SOILS AND THEIR TREATMENT. 31 



cess we obtain all the benefits attending such deep 

 culture, and none of the disadvantages of the other system 

 of trenching. Let us, in imagination, prepare for bastard- 

 trenching by first showing such a trench in section: We 

 commence by removing spit number 1 in the diagram, next 

 the path, or elsewhere; then spit number 2; and finally 

 spit number 3, and the whole is wheeled to the other 

 end where we propose to finish the operation, and where it 

 will be required for the purpose of filling up the last trench. 

 We now proceed to throw forward the spit number 4, 

 placing it where number 3 has been. Then the top spit, 

 number 5, is thrown forward and fills up where number 1 

 was; and so on, until the whole of the ground has been 

 bastard-trenched. It is advisable to bastard- trench a 

 fourth or fifth of the entire area under spade culture each 

 year, thus trenching the whole of the ground every four 

 or five years. Whether that quantity is trenched or not, 

 the whole of the ground required for carrots, parsnips, 

 and beet should bs so prepared, and no manure should be 

 given to these tap-rooted crops. 



Improving: a Soil by Ridging. By this process a 

 larger volume and surface of soil is exposed to the air, the 

 elements, and the frif-nds of the cultivator the birds 

 than by the process of ordinary digging. Frost penetrates, 

 sweetens, fertilises, and pulverises a larger amount of 

 soil, and birds more easily obtain the larvae of insect pests 

 which naturally exist, or shelter, in the soil; two distinctly 

 important gains to the gardener. Kidging is not so often 

 carried out as it deserves ; and this is chiefly because few 

 people have heard of the operation, and fewer understand 

 the modus operandi, simple as it is. The work is com- 

 menced exactly as in single digging; that is by first excavat- 

 ing a trench a spit wide and a spit deep across the plot to 

 be ridged, and taking the soil to where it is proposed to 

 finish. Then we proceed to dig in the ordinary manner, 

 by inserting the spade as deeply as possible, and lifting the 

 spadeful of soil by a sharp downward pressure of the handle, 



