18 
THE MANUAL OF GARDENING. 
of practical gardeners to the fact of plants making an excremen- 
titious discharge from their roots into the soil ; thus opening a 
field of speculation that leads to important facts, as connected 
with the management of plants. This excrementitious matter 
does not appear to injure plants of other species, to any consider- 
able degree; but it soon renders the soil unfit for the culture of 
plants of the same species, which will considerably deteriorate 
if cultivated for above three or four years on the same spot. The 
Rose-tree offers a remarkable instance of this : it shoots out its 
suckers to a considerable distance, trying as it were to escape 
the already saturated earth, and draw its nutriment from an 
uncontaminated source. The same may be observed in many 
plants that ripen seeds and shoot out suckers ; thus plainly indi- 
cating that they require a fresh supply of uncontaminated nutri- 
ment, which should be afforded them either by transplanting at 
the proper time, or digging away the earth as much as possible 
without injuring the roots, and giving a fresh supply of earth. 
It is therefore particularly advisable that soil, designed for the 
reception of flowers, year after year should be sweetened or 
turned up to the influence of the frost and air: this is advan- 
tageous in all kinds of garden culture, but is more particularly 
attended to by florists, who repeatedly turn all their soils and 
composts, exposing them as much as possible to the action of the 
air and sun. This points out also the advantage of shifting the 
situation of the flower beds annually : thus, where Tulips blew 
one year, Carnations, or some other sort of flowers should be 
grown the next — by no means keeping the same spot or bed, 
year after year, for the same sort of plants. 
MANURE. — Flowers require the utmost care, not only to 
change the soil, but to refresh it with proper manure. The best 
kind of manure is usually the well-rotted dung of the horse, or 
other animal manure; this should be well fermented and rotted : 
liquid manure, obtained by soaking the dung in water, may be 
advantageously applied; but it must not be used too strong, or it 
will injure rather than invigorate. Bone-dust, which may be 
obtained at the button-factories, has been extensively used in 
England and in this country in agriculture. It would no doubt 
answer well for many plants. It is lasting in its effects, but care 
must be observed to use it gradually and in limited quantities. 
Poudrette is a powerful stimulant, without offensive odour, and 
a sufficient supply for a small garden may be always kept on 
hand unseen. Wood-ashes is also a strong and active fertilizer; 
and Guiana, the excrement of a particular sea-fowl in South 
America (on the coast of Guiana,) is said to produce astonishing 
effects. It is found in vast masses, probably the accummulation 
of ages, and has become an article of export to Europe for agri- 
