March 15, 1890. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
441 
sour, which it is sure to do if it is the least 
adhesive, and especially if the subsoil is at all retentive. 
Under ordinary circumstances there should always be 
some open material placed in the bottom of the trench, 
and there is perhaps nothing better for this purpose 
than vegetable refuse, of which in well-managed 
animal manure. The best roots of any of those named 
I ever grew were on soil annually dressed with sea¬ 
weed, and with the use of such dressing I grew Carrots 
which took an important place on the exhibition table, 
when formerly they were not presentable for the cook. 
Ordinary garden soil well manured for a previous crop 
ness in the garden, is condemnatory of sound reasoning, 
as also of successful gardening. Where neatness and 
order in the kitchen garden are a desideratum—as, 
indeed, they ought always to be—clearing the ground of 
all leaves and weeds, making all tidy by the use of 
hoe and rake, and consigning all refuse to the compost 
Amaryllis Conqueror. 
gardens there is generally enough for such work. The 
manures should be well mixed and evenly applied as 
the work proceeds, and thus the roots of all sorts of 
vegetables will ramble freely and find food in all 
flections. Peas, Beans, Leeks, Onions, and the 
rassica family, as well as many other things, require 
ground prepared as above. Beetroot, Carrots, Parsnips, 
and such-like roots require deep cultivation, but dislike 
tresh animal manure; indeed, good clean Beetroot 
cannot be grown in a soil heavily charged with fresh 
will grow good Carrots for culinary purposes, and, 
indeed, be quite serviceable for most families. 
Pieturning to the preparation of the soil, I have to 
remark, in passing, that due allowance is not always 
made for local influences, such as rainfall, lateness or 
earliness, or even the position of the garden and the 
nature of the soil. A haphazard practice of digging 
and trenching as soon as crops are off the ground, 
whether in condition or not, or whether the soil is thin 
and sandy or the reverse, merely for the sake of neat- 
yard, there to be burnt or laid aside, to be afterwards 
used in trenching, as recommended above, or any way 
the intelligent cultivator’s mind may suggest, is more 
commendable, although it entails a little more labour. 
Thin or sandy soils, or what gardeners generally term 
“hungry soils,” should be dug or trenched as near 
sowing or planting time as possible, as from their 
porous nature all the nutritive particles of the manure 
are easily washed away. Not so with a stiff soil. 
With this, autumn digging and trenching is quite 
