THE HARVESTING OF SOILS. 
249 
convenient lengths for removal, and tar-painted for the preservation of the wood, which if 
taken care of, when not required for immediate use, by annually renewing the coat of tar 
or thick paint, it will last for many years. 
Soils thus harvested with all the inferior vegetation, as grass and other native herbage, 
heather, furze- tufts, &c., will be mellow from the decomposition of the vegetation collected 
with it, and in capital working order, for breaking up for Pines, Melons, French-beans, 
Cucumbers, &c., the following spring ; although as regards its suitableness for the latter, 
I have observed that French-beans, and Cucumbers too, succeed best in it, after it has 
been stacked up in ricks fourteen or fifteen months previous to being used, as it has then 
become more decomposed, and consequently in a mellower state for the tender roots of 
these annuals to protrude in. Pines and Melons, on the contrary, succeed best in it 
when almost fresh cut. These kinds of soils, thus procured and harvested, will afford the 
main supply for general purposes. 
A sufficiency of other materials, however, should be procured at an eligible season, and 
stored up in the compost department, and alike protected from rain, to meet any emer- 
gency, and supply the requirements of particular purposes. 
These will consist of different kinds of sand, rich vegetable matter or leaf soil, loam 
rendered friable and mellow by the presence of sand, stiff or clayey loam, decomposed cow- 
manure, rotten hotbed dung, road scrapings, and what may appropriately be termed 
alluvial or deposition soils, procured from river banks, the bottoms of fish ponds or pools 
when cleansed, scrapings of ditches, &c. ; the latter being rich in decomposed vegetable 
matters are exceedingly valuable for many purposes, and for none more so than for the 
cultivation of Persian Melons, Vines, and Peaches in pots, &c., whilst the utility of all are 
apparent in every establishment, although not so generally met with in a wholesome and 
fit condition for immediate use. 
As a general rule, the collecting of these soils and composts should be accomplished in 
the summer time, when in a tolerably dry state, and stored up in the compost ground in 
long parallel ridges, the sides of which must be sharply sloped off to throw off rain when 
thatched or protected with boards. In winter, when a dry frost occurs, advantage must 
be taken to remove the coverings from all the soil and compost ridges (excepting the 
stacks of dry turfy loam, which may of course remain undisturbed until wanted for use,) 
which should be repeatedly turned and forked backwards and forwards, to expose them to the 
action of frosts, which will sweeten and pulverise, as well as destroy worms and grubs, the 
larvae of insects, &c. 
All should again be well protected whilst in a healthy dry state, and if, as will some- 
times occur when required for use, the soils should be found in a drier state than is 
desirable ; this may be easily remedied by intermixing a portion of humid soil with the 
compost about to be employed. 
It will be at once perceived, that the advantages accruing from a systematic method of 
harvesting soils, and having at command a congenial rooting medium, for the almost innu- 
merable purposes of artificial cultivation must be immense, and vice versa. And that such 
is a foremost principle to cultural success, there can be no more intelligible or convincing 
data than practical experience. The “ preparation and application of charred materials of 
general utility in cultivation ” may appropriately be connected with the foregoing subject, 
and, notwithstanding the observations I have to make, are altogether of a practical 
tendency, I trust they will not be deemed the less valuable on that account. I may 
observe primarily, that I mean to refer to the utility of all kinds of garden sweepings and 
such refuse as the prunings of shrubs and fruit trees, the remains of kitchen-garden 
crops, &c., when reduced by the process of burning, or rather by a species of charring very 
nearly to the condition of wood ashes rather than to the obtaining of charcoal proper in 
the more solid form. 
The value of the former in the cultivation of the kitchen-garden cannot be half so well 
appreciated as it deserves to be, or we should see it more generally employed ; whereas 
the latter, i. e. charcoal in the solid or lumpy form , is in a great many instances worse 
than an encumbrance to cultivation and good management. 
VOL. i. — NO. VIII. K K 
