134 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ June, 
Before I had seen Mr. Emmerton’s work, I had tried making up composts 
with first one sort of manure and then another. I tried horse-dung, as recom¬ 
mended by some of the Lancashire growers ; I also tried night-soil, cow-dung and 
night-soil mixed, and sheep-dung partially mixed with yellow loam, and again with 
black turfy loam. This latter I found to answer better than anything I had then 
tried, and quite as well as Mr. Emmerton’s compost; but after all the experi¬ 
ments, Emmerton’s into the bargain, I have never in all my time found anything 
answer so well for securing a continued healthy growth, and for the preservation 
of the plants, as the one manure,—cow-dung, got together and mixed up as I 
shall now recommend. Take two-thirds cow-dung clear from straw or other 
littery stuff used as bedding for the cows; it will answer well enough if taken from 
the cow-shed at any time of the year, but if it can be got from the fields about 
the end of May or beginning of June, when the cows are feeding on grasses alone, 
the manure will be more suitable for the purpose, as it will consist more entirely 
of the essence of vegetables than when taken from the shed where the cows aro 
fed on dry food. 
Previously to getting in the dung, be prepared with a sufficient quantity of 
the right sort of earth. Black peaty loam from the moors, such as may be got 
on the moors in Yorkshire and Lancashire, is far preferable to any other kind of 
loam,- being more congenial to the nature and habit of the Auricula and of most 
other Alpine plants. Along with this loam, if got from the localities just indicated, 
will be obtained .a portion of white, gritty sand (not sufficient for the purpose, 
though a sufficiency may be got about the same places), which does not require 
to be over-fine, and, indeed, will be all the better if a little coarse. First mix a 
sufficient quantity of this sand with the black peaty loam, and run the mass 
through a fine sieve ; then take, say, three barrowsful of clear cow-dung, and one 
barrowful of the mould and sand, and incorporate them, beating them up together 
in a similar way to that in which bricklayers or stonemasons beat their mortar for 
building purposes. After this, wheel the compost on to some open space in the 
garden or field, where it may have the benefit of exposure to all weathers—frost, 
sun, and air. When got into a heap in this way, allow it to lie for about six 
weeks, and at the end of that time chop it down, and give it a regular turn-over, 
repeating the chopping and turning every three weeks or so, until it is fit for use, 
which will be in about fifteen or eighteen months. Thus, if the ingredients are 
got together in May or June, as recommended, the compost will, by this frequent 
chopping and turning over, be quite fit for use by the following November twelve 
months; but as that is the wrong season for re-potting the plants, it should be 
fetched in, put into tubs, and covered up till the spring dressing-up time— 
February, and re-potting time—Jul}^ 
A few days previously to making use of the compost, the quantity required 
should be taken from the tub, and run through a sieve not over fine, say ^-in. or f-in. 
mesh, as the plants thrive best in rather lumpy earth, and certainly do not like 
