PREPARATION OF THE SOIL, 55 



plant down we must starve and curtail its roots as 

 well as use the pruning-knife on its branches. 



There are two methods of deepening a soil, viz : by 

 the subsoil plough and by trenching with the spade. 

 Both these operations are too well known to require 

 a minute description, though in regard to the latter 

 there are so many and such contradictory directions 

 given in books that we may be pardoned a few re 

 marks in relation thereto. 



In order properly to trench a piece of ground the 

 directions given by Loudon are as explicit and judi 

 cious as possible. &quot; Trenching is a mode of pulveriz 

 ing and mixing the soil, or of pulverizing and chang 

 ing its surface to a greater depth than can be done 

 by the spade alone. For trenching with a view to 

 pulverizing and changing the surface, a trench, is 

 formed like the furrow in digging, but two or more 

 times wider and deeper; the plot or piece to be 

 trenched is next marked oif with the line into parallel 

 strips of this width ; and beginning at one of these, 

 the operator digs or picks the surface stratum, and 

 throws it in the bottom of the trench. Having com 

 pleted with the shovel the removal of the surface 

 stratum, a second, third or fourth, according to the 

 depth of the soil and other circumstances, is removed 

 in the same way ; and thus, when the operation is 

 completed, the position of the different strata is 



