154 GARDEN MA.XAGiiMEXT. 



between this and next October. However firmly the earth maj^ be raramod, 

 the subsidence is, to some extent, unavoidable ; and the intervention of a 

 green crop would allow the whole surface to be overlooked, and little inequal- 

 ities remedied before permanent turfing or planting. Nothing can well be 

 •worse practice than planting upon crude newly-exposed, fresh-drained land. 

 Such land is often more or less puddled during the operation ; and it will be 

 several years before the action of drains and the percolation of rain-water 

 will remedy this evil. Fearing, however, that all have not thus ''learned to 

 labour and to wait," I will proceed with practical directions for laying down 

 flower-beds, &c., advising every one, at the same time, to prepare for a crop 

 of turnips, carrots, and potatoes, and to carry out these instructions next year. 

 363. All working plans, as they are termed, must be drawn to a correct 

 scale, the larger the better, — a quarter of an inch to a foot is a convenient 

 size. Having provided ourselves with a strong garden-line, several smooth 

 round stakes, from 5 to 6 feet long, a quantity of small stakes to define 

 the beds ; a pair of wooden compasses, 5 feet in length, the legs being 

 connected together with a perforated quadrant-shaped piece of iron, for fixing 

 them at any distance required ; a straight-edged piece of wood, say 10 feet 

 long ; and a square, with one limb about the same length, — we proceed to 

 business. Mr. Jlclntosh, in his " Book of the Garden," gives a diagram and 

 description of a very useful instrument, which it would be desirable to procure 

 where there is much work to be done, although a line in a proper loop round a 

 stake will perform the same work, but not quite so expeditiously. The instru- 

 ment described by Mr. Mcintosh is an upright pole, 2 feet in length, shod with 

 iron, in which revolves a metallic tube, with a projecting shoulder, to which is 

 attached by a screw a wooden rod, 8, 10, or more feet in length, marked in 

 feet and inches. Upon this rod there is a movable iron shde, with an iron 

 shai-p-pointed stud. The 2-feet pole being placed in the centre, or point from 

 -which the figure is to be described, the sUde is moved along the rod to the 

 proper distance, and fixed there by means of a screw. An iron handle, turned 

 up at the end of the rod, about 18 inches in length, is taken hold of ; and, as 

 it is moved round, the iron stud in the horizontal rod describes the figure 

 intended. The first operation in laying down a garden will generally consist 

 in determining the centre of the ground to be occupied, and then drawing a 

 base-line, intersected by a perpendicular, the whole length and width of the 

 space to be occupied. These lines will furnish the starting-points of jnost of our 

 measurements, and it is of the first importance that they should intersect each 

 other exactly at right angles. Everybody knows how to make a circle, and 

 all figures whose sides are part of a cncle are formed by its division into 

 different parts. For instance, a pentagon is a circle whose circumference is 

 divided into five,— a hexagon six, a heptagon seven, an octagon eight ; and so 

 on. If the operator is not fui-nished with a pair of large compasses, all regularly- 

 curved lines can be described by a cord running loosely round a strong stake 

 in the centre of the curve. Ellipses, or ovals, so frequently occur in gardens, 

 ithat I will here describe several ways of forming them. The chief point to bear 



