CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



GENERAL OPERATIONS. 



Digging or delving with the spade is the prin- 

 cipal means of garden culture. The spade usually 

 employed is ten inches deep in the blade or spit ; 

 but as delving is not direct downwards, but sloped, 

 the depth to which the spade goes is seldom more 

 than eight or nine inches. In commencing to dig 

 a piece of ground, take out a spadeful all along 

 one side, and carry it to the opposite side where 

 you are to leave off. Now begin at one end 

 of the trench just opened ; thrust the spade with 

 the foot into the ground, taking about five inches 

 in breadth, lift it up, and turn it over into the 

 open trench, the top undermost, and the fresh 

 earth above. Do the same with the second spade- 

 ful ; and so on with all the others to the end 

 of the line. Take care to dig always a uniform 

 depth and breadth, so as to keep the line even, 

 and the trench or open furrow of one width. 

 If there be any young annual weeds or loose 

 refuse on the surface, bury them in the bottom of 

 the trench ; but where the ground is dirty with 

 seed-bearing or root-spreading weeds, such ought 

 to be well rotted in the dung-pit, or, what is better, 

 reduced to ashes, and then spread over the soil. 

 Break or pulverise the mould as you proceed, and 

 keep the fresh surface level. When you have 

 delved row after row to the last, the earth laid 

 aside will fill up the concluding trench. Ordinary 

 digging is performed best in dry weather; but 

 digging to throw up lumps for winter melioration 

 should, if possible, be performed when the soil is 

 somewhat moist In this kind of digging, do not 

 touch the lumps with the spade after throwing 

 them up ; for the more rugged and uneven the 

 surface, the more thorough is the exposure to the 

 influence of the frost. 



Raking. Hold the handle of the rake at an 

 angle of forty-five degrees, and draw it lightly over 

 the surface of the newly dug ground. The object 

 is not to draw earth along, but to smooth or comb 

 down the irregular surface, and to bring away any 

 loose refuse or stones. Like digging, it should be 

 performed in dry weather. 



Marking with the Line. The gardener measures 

 and marks off all his figures in the ground with 

 his line and spade. With the line he can draw a 

 circle round a central pin, or make an oval from a 

 union of two circles, or form semicircles, spirals, 

 triangular spaces, or polygons. It guides him in 

 forming drills for seeds, as well as in putting out 

 young plants, and when he wishes to make a small 

 path between rectangular plots, he sets his line 

 accordingly, and walking along it, with a foot on 

 each side, he tramples down the earth, from one 

 end to the other, and then he can smooth it and 

 beat it down with his spade. 



Hoeing. With a common hoe, the earth is cut 

 and drawn towards the operator. The object of 

 hoeing is to draw up the earth so as to cover the 

 lower parts of the stems of plants growing in a 

 row. In hoeing weeds, which is done by a differ- 

 ent implement, the Dutch hoe, they are cut off 

 beneath the surface, raked away, and placed on 

 the dung-heap. Weeds, especially such as dan- 

 delion and groundsel, whose seeds become winged 

 when ripe, should be hoed and removed before 

 seeding. As many such weeds which infest 

 gardens are blown into them from adjacent road- 

 sis 



sides, it would not be misspent time to clear the 

 neighbourhood periodically. 



Animal Annoyances; All gardens are more or 

 less exposed to the destructive inroads of wild 

 animals. Hares and rabbits not only gnaw the 

 bark off the stems or lower branches of trees, and 

 also the buds in season, but are also very destruc- 

 tive to vegetables and flowers. To prevent the 

 encroachments of these quadrupeds, the garden 

 ought to be properly fenced ; but if they get in 

 notwithstanding, the trees may be saved by smear- 

 ing the lower parts with a mixture of cow-dung, 

 soot, and water, reduced to the consistency of thin 

 paint ; a smearing of tar or animal fat will also 

 answer the purpose. Moles, rats, and mice may 

 be caught by trapping ; moles also are said to be 

 got rid of by placing slices of garlic, or onion, in a 

 green state, within their holes, as they have a 

 great antipathy to the odour of these vegetables. 



Birds are sometimes an annoyance, particularly 

 when new-sown peas or seeds may be easily 

 scratched up. But, though in some instances in- 

 jurious, it is believed that on the whole their visits 

 are beneficial ; for they pick up large quantities 

 of slugs, insects, larvae, or caterpillars of different 

 kinds. Wall-fruit may be preserved by nets, or 

 by the more simple method of fixing horizontal 

 lines of black worsted in front of the trees ; the 

 repeated ineffectual attempts to alight on these 

 lines are said to scare the animals, and cause them 

 to desist. Strawberry and bush fruits may also be 

 protected by suspending either hemp or wire nets 

 over them. Lines of threads, along which feathers 

 are fastened, are employed in many cases to pro- 

 tect beds of seeds from birds, but are only par- 

 tially successful. Coating seeds with red-lead, by 

 wetting, and then mixing them in it, is a good 

 preventive against birds and mice. 



Insects are the grand pests of gardeners ; their 

 appearance is so mysterious, and their devastations 

 so varied, that all schemes to extirpate them are 

 often ineffectual. They are most destructive in 

 their first condition of larvae or caterpillars. In 

 this state they should be removed by the hand 

 from kitchen vegetables. To destroy the smaller 

 kinds of larvae, fumigation of tobacco-smoke, by 

 means of a fumigating bellows, may be employed 

 with advantage ; and the plants may be cleansed 

 with a syringe and water. For the cleansing of 

 fruit-trees from insects, we refer to the article on 

 FRUIT-GARDENING. 



Slugs are another chief annoyance, especially in 

 low-lying shaded situations. A little salt destroys 

 them, as does also a sprinkling of quicklime, or 

 diluted gas-water, when they are abroad at night ; 

 but, as in the case of caterpillars, the best plan is 

 to clear them out on their first appearance, by the 

 hand, from pieces of cabbage-leaves, previously 

 laid about to entrap them. Worms in the ground 

 are not considered injurious. Salt kills them. 



Sowing. The greater number of garden vege- 

 tables are reared from seeds, which are sown at. 

 certain seasons in the ground. Some seeds, such 

 as peas, are sown in drills, the hand deliberately 

 dropping them in a straight shallow trench. 

 Other seeds, such as onions, leeks, cress, &c. are 

 sown either in drills, or broadcast in beds, and 

 covered with a thin equal scattering of earth. 

 There is no necessity for any species of sowing- 

 machine in a common kitchen-garden. Most 

 seeds, peas included, require to be pressed down, 



