74 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



Having provided channels of escape for the super- 

 abundant moisture, make it as easy as may be, in the 

 next place, for the moisture to reach them. Trench 

 your ground, and by exposing it to atmospheric 

 influence, make it as porous and friable as you can. 

 Then consider what additions you may introduce 

 to its improvement. ^Anything,' writes Morton in 

 his work upon the ^ Nature and Property of Soils,' 

 ^ which will produce permanent friability in clay soils 

 — such as sand, cinders, lime, soot, burnt clay, loose 

 light vegetable matter, or long unfermented manure 

 — will alter its texture and improve its quality.' Of 

 these, having tried them fairly, I have found that 

 which is happily the closest to our hand (like a 

 thousand other privileges and blessings, had we but 

 eyes to see them) to be the most advantageous — I 

 mean burnt clay. Some of our modern writers and 

 lecturers speak of it as of a recent discovery ; but the 

 Romans knew it, and used incinerated soils two 

 thousand years before Sir Humphry Davy wrote — 

 * The process of burning renders the soil less compact, 

 less tenacious and retentive of moisture; and properly 

 applied, may convert matter that was stiff, damp, and 

 in consequence cold, into one powdery, dry, and 

 warm, and much more proper as a bed for vegetable 

 life.' Let those Rosarians, therefore, who have heavy 

 tenacious soils, having first tapped their dropsical 



