MAY. 133 
soil is almost as much benefited by manures, which act mechanically, 
that is, by keeping the soil open and permitting the passage of air and 
water through it, as by contributing to its fertility ; thus half-rotten leaves 
of trees, decomposed tan, and any littery manure (not cow or pig dung), 
forked in, and well mixed with clayey soils, greatly improve them. 
Coal ashes, the sweepings of towns and scrapings from turnpike roads, 
are all useful materials for improving clay soils, and for these dry peaty 
earth may be substituted where it abounds. In addition to stable 
dung; bone dust, guano, and soot, are good fertilisers; alkaline and 
phosphate manures being far less efficacious on clay soils than on those 
more inclined to be loamy. 
For sandy soils, and more particularly those of a dry poor nature, 
including gravelly and brashy soils, the manure should possess a 
cool and retaining property. No manures are better adapted for this 
class of soils than the dung of cows, sheep, and pigs. The latter is the 
richest, but this depends on the kind of food eaten by the different 
animals, The two former, if confined solely to Hay or Grass, will be 
nearly a pure vegetable manure, and, from its cool properties, will be 
well suited to dry sandy soils; while, on the contrary, hot ammoniacal 
manures are often more prejudicial than useful for those kinds of fruits 
which are apt to gum. We prefer sheep and cow manure to any other, 
as less stimulating, for the Peach, Cherry, and Apricot ; but for orchard 
fruits, the cultivator will not greatly err by taking our directions as to 
the manures generally suited for each class of soils treated on. 
We have now brought these papers to a close, hoping that they may 
be useful to some of your readers less conversant with fruit tree soils and 
manures than the practical gardener, ending with one recommendation 
to the amateur, viz., to apply as little manure as possible to his soil, if 
he can procure it rich enough without its use. 
THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. 
DAHLIAS. 
In the two former papers, in which I ventured to deal with the new 
flowers of last season, I had a tolerably wide range, and felt that I 
was writing of flowers of general interest, for what “8. R. H.” calls the 
bedding-out mania, is so wide spread, that Verbenas and Geraniums 
are everybody’s flowers; in fact, this eruptive disease, which comes out 
principally in red and yellow spots and streaks, seems to have become 
quite endemic, and affects the owner of some 40-feet square garden, as 
well as the possessor of acres of kaleidoscope; and not only is it driving 
out of the field those good old-fashioned border flowers of which 
«©S. R. H.” speaks, but threatens the ‘ florist’s flowers.” There will 
be a reaction some of these days, and people will wonder why they 
neglected both classes. I have always felt that if ever I had a garden 
of any size, 1 would have a long border, laid out in the regular old- 
fashioned style—for one’s sunniest memories of an English garden are 
connected with them—where there is always something in bloom, some- 
