^ MONTHLY CALENDAR. 177 



"Sach practice is to be avoided ; for while most soils are improved by a slight 

 admixture of the subsoil, such a nightcap would prove a quietus to the pro- 

 ductive powers of many soils for many years. The process of deepening 

 shallow soils must be gradual. The best mode is to bring up, say 6 or S inches 

 of the subsoil, and mis it with the top soil ; then dig up the bottom of the 

 trench a spit deep, place a layer of manure on the bottom so loosened, and 

 proceed filling up with the next trench, mixing the soil as much as possible, 

 and incorporating the manure with it as the process goes on. The operation 

 is i)erformed by digging out a trench a yard wide and 3 or 4 feet deep, wheel- 

 ing the soil removed to the other end of the ground ; spread manure 9 inches 

 or 1 foot thick upon the next yard of ground, dig up the bottom of the open 

 trench, divide the yard of ground already manured in the middle, throw pai-t 

 of the manure from its surface into the bottom of the open trench, and then 

 proceed right down the entire depth with this half-trench. Keeping the ground 

 in the half-filled trench at a rough level, proceed to fill up with the 18 inches 

 left ; the result will be, that the top and bottom earth will not be simply 

 inverted, but will be mixed with manure and thoroughly incorporated 

 together. The next time the ground is trenched, the bottom spit of subsoil 

 •will be mixed with the other soil, and another turned up and manured as before. 

 In this way, soil that was only from 15 to 18 inches in depth, will gradually 

 be deepened to 3 or 4 feet, which is requisite to grow most plants in the 

 highest perfection. The moment that flower-beds are cleai-ed of their summer 

 occupants, they should be dug up as roughly as possible. But rough- 

 digging, while it can never present a smooth, may always exhibit an even sur- 

 face, and, in that case, it is not unsightly. Besides, the objections against it 

 would generally be silenced, if its obvious importance were understood. It 

 would be diflScult to say whether the mechanical or chemical influence in en- 

 riching the quality of the soil is the most important. Certainly both are of 

 the highest value, and their influence will be powerful, or the reverse, in exact 

 ratio to the quantity of fresh surface exposed to atmospheric influence. 

 Hence the importance of rough-digging, of forking over ground in frosty 

 weather ; resulting in that finely pulverized, mellow, genial soil in spring, in 

 which plants delight to grow. 



422. Next in importance to draining, trenching, and manuring, and often 

 of greater moment than any or all of them put together, I place the frequent 

 digging, forking, and scarifying of the surface ; and from December to April 

 are the months specially adapted for these operations. 



423. To grow bedding-plants in perfection, the beds should have a dressing 

 of manure annually, or a heavier application every second year. It would be 

 almost as reasonable to attempt to grow two crops of cabbages in succession, 

 without enriching the soil, as two crops of bedding-plants. IMany of them 

 exhaust the soil more than any crop whatever ; and to grow them rapidly, 

 and in perfection, the beds must be liberally manured. 



424. Shrubberies on poor soils would also be much benefitted by manuring. 

 The usual practice of raking every weed and leaf off the surface, and cruelly 



