November 10,1881.] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
417 
10tb 
11th 
12th 
13 th 
14th 
16th 
16 th 
Tn 
F 
S 
SUN 
M 
Tu 
W 
Richmond Chrysanthemum Show. Two days. 
22nd Sunday after Trinity. [two days. 
Croydon ami Stoke Newington Chrysanthemum Shows. Each 
Brighton Aquarium, Walton, & Putney Chrysanthemum Shows. 
Bristol Chrysanthemum Show. Two days. 
MANAGEMENT OF HEAVY SOILS. 
question of tillage is an important one both 
to the gardener and farmer, and possibly many 
may be lamenting that this cannot be carried 
on in such a thorough style as formerly owing 
to reduced capital. If any such happen to be 
located on heavy soil, let me tell them that 
possibly poverty is their true friend. The 
mania for deep cultivation has in some cases been 
carried too far, and many a good field and many good 
gardens have been injured for a generation simply 
by attempting to make a deeper tilth. It is quite true that 
we cannot grow Parsnips a yard long where there is only 
9 inches of soil resting on a stiff clay ; but, on the other hand, 
there are few crops that will not succeed in such land if the 
cultivation is well managed, and possibly some corner may 
generally be found elsewhere in which to grow Parsnips. 
Not only is it hurtful to turn up clay on heavy soil, but it is 
also hurtful to turn up the heavy soil itself more than a 
spade’s depth unless sufficient material can be worked in to 
keep it permanently open so as to admit air to its lowest 
depths. Double-digging and trenching may be good for light 
hungry soils, not merely for the purpose of aerating them as 
is generally supposed, but because the operation gives a chance 
to work-in decaying matter to a greater depth, thereby furnish¬ 
ing moisture as well as food for the coming crop. But with 
heavy soils it is different. They are generally moderately rich 
in most of the ingredients necessary for plant life, the} 7 are 
retentive of moisture and of whatever is applied to them. Of 
course, to keep them fertile they require a corresponding 
amount of fertilising material applied to replace that which 
is drawn from them by the plants ; but there is very little 
waste, there is no washing-out as there is with light soils, and 
I cannot see any advantage in breaking them up to a great 
depth. 
We may see any season where old-fashioned farming is still 
carried on, that merely scratching such soils 4 or 5 inches 
deep with a plough in suitable weather, and a dressing of 
farmyard manure with an occasional liming, is followed by 
results at least equal to those which succeed steam cultivation 
and special manuring on similar soils. By double-digging 
heavy soil we not only bring up heavier material to the surface 
of that which was already sufficiently heavy, but we bury 
the most fertile of the soil so deeply that the air cannot reach 
it, and it becomes sour. Again, the clay when once broken 
into never drains itself so well as it did before it was dis¬ 
turbed, and as a loose soil is more retentive of moisture than 
that which is hard, we may wait a long time in an average 
season before planting and sowing can be done safely. 
As, with all our scheming, crops will generally be later on 
heavy soils than on those which are of a medium or light 
nature, the object should be to have them warm and pulverised 
by seed-time. It requires some skill and forethought to ac¬ 
complish this. Anyone may manage a medium soil fairly w T ell 
and pass for a good cultivator, but before he takes his cre¬ 
dentials he certainly ought to have a trial on either a light or 
a heavy soil, both of which are difficult to manage in certain 
seasons, and the requirements of each are totally different. I 
have known plots of ground of both natures which have been 
pronounced as not worth cultivating simply because they had 
not been properly tried. 
There is no ground so heavy that it cannot be made to 
produce enormous crops, and there is none so light that it 
cannot be made to hold moisture during a hot summer. To 
accomplish these objects may not be worth the cost for simple 
agricultural purposes in these days of cheap corn, but when¬ 
ever it is desirable to have a garden in a particular position, it 
is certainly always worth while to make it as fertile as possible, 
whether it be for a source of pleasure or profit. I have en¬ 
deavoured many times to guess what could have been the 
object of placing the kitchen garden I have to manage in the 
position it occupies. It certainly was not its excellent soil, 
for there could have been none then. I suppose it does not 
average a foot in depth now after, perhaps, a century’s cultiva¬ 
tion, and there is no lack of good soil in the neighbourhood, 
though I can only look on it and break the tenth command¬ 
ment. It was not because it was convenient to the mansion 
—it is three-quarters of a mile away. Perhaps it was chosen 
on account of its adaptability for drainage ; if so, I must com¬ 
pliment its originator, as there is a fall of about 50 feet 
towards the east in its length, and a considerable fall from 
each side to the centre ; but as one of these necessarily faces 
the north I would rather be without it, and the incline is not 
favourable for wheeling and rolling. However, now we are 
beginning to learn how to manage it we have some splendid 
crops, and we find that simple cultivation answers very much 
the best. 
The plan is to fork the ground over roughly as soon as the 
crops are cleared off in autumn, and if any portion requires 
liming it is done then ; but no manure is applied at that time, as 
it has a tendency to keep the soil wet, prevents the ingress of 
air and breeds earthworms, which, whatever their beauty and 
utility may be in the eyes of Mr. Darwin, are not welcome 
guests in our heavy soil. As soon as the ground is in good 
working order in spring it is forked again, and yet again if 
the season will allow it, the manure being added at the last 
forking. For tender crops which do not require early sowing 
such as French Beans, the oftener the ground is forked the better 
during sunny weather in spring, thus raising the temperature 
of the soil. We have for several years burned as much clay 
during autumn and winter as we could find time for, and this, 
together with the ashes from the wood consumed in the 
operation, is both a stimulant and a rectifier of the texture of 
the soil. 
I prefer the manure for heavy soil to be decayed, and to 
assist decomposition it is turned over two or three times during 
winter, but is not allowed to heat. It is a good plan to mix 
soil with it in the heap whenever it can be done. 
No. 72.— Yol. 1H., Third Series. 
No. 1728.—VOL. LXVI., OLD SERIE3. 
