204 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ September, 
got, obtain a load or a few barrowsful of fresh tnrfy loam, chopped up with the 
spade rather fine, but not sifted, and put this loam in the bottom of the bed. 
After that, where strong and vigorous growth is required, get a quantity of 
clean cow-dung from the field, fresh, if it can be had in that state, but if not, 
get it from a heap ; procure a good-sized tub, or butt, as it may be termed, 
partly fill it with water, put in a spadeful or two of the dung, give 
it ,a good crushing, and stir up well with a garden-rake till it is made into 
a fine paste, and splash this all over the fresh mould in the bottom of the bed. 
I should say that for a bed of 100 rows, one good barrowful of dung, made into 
liquid in the way above described, will be quite sufficient. After the liquid has 
been laid on, allow it to remain for a week or two open to the weather—rain, 
sun, and air—to sweeten, and then give it a good forking-over, patting it down 
tolerably close with the fork. Let it still lie open to within ten or twelve days 
of the time you wish to plant, when the soil which has been limed and well 
worked over should be filled in, and in the above stated time it will settle down 
ready for drilling for the bulbs. I prefer drilling to planting on a flat surface ; 
and where the soil is heavy, close, and of a retentive nature, I would advise the 
use of a little clean-run road-sand, about a teaspoonful being put in the hole, and 
the bulb placed thereon; then on the bulb put another spoonful, and fill up with 
the ordinary mould. I don’t see that I need say more on this head. 
As to my trying to advise old Tulip-growers, I know it is useless. Some few I 
know are prejudiced, and fancy their ow;n notions are best, but others are not so ; 
some will give and take advice, and most of those who have been as long in the 
fancy of growing Tulips and other florist’s flowers as I have, know quite as well as 
I do what their requirements are. I think all the latter are pretty well agreed 
upon one thing—that the chief motto for success in the Tulip fancy is Fresh 
Soil, and I will add that the oftener the roots get changed from one sort of soil 
to another the better ; not only so, but a change in locality is equally necessary 
. and beneficial for keeping them in the fine perfect strain which only is fit for 
exhibition. 
I maintain that any man, be he ever so mindful how he lays out his money 
in the purchase of fine strains of Tulips, may hoard them up, and fancy himself 
up to the mark with any other grower, but that by keeping them to himself 
for a short number of years, and growing them continuously in the same soil 
and situation, he will find his fine strains begin to sport, to get “kaily” 
in growth, and to dwindle down until he has scarcely any sound roots 
left. This has been the cause of the disappearance and loss of so many 
fine old varieties. Through care and watchfulness, I found this out 
years ago, and I know some others also who have now begun to find 
it out. If Tulip-growers generally could be a little more united, and could 
place more confidence in one another, not only as regards the buying and selling 
of the roots, but by interchange of growths : such as two growers one hundred 
miles or more apart agreeing to take a quantity of bulbs from each other, to 
