* 
20 ' POINTING. 
advances any further along the line: or the whole of each furrow 
may first be made shallow, and then deepened by successive diggings 
‘before proceeding to the next furrow. 
It is obvious that the great art in this kind of digging is to keep 
the furrows straight, and not to take up more earth in one place than 
in another, so that the surface of the ground, when finished, may be 
perfectly even. To keep the furrows straight, the first ought to be 
marked out with the rod and line, and every succeeding line should be 
frequently and carefully examined. It is more difficult to keep these 
lines straight than can be at first sight imagined: and in proportion 
as the furrow is allowed to become crooked it will become narrower, 
and be in danger of being choked up; or, if kept as wide as before, 
the surface of the ground will be rendered uneven, and the last furrow 
left without earth enough to fillit up. In digging each furrow also, 
care must be taken to carry it quite up to the line of demarcation ; 
as, otherwise, what the gardeners call a baulk or piece of firm land 
would be left there, and, of course, the bed would neither look well, 
nor would the object for which it was dug be fully attained. Great 
care must also be taken to keep the surface of the bed even, and this 
it is extremely difficult for a novice to do. It is, indeed, very pro- 
voking, after watching the ease with which a gardener digs a bed, 
and looking at the perfectly smooth and even surface that he leaves, to 
find how very hard it is to imitate him; and yet it is essentially neces- 
sary to be done, for if there are any irregularities in the surface, the hol- 
low places will collect the moisture, and the plants in them will grow 
vigorously, while those in the raised places will be speedily dried by 
the sun and wind, and will look poor and withered. Practice is cer- 
tainly required to render digging easy, but, as the principal points of 
keeping the furrows straight, and the surface even, depend on skill 
more than strength, the art of digging well may be acquired by any 
me who thinks it worth while to take thetrouble. Very little strength 
will, indeed, be necessary, if the rule of thrusting in the spade ob- 
fiquely, and aiding it by the momentum of the body, be always at- 
tended to. 
Pointing, as it is called by gardeners, is in fact shallow digging, 
and it consists in merely turning over the ground to the depth of two 
or three inches. In spring, or in the beginning of summer, when the 
sun has only warmed the soil to the depth of a few inches, and when 
the seeds to be “ y (as of annual flowers for example) are wante 
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