The aim of the following receipts is to afford information for the treatment of ornamental in-door plants, and for the general requirements and improvement of the flower and kitchen garden, without entering into the principles of cither agriculture or horticulture.

1820. To Dissolve Bones for Manure

1820. To Dissolve Bones for Manure. Break the bones into small pieces, or pulverize them, if the means are available; put them into a hole in the ground, or, preferably, a stone tank. Pour upon them about 40 pounds oil of vitriol to 100 pounds bones. Work the mixture with long wooden poles until the mass is uniform. Allow it to remain 24 hours, by which time it will be perfectly dry. A couple of shovelfuls added daily to a dung-heap will form a fine compost.

Bones may also be dissolved by filling an old barrel with alternate layers of wood ashes and fresh bones, slightly wetting from time to time with hot water. This is a more economical plan than by the use of sulphuric acid, and is said to make a more soluble compound.

1821. Composts for Improving the Soil

1821.    Composts for Improving the Soil. Composts are mixtures of several earths, or earthy substances, or dungs, either for the improvement of the general soil under cultivation, or for the culture of particular plants. In respect to composts for the soil of the garden, their quality must depend upon that of the natural soil; if this be light, loose, or sandy, it may be assisted by heavy loams, clays, etc., from ponds and ditches, cleanings of sewers, etc. On the other hand, heavy clayey and all stubborn soils may be assisted by light composts of sandy earth, drift, and sea-sand, the shovelings of turnpike roads, the cleansing of streets, all kinds of ashes, rotten tanners' bark, rotten wood, sawdust, and other similar light opening materials that can be most conveniently procured.

1822. To Prepare Composts

1822.      To Prepare Composts. The preparation necessary for heavy and light composts for general enrichment, and of the above different earths, consists in collecting each soil in the compost ground, in separate ridges of 3 or 4 feet broad, and as high, turning them every G weeks or 2 months for a year or a year and a half before they are used. Peat earth, being generally procured in the state of turf full of the roots and tops of heath, requires 2 or 3 years to rot; but after it has lain 1 year it may be sifted, and what passes through a small sieve will be found fit for use. Some nurserymen use both these loams and peats as soon as procured, and find them answer perfectly for most plants; but for delicate flowers, and especially bulbs, and all florists' flowers, and for all composts in which manures enter, not less than 1 year ought to be allowed for decomposition and sweetening.

1823. Universal Composts

1823.    Universal Composts. The preparation of many separate kinds of composts may be obviated by the general use of the following mixture : Fibrous peat, 1 part; leaf-mould, 2 parts; thoroughly rotted dung, 1 part; light kazelly loam, 4 parts; and 1 part sharp sand. There is scarcely any flowering plant but will grow well in such a mixture, and if peat is not to bo had, an additional part of leaf-mould may take its place.