18 PEACTICAL GARDENING. 



is dug, and laid as level as we can dig it with the spade, it 

 would be too rough, to sow garden-crops on. It is then that 

 the rake becomes necessary, to lay it tolerably level, and break 

 all the lumps, which is done by turning the teeth upwards, 

 and hitting the lumps with the back. The rake on the bor- 

 ders is as useful as the broom on the paths ; for nothing looks 

 worse than dead weeds, decayed leaves, large stones and lumps, 

 which can only be cleared off with the rake. 



RIDGING. 



This operation is generally adopted when ground is intended 

 to lie idle during part of the winter months. It is merely to 

 leave the ground in ridges instead of filling up level as we go 

 on, while digging it. It is done sometimes to give the frost of 

 winter more hold upon the soil, and to work through it sooner 

 by freezing a larger surface ; but unless the ground be stiff, 

 and idle too, it is of less service than cropping it, and on light 

 lands ought not to be done. There was a time when a notion 

 prevailed in favour of leaving ground fallow, but a rotation of 

 crops answers much better, and, rather than let a piece of 

 ground lie idle, it is now the practice to sow it with a crop, 

 and dig or plough the crop into the soil as a dressing. In 

 low grounds, ridging is practised for the purpose of groAving 

 things on the top of the ridge, with a view to keeping it drier; 

 the term is also applied to cucumber-growing, when they 

 insert the plant in the open ground ; the old gardeners 

 called it ridging-out, although they were planted on the flat 

 ground, but they have been grown on slopes, which were 

 perhaps called ridges. 



DUIs^GING AJ^B DEESSmG THE GEOUIs^D. 



This depends much upon the soil. If stiff and clayey, one 

 of the best dressings is to burn a portion of the soil and spread 

 it over the surface, to be forked in with any stable or other 

 dung you intend to use. The best way to dung the ground 

 is to spread the quantity evenly over the surface, and turn it 

 to the bottom in digging ; or, if it be dunged or dressed while 

 trenching, let the dressing be put at the bottom of the top 

 spit, and not deeper. 



The most judicious way of dunging or dressing garden 

 ground is, the instant a crop is off, to spread it over the sur- 



