396 
TAKING POSSESSION OF A GARDEN. 
gravel turned, for the smaller weeds and the 
dirty stuff picked up at top may be then placed 
in the bottom, and the better gravel brought 
up to the surface. 
The ground being now cleared a little, you 
have only to trench the beds and examine the 
kind of soil you have to deal with. If it be 
very stiff, use peat-earth or sand well chopped 
in among it, and thoroughly decomposed cow- 
dung to lighten and dress it. If it be too 
light, add unctuous loam from rotted turves 
to mix up with it and give it heart; and in 
some cases you must make up a regular soil to 
fill a bed, and, of course, remove eighteen 
inches of the old earth to make room for it. 
These things will become evident as the sepa- 
rate flowers come under consideration. 
If you are over-run with slugs, snails, and 
such-like pests, a good sowing of lime after a 
shower of rain, which brings them all out, 
will materially disturb and thin them, if it 
does not altogether destroy them. If you 
have old walls with holes in them and crum- 
bling mortar, have them well scarified to get 
off all the loose stuff, and remove all the rotten 
mortar and get them pointed afresh; or if the 
cost deter you, have the wall well washed out 
and coated with a thick lime-wash, coloured 
somewhat of the brick colour, that it may not 
look remarkable, but that what there is left of 
the wall may be sound. Nevertheless, the 
first expense is the best and cheapest, if it be 
properly pointed; and besides this, the wall is 
saved for years longer, and the vermin that 
usually lodge in the mortar -joints are extir- 
pated or buried by the filling-in of the joints. 
There is hardly a more encouraging recep- 
tacle for vermin than an old wall; and it is of 
the utmost importance that they be destroyed 
by such means as we have mentioned. It is, 
in some cases, almost impossible to secure a 
fruit of any kind in perfection upon a neglected 
wall. 
With regard to the glass structures about 
the premises, the first thing to look at is the 
wood-work, to see that all this is made sound; 
for if there be any patching or glazing without 
this, the labour may be thrown away. The 
flues or pipes want thorough examination in 
all cases, and it is worth considering whether 
you intend to devote a house to constant firing 
or not, before you determine upon any altera- 
tion as to the construction of the place. If it 
be an old-fashioned flue that heats the house, 
and you adopt a hot-water apparatus for the 
sake of its requiring less attention, do not 
remove the flues if you can find room for the 
pipes without doing so ; because you may fix 
your hot-water apparatus just the same, and 
turn the smoke of the furnace into the old 
flue. By this means the heat of the flue will 
aid the temperature a little, and the house is 
not much disturbed. Again, the simplest of 
all the hot-water apparatus, as well as the 
cheapest, is the conical-boiler, with the fire- 
place inside it, — nothing can be more simple, 
nothing wastes so little heat ; but for all the 
purposes of a greenhouse, a flue is sufficient. 
It may be a little more troublesome in con- 
tinued hard weather, but in a general way, if 
the flue answers well, it is quite as well to 
keep it. A stove also, with a good pit for a 
body of tan, wants but little aid from fire- 
heat, unless it be for pine-apples. Every 
thing should be well considered before we 
change from the flue of the old-fashioned 
stove to the hot-water of the moderns, not 
any two of whom adopt the same plan, and 
many of whom have altered their own plan 
as many times as they have had jobs. For 
the most part, it has turned out that the most 
costly have been the least effective and oftenest 
out of repair. It is not for us to point out the 
particular error which has been committed, 
and that, too, with large and public works ; 
but we may refer to such matters, as strong 
reasons for not giving ourselves up to the 
hot-water gentlemen, who have experimental- 
ised at the expense of a good many who had 
more money than judgment, and who, in fact, 
have not professed to have judgment, but 
have employed men they fancied they could 
depend on. The complication and the mys- 
tery called into being in the manufacture of 
heat are perfectly unnecessary. The prin- 
ciples are simple. An iron pipe running from 
the upper portion of hot water in a boiler and 
returning to the lower part of the boiler, will 
circulate slowly or rapidly according to the 
heat applied ; and the more simple the boiler 
and the pipes employed, the better and the 
more effective. 
In stocking the garden, if you do not al- 
ready possess the plants and roots required, 
be careful of your purchases ; buy nothing 
that is second-rate. The best of every tribe 
takes no more room than the worst. Avoid 
buying the stock of people going to decline 
growing ; never hunt after bargains ; apply 
to respectable florists and nurserymen for the 
best things that can be had, and you will not 
be hampered with rubbish ; but if you buy 
anybody's stock, you have his accumulated 
rubbish for all the years he has been growing, 
and when he has sold you that, he will go to 
market with your money to buy every thing 
as different as possible to that which he sold 
you. People who are notorious for good things 
know where to find the best price for their 
best flowers ; and having got this, they offer 
their entire stock at a great sacrifice, in the 
hope of some young enthusiast looking out 
for a bargain ; who, being taken with the 
chance of buying the stock of a first-rate 
