and the soil was neither chemically nor me- 

 chanically improved by the operation, the benefit alone arising 

 from the eradication of the weeds is sufficient to justify its 

 practice. 



The advantages of aeration, or fallowing, either in winter or 

 summer, are important; and although that great experiment- 

 alist. Sir Humphry Davy, treats the matter lightly, yet the long 

 experience of intelligent agriculturists and gardeners convinces 

 us of the great benefit arising from its practice. One obvious 

 advantage of summer fallowing, they say, is, that the soil may 

 be thereby heated by the sun to a degi'ee, which it never could 

 attain, if partially covered with the foliage of even the widest 

 drilled crops. If the soil be laid up in rough ridges, or with 

 its surface as rough as it possibly can be, it will consequently 

 receive a greater quantity of heat, and will retain that heat 

 longer, by means of the rough pieces thus heated, reflecting 

 back the heat imbibed by each other. 



By the aeration of lands in winter, their minute mechanical 

 division is obtained by the fi-eezing of the water in the soil, for 

 as water, when frozen, occupies more space than when in a fluid 



