401 
FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
It is evident that instructions in the ope- 
rations of gardening, intended for the use of 
persons who are not familiar with garden 
practice, ought to have at least a twofold 
direction ; for such persons not only require 
to be taught when and where certain opera- 
tions need to be carried out, in order to lead 
to a successful issue, but they equally need 
instruction as to the manner in which those 
operations may be properly executed, with 
the same end in view. That is to say, the 
classes of persons comprehended in the idea 
of those who are unacquainted with the prac- 
tice of gardening, require to be informed, 
both rvhat is to be done, and liom it is to be 
done, before they can undertake to manage 
their gardens with any well-grounded hope of 
success. 
We now intend to deal with the latter of 
the two divisions of the subject just referred 
to ; and proceed at once with an epitome of 
the various operations, the due performance 
of which forms the basis of productive gar- 
dening. 
AMELIORATION OF THE SOIL. 
For gardening purposes, neither a stiff ad- 
hesive clay soil, nor a loose sand, is desirable. 
The best of all soils is what is called a deep 
free loam ; that is, the medium state between 
clay and sand, the two extremes just named. 
Stony soil is not, on that account, objection- 
able, if the earth is of the suitable texture, 
and the stones do not form too great a pro- 
portion to the body of the soil ; they may, at 
the outset, be allowed to form nearly a fourth 
part of the bulk of the soil without detriment ; 
and this proportion will be gradually lessened 
by the continued addition of manure and 
composts. 
Heavy clay soils are much in need of im- 
provement and amelioration ; they most espe- 
cially require perfect drainage. The texture 
of such soils cannot be altered at once ; it 
must be a work of time and perseverance. 
The manner and the materials for this work 
may be separately considered. As to the 
manner : such soils should be trenched, the 
surface being thrown up into rough ridges — 
the rougher the better. This should be done 
just before winter sets in. After frosts the 
surface should now and then be forked over, 
so as to expose as much of the soil as possible 
to the direct action either of frost, or of the sun 
or air, either of which is beneficial, but espe- 
cially the first. The effect of this will be salu- 
tary ; the rough adhesive lumps which have 
been exposed, will, after the drying winds of 
early spring, be found to have crumbled to 
pieces, when the addition of correctives will, 
50. 
to some extent, prevent the subsequent adhe- 
sion of the particles. Perseverance in this 
practice, year after year, will secure the disin- 
tegration of the whole mass. But if this 
crumbled clayey soil is afterwards submitted 
to pressure when in a wet state without any 
corrective addition, it will cling together again 
as firmly as before, and the beneficial effects 
obtained from its exposure will be lost. It is 
for this reason that those operations of gar- 
dening which involve treading on the soil, 
should, as far as practicable, in the case of 
heavy soils, be performed when the surface is 
tolerably dry, in order that the adhesive par- 
ticles may not be again consolidated. All 
the heavier operations, which involve much 
trampling over the whole surface, should cer- 
tainly be avoided while the surface is suf- 
ficiently wet to adhere to the feet ; and those 
operations, such as planting and sowing, which 
are necessarily performed either after rain, 
or on a fresh-turned damp surface, should be 
prosecuted with as little treading on the soil 
as possible. It is not always possible to avoid 
treading, when the act of treading on the soil 
is in itself inj urious, and opposed to whatever 
efforts may have been made to improve its tex- 
ture; but it may always be kept in mind, that 
treading on clay soils when they are in a wet 
state, is an evil ; and if this is borne in mind, 
the evil will less frequently occur. While 
the soil is dry, and the particles into which it 
has been reduced by the action of the weather 
are in a state of separation, the corrective ma- 
terials to be presently named should be applied, 
and while the ground is in this dry, powdery 
state, they should be well intermixed with 
it by means of a digging-fork, — which imple- 
ment is far preferable to the 
spade for all rough digginir, 
trenching, and work of this kind. 
With this fork, the dry, crumbling 
ridges of heretofore stiff, adhesive 
soil, are to be turned over, and 
levelled down, a coating of the 
materials to be presently named 
having first been spread over them, 
the whole being well intermixed 
in the process of turning. The 
materials proper for the ameliora- 
tion of adhesive soils, and which 
should be applied in a dry state, 
are such as finely sifted coal, or 
wood or peat ashes, small char- 
coal, charred sawdust, or refuse ' 
vegetable matter of any kind 
charred, the finer portions of old c^ 
lime or mortar rubbish, or sand, _ 
especially the sharp drift -sand '^ 
frequently met with by the road- 
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