248 
THE HAEVESTING OP SOILS. 
if such are not at command, there can be no better arrangement made, or at least more 
consonant with the general convenience of the establishment, and especially if the culti- 
vation of plants is extensively carried on, and the houses are close at hand but without 
sheds attached, than to erect the potting-shed and open-shed for storing, intermixing and 
preparation of composts, &c., in the compost department; and if this plan is adopted, 
advantage should be taken of the opportunity to arrange all other matters, incidentally or 
immediately connected with the potting-shed, in as systematic a manner as possible, namely, 
by constructing separate bins for containing the different kinds of soil, drainage, &c., as turfy- 
loam, finer ditto; the same for peat soils, silver and coarse sand, sphagnum, chopped moss 
and decomposed vegetable matter, as leaf-mould, rotten manure, &c., sods of fresh turf, 
potsherds of different sizes, charcoal dust and lumps of ditto, also broken bones and bricks 
and dust of ditto, small pebbles for commingling with heath compost, and various other 
useful and indispensable adjuncts to cultivation, which would thus be conveniently at hand, 
for employing with comfort and facility to the operator at all seasons of the year. 
Having in the foregoing remarks briefly and incidentally introduced matters of minor 
value in detail, but of major consequence in the aggregate, I will now proceed to the more 
important consideration of the " Harvesting of soils," for which purpose there is no 
better period than the present and following months (August and September). I must 
first observe that the best cultivators of the present day do not attach that importance to 
the employment of such a variety of soils which horticulturists of half a century ago 
deemed so essential, nay, indispensable to success ; on the contrary, so long as a good base, 
so to speak, is provided in the cultural methods now in vogue, we are sure, by the clear 
light which modern science has shed upon our proceedings, to compensate, by artificial 
auxiliaries and ameliorations, for any comparative sterility or deficiency in the soils we now 
make use of. The compost ground, therefore, should be mainly stored with substantial 
loams and peats, but as the vicinage of every garden is not a common, where there is 
generally a choice of material to be made, the best that the neighbourhood affords must of 
necessity satisfy our requirements. 
As a general rule, however, sound turfy loam and peat of different kinds are procurable 
in abundance from neighbouring commons, but if they are not, it is obvious they must be 
obtained from somewhere. 
Dry weather, and a dry upland situation should be selected for the operation of 
securing the soil, when the top turfy layer only, with all the inferior vegetation adhering, 
should be cut with a turf mattock in junks 18 inches or 2 feet square, and 5 or 6 inches 
in thickness ; and as the operation of cutting proceeds, it should be turned upside down, 
with the soil side exposed to solar and atmospheric influence for a few days, until suffi- 
ciently dry, and the roots of grasses, heather, &c., are killed by the exposure, when if an 
immediate opportunity does not present for conveying it at once to the compost depart- 
ment, the sods should be collected into several conically-formed stacks to secure it from 
rain until carted home, which, however, should not be longer delayed than can be avoided, 
especially at an uncertain period of the year. A platform of rubble, logs of timber, or 
coarse brush- wood should be formed in the compost ground, for stacking the turves and 
peats upon when carted home. The stacks may be circular or quadrangular — say 
a parallelogram 6 or 8 feet broad by 20 or 30 feet in length, erected to a perpendicular 
height of 8 or 10 feet, finished off with a ridged or pitched roof, forming an angle 
sufficiently acute to readily throw off the rain ; or if built up circularly of any convenient 
diameter and elevation similar to a haystack in a farmer's homestead, the apex of the 
stack must be formed so as to ensure the dryness of the soil ; but in whatever manner the 
turves are stacked, the platform they are erected upon should be elevated 5 or 6 inches 
above the surrounding ground level, and as the stacking of them proceeds, layers of rough 
brushwood (not thorny wood) must be introduced frequently throughout the erection to 
prevent fermentation or the generation of fungi, and to ensure the entire healthiness of 
the mass until required for use. 
When finished, the stacks must be thatched with reeds or straw, or which perhaps is 
a better plan, effectually protected from wet by a moveable wooden roof, constructed of any 
