iS79-] T HE GARDENER'S PRIMER. 557 



olens), Sage (Salvia officinalis), Sage, purple (Salvia officinalis pur- 

 purea), Savory, winter (Satureia montana), Seakale (Crambe marit- 

 ima), Savory, summer (Satureia hortensis), Spearmint (Mentha virid- 

 is), Shallots (Allium ascolonicum), Southernwood (Artemisia arborea), 

 Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), Thyme, common (Thymus vulgaris), 

 Thyme, lemon-scented (Thymus serpyllum citriodorus), Tree-Onion 

 (Allium proliferum), Wormwood (Artemisia vulgaris or absinthium). 



As the kitchen-garden from time to time is prepared for the pro- 

 duction of the different kinds of vegetables, by properly trenching, man- 

 uring, and keeping the same free from weeds, he will have diligently to 

 observe and learn how to do the same, profitably, with regularity, and 

 with due regard to space of ground and the wants to be supplied from 

 it. He will find trenching the ground a very simple operation (the 

 writer has often found it so simple that there is no way of getting over 

 it except by steadily keeping at it till it is done), but very difficult to 

 explain in writing. At the commencement of the piece of ground to 

 be trenched, it is necessary to take out the first trench, of the breadth 

 of the piece of ground and of the width of the spade, dig out the soil 

 either one spit deep, called single trenching, or two spits deep, called 

 double trenching, bringing up the subsoil, place it in a wheelbarrow, 

 and take it to the termination of the piece of ground to be trenched, 

 where it is to be left ready to fill into the last trench, which would 

 otherwise be a hole ; the ground is then dug, trench after trench, throw- 

 ing the spits of soil into the trench which will be in front of the digger, 

 until the whole is trenched, and the last trench is then filled up with 

 the soil taken out of the first trench. There is another kind of trench- 

 ing often practised, called bastard-trenching, which is digging one spit 

 deep and taking out the loose crumbs (as the loose mould at the 

 bottom of the trench is called), and then filling the bottom of the 

 trenching with manure, covering it with soil from the next trench, 

 which in like manner is filled at the bottom with manure, and so on 

 every trench until the work is done — the taking out the first trench and 

 carrying it away to the end of the ground is the same as in other kinds 

 of trenching. 



How to supply to the soil, by the application of what is called 

 manure, that which cropping has carried away or diminished, or which 

 the soil does not contain, and without which plants would not have 

 their proper food or nourishment, can only be properly understood by 

 a thorough knowledge of the different kinds of soils, and of their 

 deficiencies. Manure operates in two ways — either as direct food to 

 the plant, or indirectly, by altering and modifying the ingredients of 

 the soil. The best of all manure is farm-yard manure, since the salts 

 and mineral ingredients present in the food of animals have passed off 

 in the excreta. Chalk and lime will change the constitution of some 

 ingredients already in the soil by decomposing, inter alia, salts of iron, 

 rendering its oxide soluble. Common salt will decompose organic 



