14 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



that depth along the lowest end ; and whether it be one or 

 the other, all the other drains, which should be three feet six 

 inches deep, should be in parallel lines leading down to and 

 opening into this main ditch or drain. If the ditch is to be 

 open, it ought to be four feet wide at the top, and six inches 

 wide at the bottom ; but if you can have it covered in, — which 

 Tvill depend on whether you have a good outlet, — let this 

 main drain be made with bricks, three bricks wide laid flat, a 

 brick on edge to form each side, and bricks laid flat across the 

 whole length, but no mortar ; of course, if it be an open ditch 

 there will be no bricks required. At distances one pole, or 

 sixteen and a-half feet from one to the other, open trenches 

 the shape of a V, eighteen inches wide at top, and tapering 

 down to a point, all having a gradual fall to the ditch or 

 main drain. At the bottom of these trenches or drains, round 

 common pipes are to be laid end to end, and if you have any 

 coarse stones or cuttings of hedges or brushwood, lay a foot of 

 one or the other over the pipes, and then return the soil to 

 the trench, which Avill not hold all of it : the rest must lie in 

 a ridge above the other ground until it settles down. This 

 drain will effectually relieve the ground from all stagnant 

 water, and greatly promote the efficacy of dressing and dung- 

 ing, and the growth of crops ; but we have given a separate 

 paper on this subject. As soon as you have completed the 

 drains, set to work at trenching the ground all over two spits 

 deep ; that is to say, dig out the earth one spade deep first, 

 and then another spit at the bottom ; and if the second or 

 lower spit of earth be good, let the top be put to the bottom 

 and the bottom to the top. This may be done as follows : — 



TRENCHING. 



Mark the space of ground for operation two feet wide along 

 the end or across the end of the piece to be trenched ; dig out 

 the soil with a spade, the whole depth of a spade, and wheel 

 the earth to the other end of the work ; then dig a second 

 spit of earth out all over, and wheel that also to the end, but 

 keep it separate from the other. ISTow mark another space of 

 two feet, and dig it out one spit deep, throwing the soil into 

 the bottom of the first trench, and when that is done, dig out 

 the second spit from the bottom and throw it on the top of 

 the other, so that the first trench will be filled up level, and 



