198 



LABOURS ON THE SOIL. 



fig. 159, the soil must have been removed from g to h, which would 

 have more than doubled the labour of wheeling. A fourfold division 

 would not, however, have been liable to the same objection, which con- 



Fig. 158. 



Fig. 159. 



T 



A plot of ground properly 

 marked off for digging or 

 trenching. 



A plot of ground disadvan- 

 tageously marked off for 

 digging or trenching. 



firms the rule, that the division ought always to be into equal numbers. 

 "Where a plot is circular or oval it may be divided into zones, and an 

 irregular plot may be thrown into figures approaching as near as may 

 be to regularity. In digging for pulverization and mixture, the surface 

 is reversed by the operator, and left as rough as possible. When a 

 crop is to be sown or planted, this surface is broken more or less fine 

 according to the kind of crop. When the ground is not to be imme- 

 diately cropped, it is commonly " rough dug," that is, laid up in broken 

 spitfuls, so as to present as large a surface as possible to the action of 

 the weather; and afterwards, when a crop is to be introduced on 

 ground which has been "rough dug," it is "pointed," or slightly dug 

 and smoothed on the surface with a rake. "Double digging," or 

 trenching, is in horticulture what subsoil ploughing is in agriculture ; 

 the surface soil is kept on the surface, but the bottom of the trench is 

 dug over as the work proceeds, and the soil turned over, a small 

 portion of the subsoil being mixed with the top spit, the major portion 

 of it being kept in the bottom of the trench. " Baulk digging " is an 

 operation for rapidly exposing a large surface to the atmosphere, and 

 consists in taking out a line of spitfuls and laying them on a line of 

 firm ground, so that only half the ground is moved. It is only used 

 where economy is a main object, and where the soil, being tenacious, 

 will be much benefited by exposing a large surface to the frost. When 

 soil, compost, or manure is to be dug in, it is previously distributed 

 over the ground in heaps, by the aid of the wheelbarrow, and spread 

 over the surface in moderate portions at a time, if loss will be sustained 

 by evaporation ; but if soil, such as sand or burnt clay, or a compost of 

 lime and earth, is to be dug in, the whole may be spread over the soil at 

 once ; as the drier it becomes before being dug in, the better it will 

 mix with the soil. In every description of digging the trench should 

 be in a straight direction, from, one side of the plot to the other, and 

 equally wide throughout ; or if curved, the same curvature should be 

 maintained throughout ; for if the trench is increased in length, it 



