THE HYACINTH. 
217 
GLENNY ON THE HYACINTH. 
The soil in which the Hyacinth is so suc- 
cessfully grown in Holland is, doubtless, the 
alluvial soil of the place, but much is done by 
dressing it. Naturally a grey, sandy and not 
very rich earth, it requires then twice its bulk 
of manure, which is three-fourths cow dung, 
and one-fourth vegetable mould. In England 
the nearest we can get to perfection in the way 
of compost is rotted turves, not cut more than 
three inches thick originally, and allowed to 
lay in heaps till the vegetable parts have be- 
come mould ; this should be rubbed through a 
coarse sieve that would let a marble through, 
and as it falls through on the heap some one 
ought to be on the watch to detect the wire- 
worm or grub, for they show very plainly as 
the earth falls through on the heap, and runs 
down the sides. One half of this compost, and 
the other half made up of two parts cow dung, 
and one part clean well-washed sand, will grow 
the Hyacinth as well as they are grown in 
Holland. The compost must be well mixed, 
and should lay together all the warm months, 
in a situation where it can have all the sun, 
and be turned over several times. 
PREPARATION OF THE BED. 
In September dig out a space four feet in 
width, and as long as the number of bulbs to 
be planted in one bed require, reckoning that 
fourteen grow in every foot of length, namely, 
two cross rows of seven in a row. Let the 
depth be two feet, and the place well drained. 
At the bottom put three inches' thickness of 
cow dung or horse dung rotted into mould or 
thoroughly decomposed ; the dung from an old 
melon or cucumber bed will answer ; upon this 
put the compost from the heap already de- 
scribed, and fill it up three inches above the 
surface of the ordinary ground, for the com- 
post will subside ; towards the end of the 
month it will have sunk a good deal, and more 
must be put on so as to make it quite level 
with the surface of the other ground. 
