42 
HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
For these soils farmyard manure (pig or cow) 
is far better than that from the stable, being 
heavier. It is a good plan to bury any green 
stuff such as lawn-mowings, dahlia-tops, and 
pea haulm at the bottom of the trenches ; or 
if this green stuff has been turned, and laid up 
in a heap for some time, well sprinkled with 
lime, it may be mixed with manure and used 
nearer the top. Some really fine growth of 
yew hedge was attained in ten years at Hurst 
Court by taking out io feet of gravel, which 
was used for roads, and filling in the deep 
holes with all the soft stuff that could be 
collected in the garden, together with manure 
and refuse of vegetable sorts, pressing well 
down, and replacing the soil that was at the 
top of the gravel. 
On chalky soils much the same treatment 
may be carried out, always endeavouring to 
get as much good soil as possible by judicious 
mixture of vegetable and animal refuse for the 
top spits, and well breaking up the bottom. 
For a sandy soil where there is what is 
called a hard pan at the bottom, i.e. a layer 
of a kind of iron-stone almost impervious to 
water, if it is impossible to get sufficient 
labour to break up this hard pan, it has been 
found that the sowing of a mixture of such 
