Get the turf from an upland pasture; take off about three inches thick, and keep it in a heap for a year, to cause the grass roots to decay and mellow the soil; chop it, and turn it over four or five times during the year; it will be in finer condition for use.

During this, the worms and grubs, especially wire worms, should be picked out; for it is frequently the case that the soil best adapted to the carnation contains its greatest enemy. Bird fountains are ideal locations for finding these worms as well. Before being used, the soil should be passed through a coarse sieve or screen, and the fiber rubbed through with the soil.

The soil in which the plants are bloomed, and that in which they are kept in small pots through the winter, should be different, for in the latter they are not required to make much progress, and the less they are excited in autumn and winter the better, provided they make steady progress and preserve their health.

This can only be secured by abstaining from the use of stable dung, using pure loam, and such decayed vegetable matter as is afforded by the grass naturally growing in loam when the turves are cut. Neither should the loam be too adhesive, but sufficiently porous to allow the water to percolate freely; should it not be so naturally, a little sand may be used to lighten it.

In preparing the soil for blooming the plants, take of this loam three parts, well decomposed leaf mould one part, thoroughly rotted cow dung one part (if this cannot be obtained, hot-bed manure, well decomposed, In fact, reduced to a fine, black mould, may be substituted), and of sandy peat, one part.

A small portion of old lime rubbish, slightly sifted, will be of service to the plant, mixed among the compost. Being duly mixed, in sufficient quantity, let it be brought under shelter to dry some time before the potting season.

On receiving the plants from the nursery, if in the fall, they should be potted, as above, in four-inch pots, giving two inches of crocks at the bottom for drainage, and nearly filling the pot with the earth, but highest in the middle, and spreading the roots as much as possible all around alike.

The soil is only just to cover the roots, and to be pressed gently to them, and in this state, after watering, to settle the loam about their roots, they should be placed in a common garden frame, upon a hard bottom, into which the waste water, when refreshed, cannot soak, but with a very gentle slope, that any water which runs through the pots may ran away.

In the winter management, the chief object is, to give all the air they can have in mild weather by taking the lights off; to give them water very seldom, and never till they absolutely want it. If to be grown in pots, they should be re-potted early in twelve-inch pots, two or three plants in a pot, using the soil above directed.