FLORICULTURAL (ECONOMICS. 
185 
any degree of health in it, and the young stock that is sold rarely succeeds in 
other places. The reason of this we believe to be, that a finely-reduced heath- 
soil and sand are employed for potting, and get so thoroughly consolidated, 
that the roots can never develop themselves freely. 
Recent improvements in cultivation, with respect to soils, have discarded heath- 
mould in a great variety of instances, and retained it only when it can be broken 
up into pieces of from one to two inches diameter, and is full of fibrous vegetable 
matter. As a common ingredient in composts for exotic plants generally, its use 
is of very doubtful propriety. Its value is also much overrated in the culture of 
such plants as Rhododendrons in the open air, as some of the best specimens of 
this class which we have ever seen have been grown in a loamy soil. 
In truth, almost the sole advantage to be gained by employing heath-mould in 
the majority of cases is due to its mechanical texture, and not to any peculiar 
properties which it containSa It is mostly composed in part of vegetable fibre, 
and is therefore very porous. It usually comprises, moreover, a quantity of sand, 
and the popular belief has, till very lately, adjudged sand to be an excellent con- 
stituent in composts. But now that sand, as an addition to compost, is beginning 
to be discarded, and sandy heath-soil is considered to be the very worst variety of 
its class, it is clear that other things might be substituted which would answer the 
desired end much more perfectly, even in a mechanical point of view. 
Since, then.^ it can be made to appear that heath-soil may be dispensed with 
in a multitude of cases without serious inconvenience or injury, it becomes an 
important economical question how its place can be supplied when its cost amounts 
to a large sura per load. 
For mechanical objects, a very good substitute for heath-soil is fresh, fibrous, 
open loam^ mixed with a small proportion of broken sand-stone instead of sand. 
This will maintain a more permeable texture than heath-mould, and will not be so 
likely to consolidate. 
But a still better soil than loam,— as a raechanical agent,-— and one that will 
further give the character of vegetable remains which belongs to heath-soil, is that 
obtained from decayed leaves. This kind of earth will supply all the peculiar 
characteristics of heath-mould, with more of its porousness, considerably greater 
nutritious power, and a far less liability to get soddened or compressed into a solid 
mass. 
Other matters which are serviceable for mingling with loam and leaf-mould so 
as to complete their fitness for using in the place of heath- soil, are wood-ashes, 
powdered or finely broken charcoal, mouldering fragments of decayed wood, and 
the thoroughly decomposed residue of any vegetable substances which may have 
been casually collected. 
All these things are, indeed, of the greatest usefulness, and as every possessor 
of a garden may easily prepare them, they should never be neglected. "Wood- 
ashes form a most appropriate nutriment for plants, however delicate they may be; 
VOL. XI. — NO. CXXVIII. B B 
